We left on Friday night and arrived in Tallinn quite late (it’s a two and a half hour flight with a two hour time difference). We headed straight for our hotel, the very nice Schlossle Hotel, in the Old Town. The next morning we got up just in time to catch breakfast and then went out to look around. As much as Nick has been to Tallinn, he doesn’t usually see much more than the hotel, the office and various restaurants so really we were both tourists for the first time. We started at the main square (Raikoja Plats) which was hosting the annual Christmas market - this is apparently one of the top 10 Christmas markets in Europe.
Christmas markets are very common in northern Europe – especially Germany which probably has the most renowned markets. Here there were lots of knitted things featuring deer, fir trees and cats. Not sure what is with the cats, but they are very popular in Tallinn and are featured on a wide variety of products.
From there, we wandered around the Old Town. The ‘Old Town’ is the central part of Tallinn which in medieval times was surrounded by a 2.8km long wall. Amazingly, over half of the wall still stands.
The Old Town itself is a mixture of medieval/gothic/renaissance architecture, but has been extremely well kept meaning that almost every building is 200+ years old and generally in very good condition. The streets are still cobbled (and authentically uneven making it difficult to walk!) and intersect at strange angles making it very easy to get lost. They have also managed to keep modern aspects like cars and advertising to a minimum meaning it’s a great place to walk around.
By accident, we found a section of the wall that you could climb and for the reasonable fee of 25 EEK (about £1) we headed up some very narrow, dark, irregular stairs to the top of a tower, then right along the wall to the next tower.
After visiting other countries where tourism is highly developed and everyone is worried about accidents and damage, it was kind of refreshing to be simply shown some stairs with old rotting rope for handrails.
Not for everyone, granted, and possibly an accident waiting to happen, but fun for us.
Nick overlooking the city -
For dinner we went to a Russian restaurant called Nevskij, a place Nick had been to before. We didn’t arrive until about 8pm, but there was only one other couple until about 9, which must be standard dinner time because suddenly it was almost full. Nevskij is modelled on an 18th century Russian drawing room and serves authentic Russian food – including 2500 Euro Beluga caviar. We didn’t try the caviar, but we did have the most bizarre combination of food I think I have ever eaten – an appetizer of pickles, honey and sour cream –
- very weird, but somehow works. Apparently not so unusual (honey, like cats, is also big in Estonia).
On Sunday we wandered around some more, finally finding a church we had been looking for the day before (another tall thing with great views), only to find it closed. We also moved hotels to the Skype preferred hotel, The Merchant’s House. The great thing about both hotels is that they were totally unique – rather than generic chains with identical rooms, they have been created around the original features of the building so nothing is standard – at the Schlossle, our room was the only one that entered from one side of the courtyard. At the Merchant’s House, Skype staff have rated almost every room and they vary enormously – in fact half the hotel is in a 14th century building and the other half in a building from the 16th century.
For dinner (it’s all about the food!) we went to a medieval restaurant called Olde Hansa.
If Olde Hansa was in Melbourne, it would be in Carlton, around the corner from Dracula’s (in fact, I once went to a medieval themed restaurant in Melbourne called Bunratty Castle…), but rather than being kitschy or theatrical, Olde Hansa is all about authenticity. The menu only features food that would have been available in medieval times and they even have banquet menus based on the type of people you would have dined with – so a Merhcant’s Feast, a Town Councilman’s Feast, a Royal Huntign Feast. The waiters are dress in period costume, it is all candelight, and the food is all served on thick eartherware (they do, however, kindly provide utensils, although they do give you the option of eating with your hands and sword). We had the most amazing honey beer (again with the honey!) and I had pork, while Nick tried a selection of game. HUGE servings and very tasty food.
On Monday Nick headed of to work while I stayed back at the hotel, and also did some work. I was supposedly on holiday, but too much going on with the Ashes…but I figure it still kind of counts as holiday if you are in your pyjamas. I did manage to get out and do some more looking around – finding a part of the wall which we had looked for on the weekend and not found.
On Tuesday, more of the same but replace ‘if you are in your pyjamas’ with ‘if you get a 90 minute massage’. I also checked out a museum in the most important remaining tower, Keik in de Kok.
On Wednesday, I checked out and did some final shopping at the Christmas market before meeting Nick (and Daric from Skype) for our flight back to London.
