Walking Through Tallinn

Unlike Riga, Tallinn is well prepared to welcome cruise ships with a nice terminal.  It is a bit of a walk from the ship to where you can meet "unofficial" buses, meaning anything that isn't a Royal Caribbean Shore Excursion.  Guides were there waiting for us from Nordic Excursions and we were quickly on our bus and on our way to Old Town.

I immediately found some pretty pink roses, don't worry though, no flower overload in this post like the last one.  These were just such a pretty color.

I had expected to see mostly Russian influences here in Tallinn but it turned out that Germany had dominated the area for a much longer period of time than the Russians, especially during the time when Tallinn was a large and powerful Medieval city.  The Old Town is divided into two part, Upper and Lower, we started in the upper part, known as Domberg, where the wealthy and powerful lived.  The tower on the left is called German Tower, it is the tallest in the city and by its name you can tell that it was built during the 15th century when the Hansa guilds were in power.  On the right is the flag of Estonia.  The Blue stands for blue skies, they only have about 75 sunny days a year here so it also stands for water.  The black stripe signifies the earth and the white is for the optimism of the Estonian people, and also for snow, which they get a lot of.

Obviously, looking at this church you recognize that there definitely was Russian influence here as well, but it came later on.  This church is one of the most Russian looking buildings in town, the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, a lovely onion-domed Russian Orthodox Church that was built around 1900.  I, of course, had to find out who it was named after since I’d never heard of this Alexander.  He was actually a 13th century Prince of Novgorod and a national Russian hero who was later canonized as a saint in the Russian Orthodox Church. Because of the oppression suffered in the city from the Russians this is not one of the citizen’s favorites but that hasn’t kept it from being beautifully renovated inside and out, although the outside is certainly the most stunning. 

The crosses on Russian Orthodox churches are quite different and some think that they look like they have Soviet emblems on them.  However, that's not the case.  there is the double cross at the top, but the bottom cross bar symbolizes an anchor, a symbol of hope, and the  curved part isn's a scythe but a boat, symbolic of Noah, and God's promises.

We were able to enter the church but no photos were allowed.  One of the interesting things about a Russian Orthodox Church is that there are no seats for the worshippers, except for a bench or two on the side for those who are ill or unable to stand.  Those who come to services, which are held here at least twice a day, stand during the whole session which lasts for at least two hours.  You have to be pretty faithful to stand silently for two hours.  Watching the priests and the patrons really was a lovely experience.

The church is across a large square from the Parliament Building.  This structure was originally a castle, a stone structure built in the 13th century by Danish knights.  The current pink Baroque version was ordered created by Russian Empress, Catherine the Great between 1767-1773.

You can see from the view on the left that it was built into the remains of the old castle.

Originally a Catholic cathedral, St. Mary's is the oldest church in Tallinn, circa 1240.  The floor inside the door you see here is six and a half feet below street level, that tells you how much the ground around it has built up over the years.  It later became a Lutheran church and continues that religion today.  It's interesting that you can go inside the Russian Orthodox church for free but if you want to go inside an old Lutheran church you always need to pay.  It may have something to do with the fact that there are a much smaller percentage of Lutherans in Estonia (that surprised me!) than there are Orthodox.  That said, both religions are just a small fraction of the population, most young people nowadays are Wiccan, or pagan.  So much for having various religions thrust upon you by force.

The crusaders who came to convert the pagans in the Baltics in the 13th century built the cathedral that is now known as the Dome Church.  At one time they used to have a tradition to bury people just under the floor of the church, you can imagine how that smell may have been a distraction to worship.

The weathervane on the top is inscribed 1779, which is when the tower was completed.  The flower on the very top is a lily, a symbol of St. Mary.  You'll notice there are no crosses on the Lutheran churches.

This yellow building is the Stenbock House where you can find the workplace of the Prime Minister of Estonia and the venue for government sessions.  It was originally built as a courthouse but soon became the residence of Count Jakob Stenbock in 1792.  It did eventually become a courthouse in 1891 and courts continued to operate in the building until 1987.  

Across the street from the Stenbock House lives a mystery man.  No one knows exactly who purchased this home and put the giant red plastic gorilla in the yard, but apparently he is seen driving in and out the gate in his Aston Martin that has a license plate 007.  Hmmmmm.....

One of the narrow streets in Old Town and a shop that sells the different coats of arms of members of the Hanseatic League.

From an overlook in Upper Old Town, also called Toompea, you get incredible views of the lower town with its red roofs and towers.

It was so nice I had to take a selfie here.

There are still remnants of the old Medieval inner walls here and there.

From another viewpoint, an excellent view of the tower of St. Olaf's Church here.

Eventually we would make our way down the hill into the labyrinth of streets below.

Apparently this home belonged to the richest man in Tallinn, German of course, who had this palace built in 1865.  The design was based on French fortress-like palaces from the 12th century.  From 1911-1940 it housed a museum and is currently occupied by the Academy of Sciences.

The original owner lost favor with the Czar and was deported to Siberia.

Now while our guide called the upper city Domberg, everywhere else I've looked it's known as Toompea.  One of the dividers between the tow in the Pikk Jalg or Long Leg, the roadway between the upper and lower town that was used for horse carts and deliveries.  The Short Leg was the pedestrian walkway between the two parts of town.

