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| Old Tomas- guard of the citadel |
The countryside north of Riga is beautiful. Unlike the south, it’s quite heavily forested with tall thin pines and birches. Everywhere the forest floor was carpeted with grass, wildflowers and ferns. We caught a few glimpses of the sea gray and calm to the west. We got to Tallinn about mid afternoon and eventually figured out the public transport system so we could get to the old town. (Hey Tallinn City planners, the bus station should be closer to the part of town people came to see!) Anyway, just as Vilnius is known primarily for its Baroque buildings and Riga for its Art Nouveau, Tallinn has its claim to fame also: Medieval. The whole place feels like a Renaissance Festival, right down to the numerous people dressed in linen bar maid dresses, jester outfits, and as yeomen of the guard etc. There was actually a store selling clothing, shoes, glasses books, and other paraphernalia (made by local craftsmen using traditional methods)so you can play like you live in a time before antibiotics, electricity, and indoor plumbing. The only things in town that were fully modern were the prices. Estonia switched to the lousy Euro a few months ago and everything costs an arm and two legs.
All snarkiness aside though, it is a beautiful city. The remnants of the old city walls and the castle were awesome. Though a bit cool the weather continued to be glorious. We walked and admired the pretty all afternoon. We noticed a few things straight away. First, Tallinn is much more crowded than the other cities we have been to. Second, the crowd was very diverse - a real mixed bag of nationalities. We wondered at this until we climbed the old city walls and saw the huge (even by cruise ship standards) cruise ship. That was the answer: Tallinn is a cruise town. Now that’s all fine if you’re with the boat. But when you’re sharing a small walled town with a boatload of chain smoking Europeans then it begins to wear on you. This also explained the prices – coffee was modest 1.60 to 2 Euros outside the walls, inside was more like 4 or 5. |
| We did not eat here but were excited to se a Texas Flag |
We followed the city’s guide to all things notable, winding up and down cobblestone (many places being replaced with brick or paving stones even as we were walking on them) alleys and lanes. The city walls afforded wonderful views – once we watched a large group of locals rehearsing some sort of traditional song and dance program. The walls were also where we had our glimpse of the Gulf of Finland blockaded by the ginormous cruise ship.
The central square is home to the town hall with its impressive tower and is ringed by wonderfully restored old building now housing absurdly overpriced tourist café and restaurants. From there we trailed through the Master’s Courtyard and the charming St. Catherine’s passage peeking into artist’s galleries and tempting craft shops. We wandered, lost in wonder, occasionally just lost.
Of countless lovely things, one of our favorites was the small, sequestered Danish King’s Garden. It afforded a nice view over the other half of the town and was delightfully quiet. It looked like you could stage a scene from Robin Hood. By this time, the cruise excursions had disappeared and the locals started to emerge. It was much more pleasant ambling. The tour groups must seriously quadruple the actual population and it is clear that residents in the 1300’s never anticipated that so many people could exist; much less all need a place to get a coffee or a cold drink.
We left Tallinn at sunset -11:30 PM! On to Russia!
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