20. Fat bottomed girls they make the rockin' world
Trip Start
Jun 17, ????
1
24
36
Trip End
Ongoing
Tallinn,
Estonia
Thursday, August 18, 2005
We stayed just outside the city walls of the old town and our first stop was the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. A stunning building and, to the annoynance of the locals, often used as an image of the city. They are annoyed because the Cathedral is Russian and they have not yet forgiven their erstwhile occupiers, as the recent statue-related shenanigans demonstrated http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6599937.stm
Obviously, we are no position to point the anti-imperialist finger, but you can see where the Estonians are coming from.
Anyway, we decided to pitch in somewhere more authentically Eesti, and so we visited the beer house - nothing like the local brew to get you in the local spirit
Outside the City Walls
. To be honest the staff did look somewhat Teutonic clad in leather shorts / wench blouses, but who are we to criticise venue that serves frozen Margarita (funny how we seem to sniff that out, eh?).The old town is beautifully preserved, with cobbled streets and pastel-painted buildings. There are also sections of mediaeval wall between Nunne Tower and Sauna Tower that you can walk along. We're always up for getting interactive with the ancient (and not in a "spud-faced nipper" way either). After walking along the walls we clambered right up Oliveste Kirkiku - at one time the tallest building in Europe... apparently! It's a lovely building though and the views across the city and out to see are fantastic. The scaffolding made it seem a little more precarious than ideal for the vertigo sufferers amongst the group - but it was well worth it, as I repeatedly told them. At the bottom of the church there was a tomb, which the guide book claimed housed the church's architect.
The next Tallinn delight was Fat Margaret http://www.meremuuseum.ee/?op=body&id=65 a former cannon tower which houses the Estonian Maritime Museum. The exhibits are great fun and the building itself is fabulous. And you can get up onto the roof, which is how I like to enjoy historic buildings.
The next day we visited Kadriourg, which involved a tram ride and the usual "where do we get off?" dilemma
Alexander Nevsky
. We actually overshot Kadriourg and had gone two stops back towards the city before we jumped off, but luckily it was fine weather. The palace built by Peter the Great for his wife, Catherine. It is stunning and had such carefully manicured gardens. Annoyingly - and contrary to my pesky guidebook - it was closed and we couldn't visit the museum inside. So we walked down to the beach and paddled in the Gulf of Finland back towards the harbour.Once we got to back to the city centre I was annoyed to find the Photographic museum - housed in a prison cell no less - also closed. Sitting outside the museum looking miffed, I was approached by a passer by who explained: It was Independence Day: everything was shut. Feeling a bit of a numpty I double checked my guide book, but it did distinctly say that Independance day was in February. A closer look at "significant dates" revealed another bout of independence starting on 20th August - I shoud have known really: what have I said about cities throwing a party for us? Well, all that was open was the bars and as Lister once said, "when in Rome, do what the snamoR do".
Happily, we had enough time the next morning to take in the missed museums (the prison one was great) as well as the fabulously named "Keik in de Kok", which means "Peek in the kitchen". Of course.
An excellent place to visit - go now before the stag parties ruin it....
