Tallinn

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I walked some more in the medieval portions of Tallinn this morning. I walked by the parliament building and looked in the Russian Orthodox church across the square. There was a service going on in the church when I was there with incense and a men’s choir and many parishioners. My guidebook says that it’s OK to visit the church during services, but I felt awkward doing so. (No photos are allowed inside, service or not.) I left the church and a little later I came to a nice viewpoint that looks out over the medieval center of town. It was crowded with tour groups and I had to (figuratively) elbow my way to the railing to get a picture. In the afternoon I visited the Estonian National Art Museum called Kumu. They have displays of Estonian paintings and sculpture, including the Socialist Realism required under the Soviets. (Note that one artist equated the hammer-and-sickle with the swastika. I suspect that he didn’t display that one publicly until after the Soviets were gone.) My last museum of the day was the Seaplane Harbour Maritime Museum which houses a surprisingly good collection of boats and sea-related items. Even more surprising is that Estonia had its own submarine in the 1930s, but like the rest of the country, the submarine fell into Soviet hands after WWII. Still, it is interesting see it there on display inside the big museum.

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