Amusement park on the canal as we approached.We arrived at Stockholm on Saturday. Surprisingly, quite a number of stores were closed in the morning, but most places for tourists were open as usual. Janice and I walked to the center of town. We bought some tickets to the the Royal Palace and we saw some type of military celebration (perhaps a changing of the guard) after we finished the tour of the Palace. The tour was quite good. We got the chance to learn about the symbolism of many paintings in the Palace and heard some juicy stories about the kings. Could I repeat them to you? No, no and no! You just appreciate them at the moment, and then forget!
Amusement park on the canal as we approached.
The other side of the canal! The old town on the right!
The Central Hall in the Royal Palace.
The Ocean Princess at the dock!
The town-center parade with a changing of the guards!
Statues in town
A very unusual statue on a fountain!
Tallin is one of the cities on my "bucket list" which I had wanted to visit and I was not disappointed. I knew about their Singing Revolution, how they sang when they were threatened, first by Hitler in 1939 and then by the Sovietx in 1989. We went see to the singing place - it was HUGE. I could imagine the 10,000 people singing together there - the sound and the emotions! And I had a picture taken with the statue of Gustav Ernesaks, who was supposed to have inspired the singing. But I found that the story is far from clear.There are many versions causing me much confusion.
When we were there, there was also a marathon in town. We were told that more than 25 thousand people participated in this event. We certainly saw a lot of people running on the streets everywhere.
The old town area was very impressive. We took a tour with a very knowledgeable guide and walked through the old town. We were all very impressed with the place and the city.
Old town
Do you recognize this flag? I did not! It is the Estonian flag.
A sign on the wall of the old town.
I ran into some people in the Old Town:
We were in St. Pertersburg a couple of years ago, so Kai, Janice and I did not take many tours. We did take a canal and river cruise to see the famous palaces from the water. However, Ed, Dean and Maria took two full days of tours to see the most famous places. They were totally exhausted by the time they finished! After a seventeen hour first day, Ed finished after 11 pm. Can you believe that kind of schedule? Dean and Maria's tour ended earlier as they did not have dinner included, but they were still ready for an early bed. Both days started before 7 am! I am going to go easy on you by just showing you what I saw on the water ways. Let me furst show you the bus we used to get to the canal:
It was made in China! 
All the buses used there in St Petersbug by Princess were the same, I was really surprised!
A beautiful golden dome.
The Hermitage
Tsar Peter's statue
The Church of the Spilled Blood
A bridge near our boat dock!
We went to see a folk show at night. It was ok but not exciting! 
Do you know that there is a dam near St.Petersburg? I did not. When the ship sailed from river to the sea, it passed a dam. We did that at night, and I took a picture:
