Tallinn vital statistics:
- Population (2018): 450,830 (city proper); 610,468 (metro)
- Latitude & longitude: 59˚ 26′ 14″ N, 24˚ 44′ 43″ E
- January average temperature: High -1˚C (30.2˚F), low -5.9˚C (21.4˚F)
- July average temperature: High 21.9˚C (71.4˚F), low 12.7˚C (54.9˚F)
- Time zone: GMT+3 (7 hours ahead of U.S. EDT)
- Language: Estonian
- Currency: Euro (€)
- Exchange rate: US$1=€0.86
- Average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the city center: $586.87
It’s a little hard to believe, but I’ve finally reached the end of the road (for this trip, anyway). My last destination: Tallinn, Estonia.
I planned my jaunt through Europe so that I’d hit the south first, in the cooler months of May and June, and then creep more or less steadily northward, so that by the hottest part of the year I’d be in the relative comfort of Poland and the Baltics. And here I find myself in August 2018 in pleasantly summery Tallinn, Estonia, the northernmost point on the globe I’ve ever been (on the ground, anyway), around the same latitude as Juneau, Alaska. I’m so far north that even in early August, five weeks after the Summer Solstice, the sun sets around 9:45pm. Those are some seriously long days.
Tallinn’s big drawcard is its medieval Old Town. When I arrived on Wednesday, 1 August following another uneventful bus trip, the foremost question in my mind was: Am I over Old Towns? After all, I’ve been exploring European “Old Town” or “Old City” areas for three solid months. Maybe I’d arrive here in Tallinn and say, “Meh. Been here, done this.”
But on 2 August, when I began exploring Tallinn in earnest, I discovered that nope, even after three months, I still love Old Towns. Up until now, Brașov, Romania, had been the most “medieval” city that I’d visited. But Tallinn blows Brașov out of the water in this regard. For one thing, it has not one, but two “Old Towns,” and much of the medieval town walls of both, including dozens of towers and gates, still survive.
In this post, I’ll focus on the upper “Old Town,” Toompea.
I wasn’t going to let a little thunderstorm stop me from exploring (2 August 2018).
This tower, humourously named “Kiek in de Kök” (“Peep into the kitchen,” since the occupants of the tower could look down into people’s houses below), withstood a siege by Russia’s Ivan the Terrible in 1570-71. Some of Ivan’s cannonballs are supposedly still embedded in it (2 August 2018).
The Knights of the Sword briefly took Tallinn from its founders, the Danes, in the 13th century and built a fortress on the hill of Toompea. The Danes later took it back and added that tower there, Pikk Hermann, in the 14th century. The building to the right of it doesn’t look like a fortress anymore. In the 18th century, after Russia’s Peter the Great succeeded in conquering Estonia where Ivan the Terrible had failed, Catherine the Great decided the fortress needed an extreme makeover, hence today’s pink paint job. And note the tour buses. A recurring theme of my blog posts will be how overrun with tourists Tallinn is. And yes, I know I’m part of the problem (2 August 2018).
Another view of Pikk Hermann (2 August 2018).
And Catherine the Great’s pastel-pink palace? It now houses Estonia’s parliament. This year, 2018, is the 100th anniversary of Estonian independence, at least if you overlook the 50 years of occupation in the middle of that period (2 August 2018).
And I’ve only just come across Orthodox cathedrals in the last couple of weeks, so I’m not sick of those onion domes yet. It’s hardly medieval though — it was completed in 1900. The Russians plopped it down right here in Tallinn’s administrative heart to speed up the Russification of Estonia. Unlike the Orthodox Russians, most Estonians are Protestants like their Scandinavian neighbors (2 August 2018).
I was here too (2 August 2018).
Close-up of those onion domes (2 August 2018).
And you’ve got your requisite narrow, cobblestoned, pedestrian medieval streets (2 August 2018).
The name “Toompea” comes from the German “dom,” meaning cathedral. And this is the cathedral in question. Or at least the latest incarnation. The original Catholic cathedral here was founded no later than 1233, although the current exterior dates from the 15th century and the tower from the 18th. And now it’s Lutheran (2 August 2018).
Last church of this post, I promise. St. Nicholas’ Church. I like the little baby tower crawling up the side (2 August 2018).
More narrow medieval streets. This one is so steep it has steps and a guardrail. I can see why, since I nearly slipped and fell walking on the wet cobblestones. That’d be a long way to fall (2 August 2018).
The Danish King’s Garden here looks quite pleasant, although one of the nearby towers is said to be the most haunted place in all of Tallinn (2 August 2018).
Being a hill, Toompea naturally offers some nice views over the medieval Lower Town as well as the modern city (2 August 2018).
Looking off to the northeast, you can see the Baltic Sea. And a couple of huge cruise ships. Hence the tourist hordes (2 August 2018).
I think this vista calls for another application of my smartphone’s “panorama” photo feature (2 August 2018).
Toompea’s medieval city wall is still looking pretty formidable in 2018 (2 August 2018).
Pass through the “Long Leg Gate” ahead there and you’re in the Lower Town, the subject of my next post. And no, that’s not the Spanish embassy there on the right, although there are quite a few embassies in Toompea. That flag flies outside a Spanish restaurant (2 August 2018).