Estonia

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Monday, 20 August: This was our morning to say “Farewell to Helsinki” for 2012! After breakfast, we walked to the Viking ferry line terminal (not too far beyond Market Square). We caught the 11:30AM ferry to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. It was a quick and easy voyage and very exciting for us as this was our first visit to Estonia!

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	Our ferry to Tallinn
	Departing from Helsinki's Port
	One of the many islands in this large port area
	Old fortifications at the mouth of the harbor
	Look at the narrow entry into the harbor
	The beautiful skyline of Tallinn
	Arriving at Hotel Bern (our room was just above the doorway and overlooked the courtyard)

Upon our arrival in Tallinn at 2:00PM, we used directions provided to us and walked to the Hotel Bern in about 15 minutes. The hotel is situated immediately outside of the Old Town which makes it perfect for touring. Also, as a plus, a Rimi Supermarket is located across the street. So, after settling in for our five nights here, we stopped by the market to pick up a few items for a quiet evening picnic in our room.

Tuesday, 21 August: After enjoying a great breakfast buffet in the hotel’s dining room featuring wonderful breads, scrambled eggs, meat balls, cheeses, sliced ham, beef & pork, smoked salmon, pickled herring, fruits, cereals and sweets we arranged for a tour on Wednesday to Prangli Island (details to follow). Then, we began our exploration of the Old Town. From our hotel, we accessed Old Town via the Viru Gates, a set of towers that are part of the original fortifications of the Old Town. From there, we found a narrow passageway known as “St. Catherine’s Passageway” to enter the heart of Old Town. We next walked to the nearby Tourist Information Center (our tour leaves from it tomorrow so we wanted to ensure we knew where to go). We then continued on to St. Nicholas’ Church and Museum. After spending time photographing this site, we wandered along the narrow cobbled streets until we reached Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and the nearby House of Parliament. This area was quite busy as there was a professional biking race about to begin.

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	Viru Gates, one of the gates protecting Old Town
	A close-up of one of the Towers of the Gates
	The wall along Muurivahe Street
	An older woman walking through St. Catherine's Passage
	Ed just outside St. Catherine's Passage
	A view of the streets & buildings in Old Town
	Town Hall
	A copper roof top glistens in the sun
	St. Nicholas Church & Museum
	Alexander Nevsky Cathedral
	A closer view of the entry
	Another view of the multiple domes
	The Parliament Building

Our next stop was the Dome Church. Near it was an old city well and also a view spot from which to see part of the modern city of Tallinn. We continued exploring the tiny streets and eventually arrived at a section of the Old Town walls. Beyond the walls, is an area known as “Square of Towers.” Opposite the town walls was an Orthodox Church (no other name given). Afterwards, we went to St. Olav’s Church which was built in the 12^th century, and from 1549 to 1625, it was the tallest building in the world! After taking photographs inside the church, we climbed up a narrow circular stone staircase (some 258 steps up) with only a rope railing to hold on to so that we could see the view from the top deck just below the church steeple. It was worth the walk because the 360 degree views were spectacular! The walk down was a bit more difficult in that the steps are quite small in places and many others were coming up the stairs for their turn at a view. Obviously, we made it back safely to the main church area but our legs were definitely tired!

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	The Dome Church
	Lindy sitting on a town well
	Another tower on the town wall
	You can see how thick the Old Town walls are when looking through this archway
	One of the busy narrow streets
	A building built over one of the archways in the Old Town
	The city wall and a tower off Gumnassium Avenue
	A view of the Old Town with St. Olav's Church on the right
	St. Olav's Church The building is 60 meters tall and the tower makes the entire building 123.7 meters tall
	The interior of St. Olav's Church
	A view of the Old Town from St. Olav's Church
	A view of the port (and an outgoing ferry) from St. Olav's Church
	Looking down on the walls of Old Town

After leaving the church, we visited “Fat Margaret Tower.” Then, we began working our way back to the Hotel Bern. Basically, we had walked the entire perimeter of Old Town while also making several detours to various sites in the interior areas. As we walked back, we stopped and took photographs of St. Nicholas’ Orthodox Church (it wasn’t open) as well as St. Peter’s & St. Paul’s Catholic Cathedral (again, it wasn’t open). When we finally returned to Hotel Bern it was mid-afternoon and time to relax after a very full day exploring Old Town.

