Tallinn, Estonia

The Visit Tallinn website has a page on ‘things to do on Mondays’ cause a lot is closed. We started at Kiek in de Kök Museum and Bastions, one of the few museums open on Mondays.

First we walked through the tunnels, which are a few hundred metres long. They were originally built to get around sieges and then in the 50s repurposed as bomb shelters. There were some morbid 50s-era posters with instructions on what to do in case of the city getting bombed.

Walked back to the start and then up on the wall and bastions. Some of the towers had been used as residences in the recent past, they would have been cool lofts!

Then we then walked to Kalamaja, a hip neighbourhood just outside the old town. There’s lots of high end boutique stores in old warehouses. Had lunch at a random craft beer place. All their food was gluten-free, which was common in the neighbourhood. I had a grilled fish and Heather had a hamburger, both were good. I didn’t know much about the local craft scene so they gave me a IPA by Põhjala brewery, which became my new favourite beer in Estonia.

Walked around a bit more. We had reservations at F-hoone nearby, so scouted out the location tucked away in the maze of old warehouses.

On the way back to the hotel picked up some snacks for tomorrow’s drive to Riga.

So freshened up and walked back to F-hoone in Kalamaja. Fortunately we had made reservations as the restaurant was full. The food was good - I had the steak tartare which was one of the better ones I’ve had, and Heather had the tuna tartare which was also very good. We split a couple more appetizers, which was a bit too much food. Tried a variety of beers (now that I had a favourite local craft brewery). They actually had a collaboration between Põhjala and Collective Arts (!), so I had to try it. (Collective Arts is a craft brewery from Hamilton). Anyways it was a fun evening.