The medieval town hall.
We spent the afternoon wandering the streets, getting lost in old Tallinn.
Tallinn had the one thing that Riga was missing, some good old town walls. Nearly circling the whole of the old town, they are in good shape, and full of towers.
More walking...
Russian Orthodox church, the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, built between 1894 and 1900 as part of a general wave of Russification in the Russian Baltic provinces in the last quarter of the 19th Century.
We even made it out of the centre to Kadriorg park, about 2km west of the centre, for a few snaps of the Kadriorg Palace, home of the President. 
Again we spent some time in search of some nightlife. We were moderately successful this time, Ange making the most of the free drinks on "ladies night Wednesdays". 
A few minutes down the road for another quick stopoff, this time for a little stroll through a park and down to a pretty awesome waterfall. Apparently, at 6.1m, its Estonia's second highest.
By now it was about midday, so time for some sunset shots! After a week of grey skys, we finally got a sunny day, and we realised that the sun never seems to get very high above the horizon. It leaves you wondering if the sun is rising or setting, and how bad it must be in the true depths of winter!
Our destination for the day was a little town called Paldiski. It was once the most heavily militarised soviet base on the Estonian coast. Our guidebook suggested that the old nuclear submarine base and crumbling barracks could still be seen, but over the last couple of years the Estonian Government decided this wasn't such a good thing, and set about demolishing them. Today it is a very sleepy town full of port workers and communist-looking concrete block apartment buildings. The only thing to see now is on the far side of town where there are some pretty impressive limestone cliffs.
After a surprisingly good lunch in Paldiski we stopped in at an old monastery on the way back to Tallinn. Very much in ruins, the stonework made it absolutely freezing, but we had a great time clambering over, under and around what's left of the 13th century buildings.
Thursday we signed up to a tour put on by the hostel to see the Estonian coastline west of Tallinn. Ange and I were the only ones to sign up, but luckily enough the tour leader (and hostel owner) still took us, he just brought his wife and 1 year old daughter along for the ride. It was like being on a family outing, all snug in the back of his people mover.
The first stop was just off the highway for a lookout back over to the beach, one of Tallinn's favourite summer escapes.
A few minutes down the road for another quick stopoff, this time for a little stroll through a park and down to a pretty awesome waterfall. Apparently, at 6.1m, its Estonia's second highest.
By now it was about midday, so time for some sunset shots! After a week of grey skys, we finally got a sunny day, and we realised that the sun never seems to get very high above the horizon. It leaves you wondering if the sun is rising or setting, and how bad it must be in the true depths of winter!
Our destination for the day was a little town called Paldiski. It was once the most heavily militarised soviet base on the Estonian coast. Our guidebook suggested that the old nuclear submarine base and crumbling barracks could still be seen, but over the last couple of years the Estonian Government decided this wasn't such a good thing, and set about demolishing them. Today it is a very sleepy town full of port workers and communist-looking concrete block apartment buildings. The only thing to see now is on the far side of town where there are some pretty impressive limestone cliffs.
After a surprisingly good lunch in Paldiski we stopped in at an old monastery on the way back to Tallinn. Very much in ruins, the stonework made it absolutely freezing, but we had a great time clambering over, under and around what's left of the 13th century buildings. With another early morning in store for us on Friday, we called it quits early on Thursday night, but not before demolishing some savoury pancakes for dinner (apparently its what you do in that part of the world).
1 comment:
Wow, looks like you're having a great time, although - brrrr!
Not sure how else to best get in contact with you (maybe Jesse still has an email address for you somewhere Warren?)... just thought we'd let you know we're definitely coming to the UK next year! We've booked our tickets and arrive in London early May (visa applications will go in early next year - hopefully all goes smoothly)... so hopefully we'll get a chance to catch up at some point after that - assuming you'll still be there then!.
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