We have taken two side trips since arriving in Finland. One weekend we visited Tallinn Estonia, a short but really amazing trip across the Gulf of Finland by ferry. The other trip we took was during the week long mid winter break to Paris, which we just returned from yesterday.
TALLINN!
Tallinn is a picturesque medieval town at the northern edge of Estonia. The city dates back to the mid 11th century, although humans had settled the area thousands of years earlier. Over the last 700 years, the city has been conquered by alternating waves of armies from Denmark, Sweden, Germany, and Russia, and as a result has developed as a defensive fortress with walls, battlements, and towers. Tallinn's old town is one of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe, and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We only planned for 2 days in Tallinn, and we wished we'd had at least one more day (of not two more) to explore this fascinating city.
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| Blurry eyed morning ferry to Tallinn |
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| View from the wall surrounding the city |
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| Amazing meal: I had wild boar! |
PARIS!
Schools in Finland take a one week mid-winter break, so we took advantage of this to take a trip to Paris, about a 2 hour flight from Helsinki. We were there for 6 days (just got back yesterday) and put a good 5-8 miles on our feet each day trying to take in all the sights of what many consider to be the crown jewel of Europe. Here are
some photos of our trip (I must have taken a thousand!)
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| Palace of Versailles |
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| Crepes at the base of the Eiffel Tower |
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| View from the top! |
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| We ate a ridiculous amount of pastries! |
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| Steve toured the Catacombs (where 6 million residents are buried) |
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| Montmartre |
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| Arc de Triomphe |
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| Notre-Dame Cathedral |
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| Near the River Seine |
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| The Louvre Museum in the background |
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| We rode this our first night in the city. |
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