On the final day of our tour before heading home, the group took a bus from Riga to Tallinn 4 hours away. About one hour into the drive, we made a stop at Turaida Castle (meaning "Thor's garden" in Livonian), a recently reconstructed medieval castle in Turaida, Latvia.
A couple of hours later we crossed the border into Tallinn, Estonia. Our next stop was the Song Festival Grounds, a venue with much historical importance. In 1869 Johann Voldemar Jannsen established the Estonian Song Festival while the nation was still a province of the Russian Empire. This festival was considered responsible for fostering an Estonian national awakening. After that, the new tradition was born and the Song Festivals are still held every five years. For more information on this, do watch the documentary "The Singing Revolution".
Tallinn Song Festival Grounds. At this site Allegria sang "Mu Isamaa On Minu Arm" ("My Fatherland is My Love"), an Estonian poem first set to music for the first Estonian Song Festival in 1869. Since 1947, it is always performed at the ending of the Song Festival and during the Soviet Occupation became something of an unofficial national anthem.
Gustav Ernesaks was an Estonian composer. He played an integral role in the Singing Revolution (four years of nightly singing in defiance of Soviet rule) and was one of the father figures of the Estonian Song Festival tradition. This statue of him was erected in 2004 on the Song Festival Grounds in Tallinn.
The group then went to Tallinn's gorgeous Old Town to explore and stop for supper.
After sightseeing, we had our final group supper at a beautiful restaurant in Old Town Tallinn. In the photo below are the four AMAZING tour chaperones who helped tirelessly every day to make sure the choristers were happy and safe. Thank you to Linda, Mahnaz, Mary, and Alice - this tour was the wonderful experience it was because of your care and support!!