Tallinn

Thur, 3 June

On our last day in Tallinn, there wern’t many parts of the old town that we hadn’t covered so we started in the square in front of the Town Hall which was built in 1404 and is the only surviving Gothic town hall in Northern Europe. I don’t know the height of the spire above the town hall but considering when it was built it’s an amazing feat of engineering.

A short distance from the square we arrived at St Catherine’s Walk, a narrow lane lined with craftsmen’s workshops, glass blowers, stained glass makers, leather workers and others. One side of the lane is the wall of an old monastery and fixed to the wall are old tombstones dating back to the start of the 1300s.

After leaving the lane we walked towards part of the old wall along which there were around twenty stalls, selling a large range of traditional knitted garments, beanies, jumpers, socks, shawls and other items. With so many stalls selling similar items we wondered how they make a living.

Outside the walls there was a street lined on one side with flower stalls, the range and quality of the flowers was brilliant and again we questioned how they could make a living. At the end of the row of stalls were many elderly people selling bunches of Lily of the Valley at about a quarter of the price being charged by the stalls, though the quality wasn’t as good.

From the flower stalls we walked back through the town gate to visit another Russian Orthodox Church with an amazing collection of icons and artefacts and as less than 6% of Estonians are members of the Russian Church it must be difficult to maintain the buildings and contents.

As we had walked along nearly every street and lane in Tallinn we returned to the hostel for lunch. After lunch we walked outside the Old Town walls and through the gardens where the displays for the annual flower festival were situated, one was still being built and the others were in the early stages of growth with nearly as much soil as plants but in a month or so the plants in the beds will have filled out and it will be a far better display. In one display there was an interesting sculpture, quite a contrast to the old walls.

Returning to the hostel we ordered a taxi and carried our cases down the two flights of narrow winding stairs, thank goodness we won’t have to climb then again but who knows what future hostels have in store for us.

We boarded the ship, Victoria I for our trip to Stockholm around 4:30 for a 6:00 pm departure; we have a comfortable cabin with a small en-suite and thought the price for transport and accommodation of around $185 to be quite reasonable, although I think they make their profit from the prices they charge in the restaurants and bars, there is also a large duty free store and casino on board.

We arrive at Stockholm at 10:00 am (11:00 Tallinn time) and have to find our way across town to our hostel; we presume there will be buses running from the terminal.