Fairy Tale City

There is no quiz today as we assumee that lots of people in the U.S. are not familiar with the country of Estonia. It’s a small country with a population of a million people located south of Finland and west of St. Petersburg, Russia.  We visited their lovely city of Tallinn (pronounced like ‘talon’ of an eagle).  About half of the city has not changed for many centuries and has a fairy tale look about it.  And, of course, that’s where we had our interpretive walk about.  

One of the first things we visited was a Russian Orthodox church - Saint Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.  The ‘onion shaped’ domes are always an attraction, and combined with the exterior’s colors, it is eye catching.  Since most of us tourists knew next to nothing about Estonia, our guide explained that only 30% of her countries people go to church.  She explained that over the centuries, religion was used as a reason for politics or worse yet, war.  And Estonia came in second in most wars.  

Most of the walk was about viewing historic towers, streets, and buildings.  They all were pretty easy for the eye.

Notice the brick from 7 centuries ago still standing.

I believe those horizontal arches are meant to keep walls and buildings in place.

There are lots of towers, some that look like ice cream cones, some with steeples, and some like this.

Occasionally you find a small house that stands alone.

We eventually walked to the town square, always a prominent place in small cities in Europe.

Typically, the city hall is found here, and Tallinn is no exception.

Our guide pointed out that back a couple of hundred years ago, those committing petty crimes were shackled in the town square and then shamed.  One of the shackles still remains as proof that this was their way to deter crime.  

They did a lot of things differently in past centuries.  

When a Dominican Friary burned in the 1800’s, they decided they would display the tomb lids of several of those buried within on the remaining walls of monastery.  Some people are especially interested in honoring the dead years after they are gone.  I was more impressed with the size and weight of the slabs.

Nearby, my sweetheart had a moment to pose with another form of rock celebration - singing.  They have major singing competitions in Tallinn that draw thousands and thousands of singers.

It was interesting to hear that the houses had the coat of arms of the husband and also the wife and that is how the postman knew where to deliver the mail.  Almost as important was the way they posted the main route for horses versus people walking.  The long boot signifies the route for the horse travelers.

For anyone interested in Viking versus other ocean cruises, I’m adding the following to show our ship that houses 930 passengers and a more typical cruise ship that houses 3700 passengers.  We are on the little ship that could.  This is for my grandson, Andrew.

One last thing, we asked our wonderful guide what it was like living under the control of the U.S.S.R.  She said do you know what the difference is between American TV and Russian TV?  You watch American TV, and Russian TV, the TV watches you.  I think that is in the past?  Right?