Baltic Countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) - 2004, 2019
In 2004, while planning a trip to Ukraine, we decided we’d also visit the three Baltic countries: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. We flew Paris to Helsinki, where we spent two nights, and then took the ferry to Tallinn, Estonia.
We didn’t know anything about Tallinn other than the fact that it was the capital and largest city in Estonia. We were pleasantly surprised with the delightful walled old town, photogenic with its medieval churches and cobbled streets. In 2004 cruise ships hadn’t as yet discovered this gem so we pretty much had it to ourselves.
Tallinn is on the Gulf of Finland, only fifty miles from Helsinki and two hundred miles from St. Petersburg, Russia. It goes back to the eleventh century, becoming a city in 1248, and until the first part of the twentieth century was know by its German name, Reval. Its old town is one of the best preserved in Europe and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
It’s sometimes referred to as the silicon valley of Europe, with the highest number of startup companies per person among European countries, and is the home of Skype. It’s among the top ten digital cities in the world.
After two nights, we got our rental car and headed south toward Latvia. One reason I was interested in visiting Latvia was because my grandparents, on my father’s side, were both from Riga. I knew little about Riga or Latvia and was curious to learn something about my heritage.
Riga, founded in 1201, is the capital of Latvia and, with a population of about 700,000, is the largest city in the three Baltic countries. Much of Riga had been destroyed during World War II, and buildings were replaced using the Art Nouveau style of architecture, incorporating building facades with carvings of flowers and mythological creatures. The historic old town, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was also destroyed but was rebuilt in the 1990’s and, with its cobblestone streets and medieval atmosphere, has become an attractive tourist destination.
One memorable experience was a visit to the Occupation Museum in Riga. The museum documents the fifty-one year period of Latvia’s occupation, by the USSR from 1940 to 1941, the Nazi’s from 1941 to 1944 and then again by the USSR from 1944 to 1991. We had a young Ukrainian woman as our guide and spent several hours viewing the various exhibits, showing the hardships and misery brought upon the Latvian people by the Nazi and Stalin regimes. At the end of the tour I asked our guide, based on what she had learned, which she thought was worse, the Nazi or Soviet occupation. Without hesitating, she said that Stalin’s horrors exceeded even the worst the Nazis could do.
We crossed the border into Lithuania, headed toward Vilnius where we planned to spend a couple of nights. On the way we saw signs for a town called Klaipedia; we saw they were having a fair and decided we’d head there first. Turned out that Klaipedia was a delight. It’s a port city on the Baltic with eighteenth century Germanic style wood buildings, and the town was in a festive mood with music and dancing in the town square. We found a hotel, took a room and joined the locals for the festivities.
The next day, which was the fourth of July, we headed on to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. When we realized it was July 4th, we took out a Willie Nelson CD we had brought with us, and as we sped down the highway, we played “On the Road Again” at top volume. A touch of Americana in Lithuania.
As we were driving, we saw road signs in Russian for what we thought was a town, Kalingrad. When we found Kalingrad on our map we realized it wasn’t a city but rather a province, or oblast, of Russia. We thought it strange that Kalingrad, while geographically separated from Russia, was still part of the Russian Federation. We learned that at the end of WW II the northern half of the former East Prussia (Germany) was annexed to the USSR, and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union it remained with Russia.
In Vilnius (also called Vilna) we found a small hotel in the old Jewish quarter and spent two nights there. Vilnius is the capital and largest city in Lithuania, the second largest city in the Baltic states, and its old town was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. The old town seemed very authentic, with its cobbled streets and weather-worn buildings, and perhaps fewer tourists than visit Tallinn and Riga.
Before World War II Vilnius had one of the largest Jewish populations, which caused it to be referred to as the “Jerusalem of the North.” Its Jewish population was mostly destroyed by the Nazis during World War II and reminders of the loss are everywhere with memorial plaques on many buildings and an outstanding Holocaust museum that we visited.
In Vilnius we learned there was a nuclear power plant outside the city that was a sister to the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine, which had a meltdown in 1986. The plant was located in the Visaginas region and named after the nearby city of Ignalina. When Lithuania was admitted to the European Union in 2004, one of the conditions for its admittance was to close the plant. The plant, which supplied 70% of Lithuania’s electrical demand, was closed in 2009 and plans were being considered for building another, although no work has ever started.
From Vilnius, we returned our rental car at the airport and flew on to Kiev, Ukraine to continue our trip.
2019 trip-
In June, 2019, while on a Holland America Baltic and Russia cruise, we visited Tallinn for just one day. Misti wasn’t feeling well and stayed on the ship while I went out on my own.
Remembering the time we had spent there fifteen years ago, when we were delighted to discover this cute town that the world hadn’t as yet discovered, I was dismayed to see the old town overrun with thousands of meandering cruise ship passengers, many following flags held high by tour group leaders.
I thought how lucky we were to have seen Tallinn years ago, before it was discovered by the cruise ship industry and its millions of passengers.
I left the old town, went down the hill, and wandered through the city, away from the cruise ship crowds. I got a needed haircut, browsed in an antique shop where I bought Misti a gift, had lunch and walked two miles back to the ship, realizing that Tallinn is indeed a lovely old European city in spite of the cruise ship invasion.
Art Faibisch
July, 2019