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Wednesday, 22 August: Today we left the city and went on a tour to Prangli Island. At 8:00AM outside the Tourist Office, we were met by Annika, the principal of Prangli Island Day Trips. The three of us took a prearranged taxi to the ferry terminal near Pirita Beach. Our fellow travelers, 10 residents of Estonia, joined us at the ferry. We left Tallinn at 9:00AM and were on Prangli Island at 10:00AM – a very quick and gentle ferry ride.

Once at Prangli, we all piled into the back of an ancient Russian truck and our explorations began. As we pulled out of the port area, we saw an old elevated Russian guard post which still remains intact – a remnant of Soviet occupation. Throughout our journey, Annika provided ongoing commentary (in both English and Estonian) to provide insights into how the locals lived in the past and how they live on the island now.

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Our first stop was at Prangli Saarte Museum, located close to the center of the island. We all went in and looked at the various items which were collected from the island. Interestingly, the island still has ~100 residents. When the island was first settled, the residents were basically subsistence fishermen and also seal hunters. Then, in its heyday, many more people lived on Prangli since it was a collective for fishing under the Russian model. However, now the remaining population fish only for themselves and most also have a small garden for root vegetables (i.e., potatoes, carrots).

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	The Prangli Saarte Museum
	An old sled sits in the yard
	A variety of traditional musical instruments
	Lamps, lamps and more lamps
	A typical table setting
	Fishing nets

Next we drove a bit further north and stopped at the Rahvamaja Community Centre. It is used for community events such as banquets, weddings, etc. Then, we were off to the Prangli Church. Behind it is an elevated cemetery with many iron crosses as well as some more modern headstones. Next we made a stop at a small tourist shop where most items were made from carved wood. Very interesting! We then worked our way to a Memorial dedicated to the ship, “Eesti Rand” which was sunk by Nazi planes near Prangli. In the woods near this area, we enjoyed some fresh wild blueberries and raspberries. Yum, yum!

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	Rahvamaja Community Centre
	Prangli Church
	The Church's interior
	The Prangli Cemetery
	Us sitting in handmade chairs outside the gift store (a bit too big to bring home)

Now, it was time for a break and a nice hot lunch. We went to a wooden cabin built near some rental cabins and a local woman had lunch prepared for us. It was a feast of fresh fish, rice and salad and it was followed by sweets and peppermint tea. After enjoying ourselves, we were given a couple of hours to wander about on our own. We choose to walk along the sea coast to take some scenic shots of the ocean and shoreline. Then, we walked north of the port to take pictures of some semi-wild goats that had climbed out onto the rocks.

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	Anika & Lindy outside our luncheon cabin
	The table was set and the food prepared by a local woman
	A colorful Red-Headed Woodpecker hiding in a tree
	A wild mushroom
	A view of Prangli's coastline
	Another coastal view
	Boats in the harbor
	Goats climbing the nearby rocks

Afterwards, it was time to walk back to the port and catch the return ferry back to mainland Estonia. After landing, we said goodbye to our Estonian companions. Then, Annika accompanied us back to our hotel (the same driver who took us to the port was waiting for us when the ferry returned to the mainland). We returned at 6:00PM after enjoying a very informative trip during which we learned a lot about the culture and people of Prangli Island.

Thursday, 23 August: This morning we woke up to rain and a gray sky. We were very grateful that we enjoyed such nice weather yesterday on Prangli Island! So, we had a leisurely breakfast and then we decided to stay close to Old Town but to do something very different. We visited the KGB Museum located in the Viru Hotel which was built in the late 60s and early 70s. The hotel elevators show only 22 floors but actually there are 23 floors. The top floor of the hotel was used for spying by the KGB – both on local residents as well as visitors staying in the hotel.

