Saturday 8/11/18: DCL day 3: Tallinn, Estonia—“A Fairy Tale come true!” Part 3:
The Kalev candy shop.
Our marzipan workshop was upstairs. They had small tables set with marzipan figures (house-made marzipan, shapes formed in antique molds), cups of water, paintbrushes, and food-grade paint. We had a great time painting our marzipan figures.
DD18 got the ‘bunny-squirrel’, DD14: the cat,
DH the bear, and I got the rooster.
They gave us boxes to put them in, and told us to keep them ‘cool’. Then we moved into the next set of rooms which had a dessert and coffee/tea. I think it was something like a pannacotta bar with a passionfruit gelee on top. It was yummy!
You could hear a local violinist on the street level. The view out the window next to our table:
Marzipan display in the shop:
Once we were done, we had free time for shopping and then could either meet up with our guide at 2:30PM or take the ship’s shuttle back to port. We made sure to have our guide mark the map with the shuttle location (just in case), then started our shopping with the guide’s recommendation—the grocery store “Rimi”. I found some packaged Kalev candy bar assortment packs, so we got the 2 assortments and a marzipan pack. (Note: we opened them upon returning home…the 7 flavor pack has lots of rum based ones…and the rum jelly one tastes like soap (“Castle” reference…’tastes like soap, I like it!’)/ the 4 flavor pack with the bears on it was more ‘child-friendly’.) We also got some Kinder eggs to enjoy on the ship (since we can’t get ‘real’ ones at home), a Tallinn magnet, and a couple of water bottles for DH and I. (When I went to open 1, I discovered it was carbonated water…which was fine, just a surprise when I heard the bottle go fizz upon opening it!) Next, we went into a woolen goods store. DD18 is starting college this fall—and the school mascot is a red fox…what did they find—a red fox hat…and DD14 loves purple cats—yes, there was a purple cat hat! I got a pair of warm mittens. We finished our shopping in time to rejoin our guide. She told us more about old town on the way to the bus, so we were glad we met up with her! During our tour, DD18 had a conversation with Kaia about the Estonian language. DD18 took 5 yrs of German, and wanted to know what sound the various letters with umlauts made as there was more than in German. After demonstrating the sounds, she went on to say that there is no economic reason to learn Estonian—the only people who learn the language are either ‘language geeks’, or someone in love with an Estonian. We really loved this tour—it was great to have an interactive component with the Marzipan class—and having food included in an excursion is key to keeping my kids happy!
Once we got back to port (you could enter on either deck 1 forward or aft…long wait for the forward…and with our room aft, it was a no-brainer!) Disney had fruit-infused water outside the ship to enjoy before getting on. Once back on the ship, we dumped our bags, and told the kids we were going to the shops right at the port—they could do whatever they wanted…as long as they stayed on the ship! There were lots of artisan kiosks at the port, so we bought an Estonian glass pendant for DD14, glass earrings for DD18, an ornament, a juniper wood stir-fry spatula, DH got himself a shirt, and I got a pair of leather gloves with fleece lining—perfect for driving when we have frigid winter days. I tasted some local liquors in the permanent shop building, and then we bought some mustard and candy there. When we finished shopping, there was a long line to go through the passport area…oops, we shopped too long! I think the kids were starting to worry that we’d miss the ship…all aboard was at 5PM…but we weren’t ‘that’ late! As a family, we decided to play Bingo again at 5PM. While it was fun to play (B11, B, B11), we had no luck this time! We decided to ‘quit while we’re still ahead!’ $160 to play 2 days, meant that we were still ahead by $413…enough to splurge and buy a nice Matryoshka doll in Sea Treasures later this cruise, if we don’t pick anything up in Russia.