Baltic Cruise: Tallinn

JUNE 2016

Tallinn? Estonia? Where?! I know, right?

Here’s a short history lesson: Estonia was one of the 7 countries that emerged after the USSR broke up in 1991. That means that this country is younger than most people I know! Tourism is fairly new territory for this rookie nation, so it was nice to visit before it gets too popular. Tallinn is medieval eastern Europe at its finest. It has a mix of German and Russian influences, and its basically like a fully functioning renaissance festival.

Our ship docked on time at 10:00, and we had a bit of a walk to Old Town Tallinn. At the port, there were a TON of hop-on-hop-off busses, private taxis, bike rentals, and even hot air balloon views. We skipped it all, and followed other brave cruise-goers through lots of construction and about 15 mins later, we emerged at the outer wall of the city.

Sorry for the crooked photo...

Our self-guided tour started right at the gate, so we were able to quickly get our bearings. We skipped the first part of the walk (which we often do), with the intention of finishing the first few stops on the way out. We were a bit hungry, so we popped into the cutest little pastry/coffee shop called Madmoiselle on the famous Pikk Street for a quick bite to eat. 

We enjoyed our pastry and headed to the first stop on our modified tour at the Great Guild Hall (a museum that we admired from the outside), and then headed to the Church of the Holy Ghost. 

Church of the Holy Ghost

Interestingly enough, this church only had signs in Russian and Estonian, because this church was a tourist highlight when the plaques were designed for “inner tourism” within the USSR. I definitely don’t always expect things in Europe to always be in English, but it was interesting to learn the reason behind these signs!

We continued to wander through the medieval streets, admiring the architecture. There was truly a hodge-podge of various architectural styles, all next door to one another. We paused for lots of photos at Town Hall Square in the center of the city, in the heart of the Lower Town. Centuries ago, Estonians could see criminals chained to posts in this square for humiliation, and the occasional tournament between knights. Today, it’s a great place to grab a beer and people watch.

Town Hall Square

St. Nicholas Church

Next, we proceeded past St. Nicholas Church (another beautiful structure destroyed during WWII by the Soviets, and lebuilt) and began to explore Upper Town Tallinn, also called Toompea. Lower Town and Upper Town are both part of old town Tallinn, and even though they were at one point two different cities, they definitely feel similar. We passed through the wall dividing the city, and accidentally took a wrong turn!

No worries though, we’re adaptable. We ended up at a beautiful overlook of the city with giant grim reaper statues. Not my favorite statues in the world, but definitely effective. A lot of the sights in Toompea (the Upper Town) are close together, so we continued to wander and complete the walk out of order.

Our first stop was at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral. This church was quite different than others we have visited in Europe, and it was fascinating. No photos were allowed, and it was strictly enforced. The interior of the church was small, had no pews, and was adorned with a giant golden alterpiece. Russian Orthodox do not believe in statues, instead they have iconstasis, which are like mosaic portraits on gilded backgrounds. They are beautiful, and extremely detailed. If you've been to St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, iconostasis look the same as the ceiling of the nave.

This church  was situated right across from the Toompea Castle, which houses Estonian Parliament. This was a bold statement by the Russians during their occupation of the area, reminding the Estonians of their prescense, right outside the front door of their government.

Toompea Castle was a beautiful pink color, and was a perfect place to sit down and read about a few more of the sights we were going to see. The Tall Hermann Tower was at the end of the castle, which was the first place in the city that Estonians flew their own flag after the USSR left the country. The Castle, Tower, and Gardens were all in the same area, so we were able to back track a little bit and enjoy them all fairly quickly. There were a number of dogs in the park with their owners, and it made B and I miss our dog-children a lot!

After we finished in the heart of Toompea, we headed to the Kohtuotsa Viewpoint for some amazing views of the city. The weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky, and I just let our family photographer do what he does best…

Once we escaped the shoulder-to-shoulder mass of people at the viewpoint, we finished our walk by making our way to the other outer wall fo the city for our lunch reservation at FARM. I didn’t make any reservations for this cruise, but I figured one would be nice at a port of call, just to have one less thing to think about. It was… TOO nice. 

If we were spending a whole weekend in Tallinn, this would have been a great place to go for dinner. I chose this restarurant because it looked like the menu was healthy, light, and local. It totally was all of those things, but after seeing the other places the town had to offer (most notably in Town Hall Square), we were sad to be eating inside a nice restaurant on such a beautiful day. We skipped the interesting bread (rye with lots of seeds, including hemp), ate our white fish, and pushed the raw kale around our plates. That counts as eating, right?! We paid for our meal, and headed back to our favorite area in Town Hall Square to enjoy a giant medieval beer. Lesson learned: if you only have one day in an area, always consult Rick Steves, not TripAdvisor!!

We ordered beers at Eesti, which was just off of the square in a line of Estonian beer halls, and they were definitely different than any beer we’ve had before. B ordered a honey beer, which has a very local flavor, and I went with a simple pilsner. B’s beer was… interesting. I had a sip, and before the amber liquid made it to my lips, the aroma of honey was overwhelming. They weren’t kidding about it being honey flavored. It was a very sweet, and a very memorable experience!

Finally, it was time to finish up our walk and make our way back towards the port. We bought our magnet souvenir and a little tower repilica, and enjoyed our quiet stroll back down Pikk Street, this time with fewer crowds. Our first stop was at the former Brotherhood of the Black Heads. Their house was built in 1440, and has had many uses. Originally, it was a business fraternity for single Estonian men, who were at the bottom of the totem poll in Tallinn until they were married. Sadly, today it is just another empty building.

Brotherhood of Black Heads

Estonian KGB Headquarters

We then passed the former Estonian KGB headquarters, and popped into the adorable marzipan shop across the street. How’s that for a juxtaposition? A little farther down Pikk was St. Olav’s Church. It’s a Baptist church today, but at one point was a Lutheran Church. It’s home ot the tallest spire in the city, and for a small fee, you can climb the 234 steps to the top.

I’ve done the spire climb before at the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, and it wasn’t my fave, so B made the trip up by himself, and took some AMAZING photos. Just another reason I’m thankful for him!

Check out the outer wall and its watch towers! Amazing!

By the end of our trip to the church, we were ready to get back on the boat! The streets in Estonia were all cobblestone, which was super pretty, but was super hard on our feet! We walked 15 minutes through the newer town of Tallinn, and boarded our boat with plenty of time to spare, and began to prepare for our big trip to Russia the following day!

Final Thoughts. We LOVED Tallinn. We had absolutely no idea what to expect and it blew us out of the water. So far, Eastern Europe has done that to us every time! We feel super unfamiliar with the culture, which makes the experience that much better. One day in Tallinn was probably enough, but I definitely see how you could spend a few days there. There are lots of medieval museums to explore, and plenty of beers to enjoy!

We also found a little slice of Texas in Estonia... at the Texas Honky Tonk Cantina!

Howdy!!