Day 30 - A History Lesson and Another Tower Climb

It took me a while to find some breakfast this morning, but I found a gem of a place - allegedly Tallinn’s oldest cafe - in the end and had a lovely tea and pastry.

My first stop of the day was the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. Both the exterior and interior of this building was beautifully ornate, reflective of the Eastern orthodox tradition. This was a poignant start to a day where I would learn a lot about Estonian history.

I had a bit of a wander, doing a few AdLabs - I particularly enjoyed one that told me various ghost stories of the city - before then heading to the Vabamu Museum of Occupations and Freedom. It was a really thought-provoking museum, focussing on the stories of Estonians over the past hundred years - through Russian and German occupations in WWII and the half century of Soviet rule. Stories included those of people deported to Siberia, victims of the Holocaust, Estonians who fled overseas, resistance fighters and everyday Estonians. It was a great audio tour and asked interesting questions about what freedom means. With my next few weeks being in the Baltics and Eastern Europe, I suspect that I will hear many similar stories elsewhere.

As an aside, I have walked past this political display every day that I have been in the city, and have been struck by the strength of Estonian nationalism on a number of occasions.

Having spent a couple of hours in a the museum, I stopped off for a quick lunch near this very jolly statue of The Happy Chimney Sweep!

Fuelled once more, I went to St Olaf’s Church, a Baptist church that was strikingly simple in comparison to Alexander Nevsky Cathedral earlier. The highlight of St Olaf’s was certainly the tower though. It was quite a tough climb of 258 steep steps, but the view was very much worth it! The tower is 124m tall, and was built in the 12th century. I had to agree with a man who was up there with me who said ‘Who built this!?’

After the tower I had a bit more of a wander through the city and then returned to my CityBox just in time for the Man Utd - Arsenal match. I am going to go out to pick up one more geocache once the match is over, and then will get myself organised for my journey to Riga tomorrow.

I have loved my time in Tallinn - it has been one of my favourite places so far on my travels - but am now very excited to see what the rest of my time in the Baltics has in store.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 1 - It Starts……..

Image
Having been thinking and talking about this adventure for months, today rather crept up on me. As well being a little hurried in actually packing a rucksack for up to three months of travel (I had been organised with packing lists, just not the actually putting things in a bag bit), I was also a bit last minute in tying up loose ends at home, mainly the boring things, like sorting out my car tax that I realised expired whilst I am away. It was therefore also a bit of a late night doing the really important things, like finishing the hardback book I had no intention of travelling with, and downloading some shows to watch onto my Chromebook. But, after a bit of last minute re-packing (Do I really need that extra T-shirt? Probably not. Where did I put that charging cable?), my rucksack was ready to go, and I had sorted everything I needed to in my flat. I am pleased to report that I have not left anything in the fridge that is likely to be gross on my return. Then off through the rain to ...
Read more

Day 2 - Touristing it up in Brussels

Image
The Eurostar journey was pretty uneventful yesterday. Despite looking out of the window, I did not see any fish 🐠 as I crossed the Channel, and I made sure I was on the look-out for small boat crossings too.....  It was early evening when I arrived in Brussels. The metro system took me a few minutes (and one journey in the wrong direction) to figure out, but Google Maps did its thing and got me to my hotel safely. The hotel is near the Royal Galleries, close to the Grand Place, and it is pretty busy around as apparently this is a big weekend with Belgian National Day tomorrow.  An evening quest for food (success) was followed by a walk through said Royal Galleries and then a test of my photography skills at the Grand Place. It is, as the name suggests, pretty Grand. Pleasingly for me, there were lots of Geocaching AdLabs around for me to use to learn some history. My visit here was then followed up with some good wandering around, with the highlight undoubtedly the Brussels D...
Read more

Day 3 - Happy Belgian National Day!

Image
Yesterday evening was fairly quiet - a stroll to see Jeanneke Pis, all in the name of gender equality.... and then an ice-cream and soaking up some of the holiday vibes.  Today, in case you did not know, is Belgium's national day. I had read a bit about some celebration events, some of which I am hoping to see this evening, but I did not know that as I walked to find some breakfast this morning, within 100m of my hotel I would stumble upon the whole Belgian royal family arriving for the Te Deum mass at the St Michael and St Gudula Cathedral. Having previously sat opposite the Swedish royal family at a concert in Stockholm when visiting with Lizzy, I am starting to appreciate European royal families turning out for my visits.... Apparently it was King Philippe, Queen Mathilde, and their four children (Elisabeth, Eleonore, Gabriel and Emmanuel) who were there. You can read all about their outfits on the Daily Fail Online, if that's your thing.  Anyway, I enjoyed the experience, ...
Read more