We walked upstairs and first enjoyed some great views from the balcony on the 23^rd floor. Then, we went into two rooms used by the KGB for their spying. The technology was absolutely ancient and it’s amazing that we were ever scared of these guys!! Our guide told us that the hotel had been designed and built by the Finns (since the Russians and Estonians did not have all of the technology to build such a high rise building) but was eventually finished by Russian workers. During the final finish work, numerous microphones and other spying equipment was added into the hotel floors, hallways, ceilings, etc. to assist the agents in watching both locals and foreign guests. The tour was kept on a light note and mostly included stories of spying gone bad; that is, stories about how the agents tried to control everything without a lot of success. The atrocities of the war were left to be explored at the Museum of The Occupation (which we didn’t have time to visit on this trip).

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	The KGB Museum Entry
	Ancient Electronics used for "eavesdropping" in the hotel
	An old telephone, gas mask and a recording machine
	Various spying devices....A cigarette case with ink, a spy camera that can take photo's through tiny holes in the wall
	Looks like our old typewriter but the keys are a bit different
	Listening devices (or "bugs")
	Sound amplifier for a listening device

After leaving the “hidden” floor of the Viru Hotel, we watched a brief movie in the hotel’s bar. It was put together when the hotel was originally constructed and it was meant to highlight what a great undertaking the hotel had been. After watching the film and hanging out a bit in the crowded hotel lobby, we were grateful to return to our wonderful Hotel Bern for the balance of the day.

Friday, 24 August: Happy Birthday, Ed! If anyone had told us 20 years ago that we would be celebrating Ed’s 73^rd birthday in Estonia, we would have laughed. Now, we’re both smiling because Tallinn is such a lovely city and the perfect spot for a birthday celebration.

After enjoying a leisurely breakfast, we took a tram (a bargain at 1 Euro/person) to The Park of Kadriorg. Here we walked throughout the park area and stopped to take numerous photographs. The highlights of the park are Kadriorg Palace and the Presidential Palace. Kadriorg Palace is now a Foreign Art Museum containing both Western and Russian art from the 16^th – 20^th centuries. The Presidential Palace was surprisingly accessible. That is, we were able to walk right up to the building and take photographs. Only two soldiers stood at attention at the front door. The Estonian flag was not flying over the building and we were told that the President and First Lady were at their country home. Perhaps that accounts for the lack of security and perhaps not…(we were told it’s not uncommon to run into the First Lady shopping at local grocery stores in Tallinn)….but it was refreshing to see the home of a President not surrounded by fencing and/or numerous guards and sentries.

We next went to the KUnstiMUuseum or KUMU, the Art Museum of Estonia, which was built in 2006. It was designed by a Finnish Architect and is very modernistic and quite the contrast to the other buildings in the area. We continued exploring the Kadriorg area and eventually walked quite a distance and ended up opposite the Main Bus Station. From there, we took a tram back to the Old Town area. Again, it was another very full day with lots of walking but it was worth it to be able to see so many contrasts within the city of Tallinn, especially since our time in this lovely city is over as we depart tomorrow for Latvia.

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	Kadriorg Park
	A beautiful flower garden in the Park
	Kadriorg Palace a/k/a The Foreign Art Museum
	Neptune Fountain
	The Presidential Palace (note the emblem over the entry & the lack of a flag)
	A beautiful rose garden in the Park
	The KUMU Building
	Another view of the KUMU Building
	Happy 73rd Birthday! A celebration with smoked salmon, excellent bread, a quality red wine... A great one!

	The ferry to/from Prangli
	A welcome map
	Our Russian vehicle
	The Soviet Guard Tower
	A view along the road

	The archway leading to Fat Margaret Tower
	Fat Margaret Tower
	St. Nicholas Church
	St. Peter & St. Paul's Cathedral