Tallinn, Estonia

We both woke up around 3ish from jet lag and game 5 of the Raptors / Bucks game was on so watched the text stream for the rest of the game. Thank goodness the Leafs weren’t also still in the playoffs otherwise we wouldn’t be getting any sleep. At least now it’s only every second night or so.

Fortunately it was the weekend and breakfast was served until 11am. We got down at 10:45. I had flashbacks to first year university and rushing down to the cafeteria just before close to get breakfast.

It worked out okay as it had rained all morning and then cleared up in the afternoon.

First we walked down to the Tourist Info Centre at the heart of the old city to buy our Tallinn Cards (got 10% off with our Helsinki Cards!)

Then walked around sort of randomly, aiming for the taller buildings. The first major site we saw was Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. As I was trying to take pics outside, I saw that we were right at the entrance for the Parliament Of Estonia. We then remembered that the Info folks had mentioned that the parliament buildings had an open house today, including climbing the Toompea tower. So we entered and asked around for the tower climb. We had just missed the 2pm tour and so got tickets for 2:30pm.

Used the half hour to look around the parliament. Saw their equivalent of the House of Commons. There were lots of locals visiting - it wasn’t until a couple days later when we went to Vabamu (The Museum of Occupations and Freedom) did we understand the significance of the building in their drive for democracy and independence.

So at 2:30 joined about 40 people and climbed up the tower. I suppose they group people because the spiral staircase is really narrow and this way you don’t have people going up and down at the same time.

The views from the top were pretty good. It was cloudy / hazy so not ideal for pics. It was also crowded up top. We went back down as soon as the last person in our group got up.

We were looking for a cozy place for lunch and found one near one of the viewing platforms. We both had their sausage and onions. Heather tried the mulled wine, which was alright. They had a decent-looking coffee machine so had an espresso and dessert and headed back out.

Wandered around the old city a bit more. Came across St Olaf's church, another one of the towers to climb. There was no line up so we got our tickets (free with the Tallinn card) and started climbing.

This tower was deceptively tall. Our legs were burning by the time we reached the top. It’s about the same level as the Toompea tower, but that’s located in the upper part of town and has a head start.

There were maybe 10 other people at the top, it was a good time to climb. Took lots of pictures. The sun was out but still pretty high, so the contrast between light and shadow didn’t work so great for pics. Oh well. The view was still amazing.

In our random wandering we had hit most of the viewpoints and towers, so started walking back to our hotel.

On the way we ran into Cathy and Jerry, the people who we met at dinner a couple nights ago in Helsinki. Actually they were having a drink on a patio and noticed us walking by, and Cathy ran down the street after us, yelling ‘hey guys’. I had heard her but assumed it was for us, as who do we know in Tallinn? Anyways we chatted for a bit, and arranged to meet up for dinner at 7pm.

So we rushed back to our hotel to shower and then back into the old city. This is one of the few cities we booked outside the old city, and we both agreed for future bookings to stay more central. Even though we were only a 15 minute walk it seemed quite distant.

Anyways dinner was good, and it was fun chatting with Cathy and Jerry. We were still slightly full from the previous night’s dinner!