Estonian Tourism

"Port of Tallinn opened a new marina in the heart of the Tallinn City Centre"
Visitestonia.com (June 9, 2010)

"On 21 May, the Port of Tallinn held a grand opening for the new marina located...."

"...the 100th season of the Tallinn Yacht Club was opened, enabling the Club to return to its roots symbolically - the Club was born in the Old City Harbour a century ago. The complications of history have forced the Club to seek shelter elsewhere, in various places, however now, albeit with a detour, the Club has returned to its native home."

Tallinn is the capital city of Estonia - a country on the Baltic that's doing much better, now that the 20th century is behind them. Those "complications of history" include "centuries of Danish, Swedish, German, and Russian rule." Estonia was independent from 1918 until 1940, when the Soviet Union said that the country was the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic - and had the muscle to make their claim stick. ("Estonia," CIA World Factbook (last updated June 24, 2010))

1991 changed all that - and now they're part of the European Union. The difference is that joining apparently was their idea - and the powers that be in Estonia don't mind having businesses turning a profit.

And, they've got a tourist industry.

The Visitestonia.com website has a tourist-oriented "About Estonia" page with the usual sort of links, including: "Quick facts about Estonia;" "Maps of Estonia;" and "Things to see and do in Estonia." My favorite title there is "What's so special about Estonia?" The "Weather" link lead me to an error page: the good new was that the search function there worked pretty well.

A link that did work as expected led me to a short list of blogs about Estonia.

The Lemming's glad that Estonia and other places have active visitor and tourism marketing organizations: given my budget and physical limitations, that's just about the only way I'm likely to 'travel.'

One more thing: They've got a decent number of photos, one of which could have been shot on the edge of a Minnesota lake. Which threatens to get me going on another topic.