Tallinn

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Although it doesn’t look far to town, we catch the shuttle bus in. I’m slightly surprised to find we are being dropped of at the bottom as all the guide books indicated you got dropped off at the top. We’ll need to rethink our plan of action for today. I point several people from our bus in the right direction. One chap politely listens but I can tell he doesn’t believe I have the right genes for map reading, so I turn on my bossy teacher voice and don’t give him any opportunity to argue.

Once we find a break in the city walls, we head up towards the old market place and town hall. The city is silent and deserted as we have arrived early in the morning again. We are beginning to realise this is the best time to take good photographs. I’d marked off quite a few interesting sights in our guide book, most tallied up with those being visited by the optional excursions. I often do this when visiting a place, on the basis that they do tend to take people to the best sights. So we push on up the hill to a second higher walled fortress called Toompea. Here we find the Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox Cathedral. Inside there is a service going on despite the early hour. We watch the priest blessing a mother and her children. As with all Russian orthodox cathedrals, the decoration inside is beautiful and best of all it has proper onion domes outside.

According to our map there should be a castle beside the cathedral. After much head scratching and wandering about, we decide it’s actually the very un castle like building currently being guarded by policemen. From the look of it we decide it is probably not open to the public and in fact it looks suspiciously like it might be Estonia’s parliament building. The only bit that looks anything like a castle is a tower on one side of it. Judging by its size, I’d say this was Tall Herman. That’s no my name for it, that’s what it’s known as locally. Tallinn has a rather nice habit of giving its towers names. There is another one rather less kindly called Fat Margaret!

The official Page and Moy walking tours have now arrived and suddenly we surrounded by a huge crowd. I’m so glad we didn’t bother booking the tour; it would have been a total waste of time. The city is so compact it is child’s play finding your way around it.

Tourism here is very well organised. There are people selling postcards and souvenirs on the street, but they all seem to be beautiful, blonde, blue eyed students. Just to make you really sick they are also extremely friendly, polite and speak English impeccably.

Trying to leave the crowds behind us, we walk on a little way to visit the Lutheran Cathedral. This building is a surprise as it’s not like any of the others we have visited. This may be down to its origins as a Catholic church. This one is covered is covered in decoration. There are carved wooden coats of arms all over the walls and still more piled up at the back. As with other Lutheran cathedrals we have seen, there are deep box pews. I wonder if this might be to stop drafts on cold winter days. The whole effect is very Bavarian. This isn’t surprising as Germany has had quite an influence on the Baltic states. At the back of the Cathedral we watch a pair of conservators painstakingly scrape paint from the surface of wooden beams.

We carry on wandering the streets, vaguely following the highlighted sights in our old guidebook, conveniently withdrawn from library stock. We are evidently in an affluent area with various embassies signposted. We stop at a beautiful viewpoint and gaze out across the pretty fairytale towers that punctuate the city walls. As we watch a local man plays some kind of string instrument. Then this tranquil idyll is invaded by the first of many coach parties. Not all are English, some seem to be French, including the family who ask me to take their picture. The adults are easily lined up but it takes a great deal of encouragement to persuade their little girl to pose with them. I’m not sure it’s the best photo in the world as the sun seems to be behind them, but they seem happy enough.

After a little more postcard buying we venture into a nearby tourist shop. It’s a rather nice one full of woollen goods and handicrafts, but I’m far more taken with the most extreme American tourist I’ve ever seen. Hand held video cameras are just so old fashioned. He has an extraordinary cantilevered contraption fastened about his already large frame. This presumably serves to hold his rather small camera steady. I’m just waiting for him to send a pile of china flying.

We head away from the pack and walk down the steep steps to the park below. There is even a trace of the old moat at the bottom. However from here we can wander back through the lower gates of the city walls. Sadly we can’t find a way into any of the towers, but we do explore the streets around them. We find a little antique shop and pop in, looking for a Soviet style badge for my friend’s brother. There are a certainly plenty to choose from. Rather more surprising is the enormous collection of Nazi memorabilia. My favourite items are the wrist watches with Adolph Hitler pictured on the face – personally I’d rather have Mickey Mouse on mine!

Tucked beneath the cool city walls we discover a tiny little Church with dolls house windows. It appears to be a closed order and looks much more like a cottage than a religious building.

Time is beginning to run out, but we take a few moments to visit the nearby Baptist Church. Apparently this is Yvonne’s church, so we simply have to. It is beautifully plain inside. But there’s no time to linger, I’m conscious that we should be heading back in the direction of the town square. However on the way we are brought to a brief halt by one of the buildings I had most hoped to see. After all, how many Brotherhoods of the Blackheads can there be! Of course the beautifully decorated door provides the answer to its extraordinary name. Not a reference to poor personal hygiene, but there is a very clear image of an African head. This is apparently the Patron Saint of the Order, St Mauritius.

The square has been totally transformed since we saw it first thing this morning. All the cafes are filled with hungry tourists and stalls of all kinds of souvenirs have appeared from nowhere. We pick our way past some of these, but others reign us in. My only purchase comes from ye olde medieval sweet almond seller. Naturally I eat them, but my friend is more restrained and gets some for her kids.