After four days on tour through three Baltic nations, His Royal Highness Crown Prince Haakon and Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mette-Marit completed their journey in the Baltic Sea on Thursday afternoon. Their four-day tour was concluded in Estonia yesterday. This day was dedicated to technology, history and development.
Estonia was the last of the three countries to get a royal visit. On Wednesday afternoon, the Crown Prince Couple were welcomed by Estonia’s President Kersti Kaljulaid in a solemn ceremony outside the Presidential Palace of Kadriorg. The journey started in Latvia on Monday and continued in Lithuania on Tuesday and Wednesday before the royals arrived in Estonia on Wednesday afternoon.
Crown Prince Haakon opens the seminar. Photo: Anne Line Kaxrud / Innovation Norway via Flickr.
The day was kicked off when the Crown Prince and Crown Princess attended the opening of the “Estonian-Norwegian Partnership for Digital Transformation” business seminar. There is already extensive cooperation in the digital field between Norway and Estonia. The Declaration on “The Digital North” was signed by the Nordic and Baltic countries in Oslo last year.
It was His Royal Highness who opened the seminar. Crown Prince Haakon said during his opening speech: “I am told that Estonians and Norwegians find it easy to establish contact, even though our languages are very different. Both Estonians and Norwegians tend to concentrate on the task at hand and to look for practical solutions whenever they are faced with a challenge”.
The Crown Prince and Crown Princess learn more about technology at the seminar. Photo: Anne Line Kaxrud / Innovation Norway via Flickr.
Following the seminar, Their Royal Highnesses visited Telliskivi Creative City. Within walking distance of Tallinn city centre is the Telliskivi area (“brick”). This is an old industrial area that has gained new life as a centre for creative activities, with theatre, music, galleries and art. The Crown Prince Couple were shown around Telliskivi Creative City, where they learned more about the business and relations with Norway.
The next stop on the programme was a visit to the old part of historic Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. The first traces of human settlement found in Tallinn’s city centre by archaeologists are about 5,000 years old. Around 1050, the first fortress was built on Tallinn Toompea. The Tallinn Old Town (including Toompea) became a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in 1997; this is because Tallinn’s Old Town is one of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe.
The Crown Prince and Crown Princess at the seminar. Photo: Anne Line Kaxrud / Innovation Norway via Flickr.
Crown Prince Haakon had this to say when he met the press: “The digitalisation in Estonia is impressive. Here they have taken this with technology in administration and government administration to a different division than most other countries”.
The entire Baltic tour ended when Their Royal Highnesses said goodbye in Tallinn’s Old Town Hall. The Tallinn Town Hall is the oldest town hall in the whole of the Baltic region and Scandinavia that has been there since 1404. The height of the tower is 64 metres.
