The next day found us in Tallinn, Estonia. Tallinn is the captial and most populous city in Estonia, with a population of about 600,000 in the metro area. We focused on the "Old City" part of Tallinn, which is a small walkable area surrounded by walls. The Old City was built in 1050 when it became a fortress and over the years, was one of the most important trading cities in the Baltics.
We did a self guided walking tour to museums, city walls, towers and churches. It was a full day of exploring and we loved it!
This is the entrance to Tallinn Old City - the big tower on the left is "Fat Margaret" - a very wide tower that was part of the medieval gate into the city and was built around 1511. It currently is an impressive Tallinn museum. Fat Margaret was the largest part of the city's fortification system with walls 82 feet in diameter, 65 feet high and 16 feet thick.
There were lots of alleyways to explore
We saw this little train offering a tour, so we hopped on thinking it would be a tour of old town. Nope. It went outside the city walls and drove to the harbor and then back again. If you go, you don't need to spend the time or money doing the train. Skip it. You will be happy you did.
Very large and very old tombstones found in the cemetary
So many nooks and cranny's to explore and tunnels as a short cut to different parts of the city
Inside one of the many towers and walls that surround the city
The stairs in the towers were STEEP!!! and huge steps! So steep, they had to install a rope to help you get up and down the stairs
Many of the remaining walls have covered walkways that you can walk along to the next tower
So many churches! They were everywhere!
The entrance to the stairs in one of the towers - looks like you're going down into a tomb!
The Royal Toilet - this is the luxurious version
We climbed a lot of towers - these steps were so steep!!!!
Our travelmates
The walls are so big! And wide! And tall!
One of the many churches we visited - this one had huge stained glass windows that told the stories of the Bible
This is an amazing altar piece that has 6 sides - and each door that opens/closes, tells a different story
Don't fall down the stairs!! We then went deep deep underground under one of the castles to the tunnels that were used during the war as bomb shelters. They were so big! We probably walked total about 20 minutes before we were at the end and finally went back up to daylight
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We had a great time in Tallinn and learned a lot about the city and history.
On the way back we passed this sign for ice cream at the local Circle K mini-mart.......they look good!
Total steps walked: 19,497 - about 8.8 miles!
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