Tallin, Estonia

 After leaving Sweden on the way to our last Scandinavian country we decided to do a detour to the capital city of Tallinn, Estonia. We took an overnight ferry from Stockholm right into the port of Tallinn. The ship was more like a cruise ship than what we typically call a ferry…

It had lots of bars and restaurants and even a musical show at night…

The scenery as we made our way out through the Stockholm archipelago was lovely…

As we approached Tallinn the first thing we noticed was the large naval presence which we found out later consisted of 30 NATO ships carrying out exercises in The Baltic Sea. Tallinn is the largest port in the region.

Tallinn’s passenger port is located very close to the Old Town so we spent a few hours exploring that area as we were only there for a day before we left for Helskini. Tallinn like many other port cities we visited this trip is doing a grand redevelopment of their waterfront with both new commercial and residential units. We stayed in a very modern hotel called CityBox, it is the hotel with no humans in sight, you check yourself in, you check yourself out. You only buzz for a human if absolutely necessary! 

The Old Town is a UNESCO Heritage Site and is the best preserved medieval city in Northern Europe. For the most part it is still intact from when it was built in the 13th century.

A number of the original gates to the fortified city are still standing and we entered through the Old Coastal Gate, a lot of tourists in this town…

There are also 26 remaining towers and about 2 km of the original walls remaining and we took a few steps to get to the top…

It got much narrower as we went up but the view was worth it…

The view over to the next tower…

The view overlooking the old town…

One of the main squares is called the Town Hall Square…

Here is the location of the Tallinn Town Hall which is the oldest town hall in Northern Europe mentioned first in the records as early as 1322.

It is quite colourful inside with painted wood and pieces of art…

There are lots of old churches in Tallinn and this one stands out at the top of a hill…

It is the Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox Cathedral built in 1894 - 1900 when Estonia was still part of the Russian Empire. We went in for a visit but no pictures allowed so I took this one from a postcard, it has a very richly decorated and ornate interior…

We also visited St. Nicholas Church built in 1420 but destroyed a number of times by fire, including being bombed by the Russians in World War 11. It has since been rebuilt and is now a church museum. It is a lovely church as well with a wonderful organ that was being played in a recital while we were there…

Some of the streetscapes of the town, it was great to wander through such history…

Another square…

This young girl was playing beautifully an unusual looking violin…

Lots of the town are pedestrian only streets…

On one of the main streets leading into the town there was a large anti Russian display which caught the interest of those passing by…

Another important building in the town is the Parliment Building…

Estonia is a parliamentary representative democratic republic whereby the Prime Minister of Estonia is head of government and of a multi party system. Legislative power is vested in the Estonian parliament. Estonia is a member of the United Nations, the European Union and NATO. 

There was lots of music happening around town the day we were there, this group of ladies were doing traditional dancing…

These three sisters were coming from performing at one of the gardens and passed us sitting on a bench. We had a great chat with them before they continued on their way…

Lots of interesting gates and doors…

Many narrow passages as well, this one is called St Katherine’s Passage which was built over 700 years ago, it is lined with ancient tombstones from the same period. Today there are art galleries and crafters occupying the buildings…

There were lots of craft and souvenir shops with amber shops being the most prevalent…

Another popular item for sale were sweet almonds where the saying from the Middle Ages is that five almonds a day will prevent drunkenness and hunger…

We finished the day with a large Estonian beer which was the cheapest we have seen in this trip…

We were glad to have made this quick visit and it has put the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on our list to return. It’s great to visit a place only to realize there is another part of the world which we know little about and hope to have the opportunity to learn more…Now on to Finland…