Pictured here is the inner wall between the upper and lower towns.  You can see that these two groups really didn't like one another very much if they needed a wall like this to separate them.

When we headed into the King's Garden we were greeted by these three monuments to the monks that supposedly haunt the gardens.

They are placed at various levels and in random spots in the garden but all not far from one another.  None of them have faces as they are supposed to be ghosts.  In the background you can see St. Nicholas Church which is now a museum.

They are just a bit freaky!

The tower here is supposedly called The Tower of the Virgins, which was interesting because for a time it was a jail for prostitutes.  It now houses a museum that psychics swear has ghosts in it.

The walkway through this gate is The Short Leg, the pedestrian connector between Upper and Lower Old Town.

Here again is The Long Leg, which we took to Lower Old Town.  In Medieval times it was closed each night at 8:00 p.m.  The wall on the right was called "The Wall of Mistrust" because the wealthy who lived above didn't trust those who lived below.

Remember the Stenbock House from a few minutes ago?  This would have actually been the front of the house.  Check out all the hanging balconies.

This roadway between the two parts was a very noisy place.  Coachmen were required to yell to guards that they were coming, the horses hooves and carriage wheels on the cobblestones would have made a racket, then the guards at the gates had to yell to people below to get out of the way, and then there was all the jostling and noise of a busy marketplace just on the other side of this gate.   It was said that people had to speak almost nose to nose to be able to be heard.

This would have been the most important street in Lower Tallinn, or Reval as it was called in Medieval times, the place where all the guilds of the Hanseatic League were located. 

Just when you thought I'd quit taking photos of doors!

The Holy Spirit Church is the oldest in Lower Tallinn with

a clock that is the oldest public clock in Tallinn.  It still keeps perfect time.

On the left is the House of the Great Guild.  In order to belong to it you had to be a rich, married German merchant.  The guys who lived here ruled Lower Town.  On the right is the oldest confectionary in the city.  I may or may not have stopped in there later for marzipan confections and chocolate.

Built in 1656 this is the smallest house in Lower Town.  The street to the leftt used to be lined with eight different bakeries so the smells in the. morning were mouth watering.  Unfortunately they are all long gone.

Nearby is the oldest continuously operating pharmacy in Europe, in the records since 1422.  The Raeapteek, also has a small museum with antique medical tools, and I'm told that in the basement you can try samples of herbal tea blends made on the premises from local ingredients.

The Town Hall Square originally served as the major marketplace in town and was used that way for centuries.  The Town Hall was built in 1404 and is the oldest structure still used for that purpose in Northern Europe.

I hope you get an idea from these photos

of how large the Town Hall Square

really is.  They hold the Tallinn Christmas Market here each year, which is supposed to be the best of its kind in Europe.

Notice the hoists on the second stories of these buildings.  Those would have been used for lifting goods to the upper floors.

I found these dragon drawings in a rather unusual place but since they reminded me of Lydia and her love of dragons i decided to include them.

We got an unexpected stop at a restaurant for a pastry and when I went down into the "cellar" to use the restroom the dragons were painted on the walls outside.  No idea if there was any significance.

And this is a really random photo but I was so shocked to see it in the restroom that I had to take a picture.  When was the last time you saw a CLOTH roller towel in a public bathroom?  Certainly not for at least four years!  With this one you would pull the cloth down, dry your hands, and when you were finished it would quickly roll up your soiled towel and leave only fresh cloth for the next person to pull on.  It was quite a nice change.

Here is the warm pastry with cream cheese inside that we had waiting for us at the table when we entered the restaurant, delicious.  It was a favorite of the owner of the tour company.

St. Nicholas Church is at the end of this Medieval street that was the Russian area of town.  This 13th century building, is now the Niguiste Museum, where there is a sky floor that you can either climb to or reach via a glass elevator in order to get beautiful views of the city. This picture is as close as we got to it on our tour.

As I was taking a photo of the info on St. Catherine's Gate who should pop in to photo bomb but my friend Amy.  It was such a random happenstance that I had to include her in the post.  On the right is the gate that would have led to the old St. Catherine's Church that no longer exists.

The other side of the gate.

St. Catherine's Alley which takes you to

the gigantic arches, or buttresses that were used to support the church walls since 1414 are pictured here.  Until you are next to them you don't realize there are more than just two, they are so closely aligned.

This spot has some of the oldest real estate in Tallinn,

dating all the way back to 1255 according to this inscription.

The area called Helleman's Tower, is a restoration of the outer wall of the city,

Beyond the gate behind Holly and I is where Old Town ends and modern Tallinn begins.  The only miscue is that there is a McDonald's just off to our right, still in Old Town! 🤣

On our way back to the ship we got one last look at St. Olaf's and the mighty exterior walls of the Old City.

A couple of random things back at port, the planters that looked like sailboats, and these clever signs that caught my eye.  I'll leave it to you to figure out what they are.

I had been looking forward to our day in Tallinn and it did not disappoint.  I ended up being more of a shopper than I usually am and had a grand time looking around.  This is one of the places I'd love to return to someday.