Drive from Kiruna - 11 - Tallinn (9 - 11 Jan 23)

 We had an early start on the 9th, we needed to be on our ferry by 8:30am and the ferry terminal was about 30min drive from our hotel. Kris and I were up at 5:45 getting things organised, but fortunately we'd packed most of the stuff in the car the night before.

We were out of the hotel at just after 7:00am and on the road to the ferry terminal. We were leaving our car in a long term carpark while we did Tallinn on foot, so we had needed to sort out a minimum of gear to take over (we wouldn't be able to carry everything on foot), but we also didn't want to leave anything valuable in the car, or anything that could look valuable.

The drive was not much fun - we were all tired and it was almost white-out conditions with a decent amount of snow blowing in and a low lying layer of fog.

It's hard to get the snow to show in the video, but this is what it looked like out of the window of the ferry terminal:

We arrived in plenty of time and had an hour wait in the terminal before we could board.  We travelled on the Eckerö line on the MS Finlandia:

Kristine and the kids found a comfortable table in the lounge area at the front of the ship, while I decided to have a wander around.

Floor plan

View to the stern from the port side

Turns out the 'Sun Deck' wasn't much of a sun deck this trip:

There wasn't much visibility from the bow:

We had previously been to Tallinn in midsummer in 2016, but it was a bit of a different experience in winter.  I really love Tallinn, the old city walls and towers are really cool to walk through and the old town has a real old feel to it.  My main memories of the previous trip were the red roofed cylindrical towers that made up most of the original city walls.  They obviously were still a major part of the scenery, but this time the roofs were white with snow.  

When we got off of the ferry had a bit of a walk to our hotel, and we weren't able to check in for another four hours or so.  The hotel had agreed to let us leave our bags there, which was going to be nice, as we were carrying everything - so that was our destination.

It was still snowing when we arrived but we soon caught our first glimpses of Tallinn old town:

Tallinn city walls and Oleviste kogudus (Saint Olaf's Church) spire

We also came across a drone delivery vehicle that seemed to have become stuck in the snow:

It turns out that the company Starship-Tallinn has been manufacturing these guys to deliver everything from food to shopping.  We weren't sure if this one was stuck or if it was waiting for something, but it was pretty cool.

Our first sight of Tallinn was Fat Margaret (Paks Margareeta). The Fat Margaret tower was built in the early 1500s and got its name from the fact that it was the biggest part of the city walls.  The tower is 25m in diameter, 20m tall and has walls 5m thick.  The tower was part of the sea defences and then was converted to a gunpowder store and then a prison. It now houses the Maritime Museum.

We then headed in through Suure Rannavärava eesvärav, the Great Coastal Gate:

Along our walk we passed the Russian embassy, which was the site of a series of posters protesting the Russian-Ukraine invasion, including the building across the road, which houses Ukrainian flags in the windows.  There was also a police car permanently stationed outside the embassy:

Our next stop was the Tallinn Town Hall. Built in 1404, this is the oldest town hall in all of the Baltic Sea and Scandinavian regions. The weather-vane on the top of the hall is named "Vana Toomas" (Old Thomas) and has been in place since 1530. I also love the dragon gargoyles around the top of the wall:

Unfortunately we had just missed the Christmas markets, as the wooden buildings were being cleared away from the square.  There was a large Christmas tree that was filled with notes and letters with best wishes for Ukraine, and this was taken down on the 10th.

Nativity scene at the side of the town hall

Our hotel was just across the road from the Niguliste kirik (St Nicholas' Church), which was pretty cool.  We had to travel first to the head office where we dropped off our bags. The room wasn't ready for us just yet, so we decided to go for a walk.

St Nicholas' Church

We then arrived at Toompea Castle and the Aleksander Nevski katedraal (Alexander Nevsky Cathedral). The Cathedral was consecrated in 1900 and is Tallinn's largest orthodox cupola church. Dedicated to Alexander Nevsky, who was Grand Prince of Kiev and later a saint:

Directly across from the church is Toompea Castle, a medieval castle that houses the Parliament of Estonia. A castle was first built in the area in the 9th century, the main visible section of the castle is an 18th century Baroque addition.

Down the side of the castle is the Pika Hermanni Torn (Tall Hermann Tower), which flies the Estonian flag:

The kids were starting to get hungry and it was pretty cold, so we decided to head off to find some lunch:

It was a bit chilly...

