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Published: March 7th 2022
Estonian parliament building
The Parliament building is housed in the Toompea Castle in the old townThe Estonian parliament building, Tallinn old town and Telliskivi
In March 2020 we took the ferry from Stockholm to Tallinn in Estonia. We went on a so called cruise, meaning that we spent two nights in the ferry and one day in Tallinn. Little did we then know that we wouldn't travel abroad for almost two years.
Now let’s fast-forward to March 2022. Now we once again found ourselves on a cruise to Tallinn. Even though we have travelled quite a bit in Sweden these last two years, we have to say that it feels very good to finally be able to travel to foreign countries again.
Tallinn historical city centre The main attraction in the Estonian capital is the World Heritage listed historical city centre. The old town with its city wall is an unusually well preserved example of a city from the Middle Ages. Tallinn was then one of the more important member cities of the Hanseatic League. The Hanseatic League can be described as a Middle Ages trade union. A bit like a predecessor to EU actually.
People going from Stockholm to Tallinn on a
The white hall
This room is called the white hall. It is used for formal events organised by the parliament cruise tend to spend most of the time in the old town. It comes quite natural both because the ferry terminal is close to the city centre and because tourist facilities and other attractions are concentrated there.
Tallinn parliament building We also started out in the old town. But we didn't go there for any of the usual sightseeing, we went there for a "tour" of the Estonian parliament building. This was not a public tour. A friend of ours live in Tallinn and she works in the Parliament building. Since we were in her home town she thought it could be fun to show us around at her job. It was totally awesome to get the chance to see the inside of the seat of power of the Republic of Estonia.
The Parliament building is housed in the Toompea Castle. As far as we can understand, much of current castle was probably erected in early 20th century. But there has been a castle or fortress at the site for well over 1,000 years. We don't know if there are any traces of the 9th century castle incorporated in the current buildings.
Plenary Hall
In the Plenary Hall the Estonian parliament, the Riigikogu, hold its meetings It's possible since it is not unheard of that new castles, when built on top of old ones, reuse the previous castle's basements and walls.
Telliskivi The old town is really nice. We've been to Tallinn several times over the years and walking through the narrow lanes of the old town is always a pleasure. But when we visited Tallinn two years ago we went to another part of the town, Telliskivi, as well and found that we liked that too. The reason we went there in the first place is that Fotografiska, an art gallery for photo art, has a branch there. Since we enjoy visiting Fotografiska in Stockholm we wanted to see the one in Tallinn as well. It turned out that the area where Fotografiska, Tallinn is located is like a trendy art centre. Since we after the visit at the parliament building had some time over we decided to walk past Telliskivi. There we had a look at the street art in the area, had a bite to eat at one of the restaurants and then we went to the ferry for the return trip home.
We had a very
Corridor in the parliament building
The blue carpet is actually brand new. We watched them install it in one end of this corridor nice day in Tallinn. On this trip we did not have time to travel anywhere else in Estonia. But we do actually have some pictures from a short trip we made in Estonia a few years before we joined Travelblog. If we decide to digitize those pictures we could write a blog post about the places we visited then. But that's a project for the future.
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Dancing Dave
David Hooper
How it should be
I watch in horror the barbarity of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine and this sublime pic from a country not far from the conflict brings it into high relief and could not be a greater contrast. Just saying.