From Cold War to independence: what we discovered in the less-traveled Europe this summer

Orthodox church in Talinn, Estonia, built by the Russians in 1900 to remind the locals, Who's your daddy. Estonians regard it as a symbol of Russian oppression and have discussed in Parliament the possibility of demolishing it.

We experienced a massive awakening this summer that came from several directions. 1. First, Cindy and I went on a two-week discovery tour of the three tiny Baltic countries that have been subjected by multiple foreign powers over the centuries, most recently by Stalin's Soviet Union and Hitler's Third Reich--Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. As a kind of icing on the cake, we spent a couple of days in Helsinki, in Finland.

Our Baltic adventure.

These three tiny countries, with combined population of around 6 million, celebrated their independence in the early 1990s with the collapse of the Soviet Union, and now they try to survive in the shadow of Russia, which is trying to bring back all its former satellites.

Near Nida, Lithuania, on the lovely barrier island known as the Curonian Spit, which borders Russian territory.

Christmas market in Essen, Germany, 2013

Bridget and Cindy, Essen

Since our daughter Bridget moved to Germany more than 20 years ago, we have tried to have someone from the family visit each year.

A highlight is visiting the Christmas markets.

The Germans transform their town centers into winter wonderlands of lights with open-air feasting, shopping and live music.

German Christmas markets are commercial, no doubt. But they are commercial in a more picturesque way than we do it in the U.S. The Brits have tried to imitate them. I sampled Manchester's version a few years ago. But they don't get it right.

This year we took a 10-minute train ride into Essen, not a big place by any means, and we saw hundreds of little gabled shops set up in the pedestrian malls that make up the heart of the town center.