We ended up at the district of Kristiine and the Kristiine Kestus shopping centre.  I figured that we'd been to Keir in Scotland, so we needed to get to Kristiine.

We grabbed some lunch and groceries and then recieved an SMS that our hotel room was ready, so we headed back into town.  This time we travelled a more direct route and cut through Freedom Square. The square houses St John's Church (build 1862) and the Victory Column (2009) which commemorates the Estonian War of Independence (1918-1920). It was also the site of a Ukrainian recognition:

We got into our apartment and had a bit of a break before heading out for dinner. We had previously visited a Texas Cantina Restaurant when we were here in 2016, so we returned there and had burritos.  The food was great but they were very busy, so service was a little slow.

On the way back, we passed the Püha Vaimu kirik (Church of the Holy Spirit) built in the late 13th century and housing an ornate clock from the late 17th century:

We had one last stop - because what do you do when its -7 and snowing? Get ice-cream of course! They ran out of the two-scoop cones, so Alana ended up with hers as two separate cones, which you can see she was really upset about:

The next day we woke up to more snow:

but once everyone was finally awake and ready (around midday), we headed out to continue exploring.

Our first stop was the Danish King's Garden, which we had narrowly bypassed a few times.  Kristine had some good memories of the monk statues and wanted to return to see them in the snow.

According to the " The Flag Descended" legend, the area is named the Danish King's Garden because it is the location where the Danish flag descended during a battle.  During a battle in 1219, the Estonia Danish King Valdemar II was losing to the pagan Estonian tribes. The flag then fell (descended)and turned the tide of the battle.  Apparently it was a lamb skin, marked with the red cross that would become Dannebrog, the Danish Flag.  The name Dannebrog comes from "the cloth of the Danes" and Tallinn is believed to come from "Taani Linn", which means "Danish Town".

The square is also home to "Three Monks", a set of three 2.5m tall monk statues erected in 2015. They are Ambrosius, the "Waiting Monk", Bartholomeus, the "Praying Monk" and Claudius, the "Observing Monk".

Bartholomeus, The Praying Monk

Ambrosius, the Waiting Monk

Claudius, the Observing Monk.

At the end of this park was the Kiek in de Kök tower, whose name literally means "Peep into the Kitchen", a threat that essentially from the tower we can see into your houses.  The tower is 38m tall, with walls 4m thick. In some places there are cannon balls from 1577 embedded in the walls.

The segment of wall passing behind the Danish King's Garden consists of four towers. From left to right: Kiek in de Kök, Neitsitorn (Maiden's Tower), Tallitorn (Stable Tower) and Väravatorn (the Gate Tower):

Tallitorn

The first exhibit in the Kiek in de Kök museum was on Danish flags.

A recreation of the 13th century Dannebrog

The Tallinn City voting urn

We then headed up into the tower and walked along the walls:

Looking down on Danish King's Garden

There were many exhibits in the tower about medieval life and weapons, but our favourite was the mock-up of Tallinn and its tower and city wall locations:

Well, when I say it was 'our' favourite I lied a little - Tomas' favourite was the Executioner's Sword:

Tom also enjoyed the cannon display:

One of my joking comments the first time when I visited Tallinn was the emergency exit at the top of the tower, which just pointed out a window that was 20m above the ground:

This has been fixed somewhat with a new sign:

I wonder how many people tried to evacuate without a ladder, necessitating that sign?

From the window we were able to see the other towers and also the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral:

We also found this interesting medieval meal:

We then descended to the bottom of the tower, to view something that felt much closer to home:

The final part of our tour of the tower was the underground tunnels. Originally part of the castle system they had been used as bomb shelters, living areas for the homeless and also as part of the Punk scene for raves.

They also housed a collection of stoneworks that had been collected during renovations and excavations:

Back outside again, we exited at the base of Kiek in de Kök:

Our final stop for the day was the Patkuli viewing platform. When we had come in midsummer we stood here at midnight and watched the sunset over Old Town.  This time it was about 2pm and quite different weather:

We also stopped by the Kohtuotsa viewing platform on the northern side of Toompea Hill:

We then headed back to the apartment and Alana, Cameron and I ducked out to visit a supermarket to get some food for lunch and dinner.  We passed the Viru Gates:

I remember commenting before on the weird juxtaposition between old city walls, new skyscrapers and McDonalds..

We have most of tomorrow in Tallinn and then we head back to Helsinki for our final day before returning to Sweden and home.