However, the official line on the flag is that the blue represents faith, loyalty and devotion (Boooorrrr-ing) OR it represents the sky, sea and lakes of the country. That gets my vote.
The black is for the soil, and the dark past and suffering of the people (thus the toughness). I am OK with all of that. The white band means either striving towards enlightenment and virtue (which is all very over-rated in my opinion) OR it stands for the color of birch bark and snow, and the summer nights illuminated by the midnight sun. Yes on the birch, snow and midnight light.
I got all this from this website.
It took us about fifteen minutes to walk in from the ferry, across a major road, and in through the north gate of the old walled city of Tallinn.
We stayed near the center of the old city in the Meriton Old Town Garden Hotel. It is important to make this distinction, because there are two Meriton Old Town Hotels, one at the north end, and the “Garden” hotel, more in the center.
That is my point.
And that is the reason to come visit.
How about these basics: it is an old country.
It's on the Baltic Sea, and Russia controlled it for a while.
Tallinn is the capital, and it is cold here in the winter.
More facts here.
Tallinn is a pretty city. It kind of reminds me of Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic, crossed with Kraków Poland. There are walls still surrounding sections of the old city, and some of the round towers are still standing. You can walk a couple sections of the wall, other sections have been rebuilt as houses or businesses.
We spent a lot of time walking through the mostly level old town. But it is split, one section is up on a cliff above the rest. So, between walking up there to photograph, going to the top of the St. Olav's steeple, and going up and down the five floors to our room, I have put in fifty flights of stairs today. So says the iPhone.
I climbed up the St. Olav Bell Tower for the view. I love being up high, and €2 is easy to come by. The small, round rock, spiral stairs circle up and up and up. Just as you start to feel dizzy, there is a straight section, then you spiral up the opposite way. At 64 meters you come out on the viewing platform, at the bell level. The steeple rises another 65 meters or so above you.
The view is pretty good. You can see all the steeples: churches everywhere. The there is the main street, Pikk, cutting right through the clutter.
We walked along the walls, inside and out of the city. The north entrance gate is guarded by Fat Margaret. Now, before I go any further, I want to apologize to any Margarets out there who might be reading this blog. I did not name the tower. I am just reporting the facts, ma'am.
If it makes you feel any better, I had fun calling it "Fat Freddy" and Huge Hillary" and "Big Bertha."
Anyway, the name is because of the thick walls.
We climbed up the stairs on the front of the cliff, to the viewing platforms overlooking the city. The view was beautiful, and I returned there early in the morning to soak it in alone.
The entire city is ringed by a green belt of trees, a park in the old moat. There is a little man made lake, and a castle looms over the soccer field. It is a beautiful place to take a walk.
When the wind wasn't blowing we were warm. Even in the rain it was OK. But the wind was strong and bitter, going through our coats. We tried to find places to hide in the sun, and I drank so much hot coffee my stomach got upset.
As we walked and Gail shopped, I saw several convertibles driving around here, as I did in Stockholm, and I had to wonder, “When is it ever warm enough here to drive with the top down?”
There is a colorful old clock, down low on the side of the Church Of The Holy Ghost. It is from 1633; pretty, but not as spectacular as the astronomical clocks in Prague and Strassbourg.
The main square is called Raekoja Plats, or Town Hall Square. The town hall has a tall tower and cool, metal dragon gargoyles. It was built in the 1400s.
There was a market taking place in the Raekoia Plats, tents and stalls with some food for sale but mostly crafts and clothes. One guy was carving a sort of canoe. By hand. “Fifty days to make it,” he said.
Another lady next to him was throwing clay pots.
My favorite church was up in the upper town. It is a full-on Russian Orthodox Cathedral, complete with onion domes and all. The interior is beautiful, with lots of gold and icons. When we were there, the monks (or priests?) were singing their vespers, acapella. It was a stirring sound, the first round was the low, rumbling, “I am singing very slow nowwwww…” followed by the higher, almost squeaky “They are singing really slow now!” follow up.
Still, we stayed and enjoyed the mini-concert.
Up on the hill is also the Saint Mary’s church, called the Dome Church. The cool thing about this one is the round balls up on the steeple.
Walking around outside the city walls, we came across several art installations. There were large hanging pipes like wind chimes, flowers and canvas that made a butterfly, and weird plant-looking things.
We spent a cold afternoon in the Kalev Water Spa. They have a large, olympic sized pool to swim laps, a smaller warm pool, a hotter pool, and some shallow warm pools with jets pushing air into your back and legs. I enjoyed sitting in the sauna, then jumping in the bubbling medium-hot pool and letting the jets pound me. There were a couple long and fast water slides, which were fun until I got a mouth full of water.
Swimming, towel rental, and locker set us back €13 each. It is easy to do: walk in, pay, and they give you a rubber wrist band that opens the gate and your locker. Go in, change, and through the locker room to the pools. When you are finished, the wrist band lets you out.
The ferry from Stockholm to Tallinn sunk, and over 850 people died.
Less than 150 survivors.
The ferry we came in on.
Fortunately I did not see any memorial to a Tallinn-Helsinki wreck, because that is where we go next:
Helsinki, on the morning ship.