Tallinn, Estonia September 2-4, 2016

"Tere" (hello) from Tallinn, Estonia 

Population: 441,961 (City - 2016)

Founded in 1248
It is the capital and the largest city in Estonia.
As you can see, it's not far from Helsinki or St. Petersburg
One of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site

Tallin's Old Town

 With only one backpack between the two of us we were off to Tallin for the weekend for an early anniversary/ birthday celebration! Yes, you read that right, I managed to fit everything into one small pouch in a backpack! See, I'm not high maintenance!

At 10:45 am, after just a short 1 hour and 25 minute flight we arrived in Tallin! The airport is really close to the city - maybe 10 minutes - and the taxi cost 10 euros! That right there should have been an indication of how expensive this city was going to be. We stayed at the Hotell Palace (that's how it's spelled) just a two-minute walk away from Old Town and it was perfect! The hotel staff were very courteous, friendly and helpful, the location was great, the free breakfast was good (Craig especially enjoyed pounds and pounds of smoked salmon), it was a modern hotel and our room was fantastic! Actually, we ended up in a suite that had a full living room with tv and then the bedroom with another tv and in between was a huge bathroom with a large tub/shower and then a separate shower.

Our living room

Two showers!

The bedroom portion

Nice bathroom!

Since we arrived so early we actually weren't able to get into our room, so we dropped off our bags and went exploring. Craig navigated us through Old Town to find St. Olaf/Olav church tower. Of course we took some pictures along the way.

I don't think he knew my head was in the picture!

Part of the fortress walls

The city definitely has that "old" feel - but in a good way old.

Russian Orthodox church (Alexander Nevsky Cathedral) - we didn't realize there would be so much Russian spoken here, but it was quite prevalent. We did go in, but it is just like the Russian Cathedrals here in Moscow, so we didn't take any pictures.

Another church along the way...

View from a look out point that we accidentally found while searching for St. Olaf's

The old medieval walls

Another lovely view along the way

St. Olaf/Olfav Church (picture from internet) - it doesn't appear that there is a place for people to be up in the church tower, but where you see the three smaller green steeples (the front one is a bit camouflaged in the roof) is the roof and on this roof they put some boards down to walk on and then a fence and then they allow people to climb up the 258 steps (for 2 euros each) to get a nice view of old town. Bare with me, there are a lot of photos from the tower, but I love towers!

They must have been really small in the 1200's - there's a LOT of  tiny doorways in Old Town. This one was the doorway leading to the stone staircase.

The incredible stone staircase - only one way up and one way down which makes it a little tricky when you come upon other people, but that's all part of the fun!

Not for a claustrophobic person, that's for sure!

Craig pretending to be exhausted from climbing the stairs. In this narrow hallway they did have 4 pull-down seats just in case you did need a little break.

A view of beautiful Old Town from the tower

What a cool city!

The small fence keeping us from falling to our death. It is as narrow as it looks - not much wider than my body

The cruise ship in town

Cool shot love!

There's a pretty good shot at just how narrow this little walkway is up on the roof. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the walkway itself

Another great shot of the Old Town - Craig rocks as a photographer!

The only shot we have of the two of us on this trip - it only took one try at this selfie

The steepness of the roof pitch while standing on the roof

 

This is the final staircase to get you to the roof - it's VERY steep.

After the tower we stopped for lunch at Olde Hansa medieval restaurant. The menu and experience is quite unique. Maybe a little kitchy (spelling?), but still worthwhile.

http://www.oldehansa.ee/en/menu/

I had the salmon and Craig had a meat stew.

Nuts! Get your sweet nuts here! We never did buy any of these - we should have!

The restaurant patio on this beautiful day

Even the washroom was unique

The inside decor was very rustic and dark - likely similar to what it was like in medieval times

Craig enjoying - well, I don't know how he could be "enjoying" - his cinnamon beer. In the background to the left is the Polish Embassy

I had to try it...once

Craig's soup with some good bread and enough butter to make even my Dad happy!

My salmon with mushroom sauce meal included barley, lentils and that weird looking thing on the top left is a "bean sack".

Getting a wee bit artistic with the photo

Entrance to St. Catherine's Passage

 

St. Catherine's Passage (Katariina Käik in Estonian - they like lots of extra letters in this language - our waitress said it is because they pronounce every letter) - a neat little medieval passageway with these tombstones, cafes and shops

Little wee doorway in St. Catherine's Passage

We loved the cellar shops - those are steep stairs and thick walls!

More of St. Catherine's Passage

Church by our hotel - can't remember the name of it

The #1 rated Tripadvisor restaurant in Tallin - Rataskaevu 16. It was as excellent as everyone writes and for me, the highlight was the pumpkin seed bread!

My elk meal with beets and celery root puree. I also tried the local gin with rosemary - quite nice, but I still love Hendricks best

Craig's excellent duck leg in a cherry sauce with barley (they serve a lot of barley in Tallinn)

As we were walking away from our great meal Craig spotted this guy in shorts and sandals (it was nice, but not THAT nice) and a Tragically Hip t-shirt, so he just had to stop them and say "You must be Canadian". Turns out they, David & Nathalie, were a Canadian military couple currently living in Ottawa. We talked for a bit on the street and then headed to Frank's for a drink together.

Tallin Town Hall in Town Hall Square

buildings in Town Hall Square

Craig in Town Hall Square

They have a lot of beautiful doorways in Tallinn

See.... beautiful doorways

The Raeapteek - one of the oldest continuously running pharmacies in Europe - since the early 15th century 

Since we didn't go inside, here's a photo from the internet of the inside of the pharmacy

The cute, narrow, cobblestone streets of Tallin

The wool market along Old Town wall. Not here, but I did buy a nice wool shall in Tallin

My new Estonian wool shawl - I neglected to get a picture of me in it at the market we bought it in darnit

Next to the knit market you can go up and walk the medieval walls (200 meters long) and go in the tower so I decided to go up (for 3 euros) and this was a view looking down from the metal, spiral staircase to get up into the main part of the wall.

Staircase leading up into the

Loving the old staircase of course

Picture taken from up in the tower through the thick wall

Someone has a nice little oasis on their roof - well, except for all us tourists looking down at them from the tower wall

Another staircase shot

A shot from up on the wall down into the knit stalls area. Here you can only see the red awnings where the knit stalls are

While I was up there on the wall Craig popped out for a photo of him having a beer (waiting for me is hard work)

I like this shot of the wall and the street below

This is where I found him when I was done

A really old monastery we stumbled upon

More cute doorways

Inside the Olde Hansa restaurant shop - the waitstaff wore these shoes, but everything is very expensive in there

Our last night we at at Farm Restaurant - rated #8 on TripAdvisor. Unfortunately this was the scene as you enter the restaurant. While quite comical it's sad to see also

Inside Farm Restaurant

Craig's red deer meal - again with barley

My meal - lamb - both meals were tasty. It came with their homemade rye bread, but it was nowhere near as tasty as the bread from Rataskaevu 16, but it was a lovely atmosphere (more elegant to Rataskaevu's laid back atmosphere) and I again had a gin & tonic, but I should have asked them not to put cucumber in it - they did that for 2 out of 3 gin and tonics I had around town.

Me being silly in Freedom Square across from our hotel

It was a short trip, but that's really all that is needed to have a lovely long weekend in Tallinn. Very relaxing with great food and lots of places to just have a drink and people watch.