Blogs from Estonia, Europe - page 2

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 ... read more

Yesterday, Kieran flew into Helsinki & joined us for dinner, he plans to shadow our tour for the next 9 days by arranging his own transport & accommodation. Sunday we left Scandinavia behind & boarded a morning ferry for a 3 hr trip to Tallinn, capital of Estonia. On arrival we checked into the Tallink Express Hotel for a 2 night stay before an orientation walk around the World Heritage listed city. It’s immediately obvious to see why the city is now considered the best preserved medieval city in Northern Europe with the surrounding skyline dominated by Gothic spired churches, grand merchant houses, barns and warehouses along winding cobblestone streets. The major sites were the largely intact 13th-century old town buildings, walls & observation towers, the town hall & spire & the Toompea Castle, where Parliament ... read more

12 July 2019 We had a drive around the peninsular to the south of the island and then along part of the west coast.... read more

10 July 2019 Saaremaa is the largest Estonian island and we had a 25 minute ferry ride to visit it. Our campsite was outside. Our campsite is outside the island’s largest town, and on the way there we took a few diversions to visit a large meteor crater at Kaali, a collection of windmills at Angia and Karja’s 14th-century Lutheran Church.... read more

08 July 2019 We drove 90k south west to Estonian’s west coast and the resort of Haapsal, located on a series of lagoons. On the way, we stopped off at Estonia’s Open Air Museum, which is a collection of farmsteads and other buildings, mainly from the late 19th century, moved to a country park just outside Tallin from various parts of the Country.... read more