Baltic States Tour - Tallinn, Estonia 1
We were seated in the upstairs dining room. The inside was pretty dark. There was no electricity in the middle ages, of course. When my eyes got used in the darkness, I was able to look at the interior better and read the menu with the candle lights. The cheerful staff in medieval costumes served us.
J had beer. I had "Rejuvenating carrot juice." It was pretty much carrot. Nice.
For starters, we shared Earl's forest mushroom soup, accompanied by herb bread with nuts and Castle's cream cheese, and Jerusalem's spinatch hummus with lentil crisp bread. The soup was lovely while the hummus was salty for my taste. I liked the herb bread. It was fluffy and tasty.
My main was Overnight cooked grand leg of Venice duck in saffron sauce, with beloved onion jam. It was simply very good. The side vegetables and grains were fine, too. J had a pork dish. I believe he also enjoyed it. The portions were generous. We were so full! We left there without discovering medieval desserts. What we needed was a nap...
It was around 3pm - very late for lunch and too early for dinner but the ground floor seating area was busy. The place was clearly popular.
Yet the outside was still bright. We began exploring the Old Town slowly.
The old town of Tallinn is "an exceptionally complete and well-preserved medieval northern European trading city on the coast of the Baltic Sea" according to UNESCO. It looked like a fairytale. The city developed between the 13th and 16th centuries as an important center of the Hanseatic League, also called Hansa, during the period of activity of the powerful trading organization, which shaped the economy, trade and politics in northern Europe.
The Town Hall and the Town Hall Square (Raekoja plats) were very close to the restaurant.
Then we decided to visit the Kiek in de Kök Fortification Museum.
After taking a couple of uphill streets and some staircases, we passed through the old city wall. Actually I learned later that the the staircase path was called Lühike Jalg (Short leg), known as the city's most haunted street, with reported sightings of a monk and a floating woman in a medieval dress. Yes, we saw two or three monk statues. They were clearly in my photo.
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral was over there.
The Kiek in de Kök Fortification Museum is a museum complex over 500 meter long, including four medieval defence towers: Kiek in de Kök, Maiden's Tower, Tallitorn Tower, and the Gate Tower of the Short Leg. Tallinn would have 46 defense towers and about 4 km of surrounding walls. Today 26 towers and about 2 km of walls still remain.
The Kiek in de Kök, the 15th century artillery tower, houses exhibitions about the history of the town and its fortifications, etc. The other towers also had some kind of exhibitions, such as showcases that introduce how the tower was once used for a cafe or an artist's workshop and home, but there wasn't any "wow."
My first sight of the Baltic Sea was from a window at the top floor of the Kiek in de Kök.
After the museum visit, we walked up to Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. The Russian Orthodox church was built in 1900 when Estonia was part of the Czarist Russian Empire. We briefly saw the shiny decorated interior (photo prohibited).
In front of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is Toompea Castle. The original wooden castle was built on the site around 10th or 11th century. Today's castle with a pink baroque facade is home of the Parliament of Estonia.
We wandered around the area and found the Kohtuotsa viewing platform on the northern side of Toompea hill. The view was nice but the terrace was somehow packed with a large group of tourists at that moment. Just a bad timing.
We walked down to the town center by taking a quiet cobbled path called Pikk Jalg (Long Leg). Unlike the Short Leg street nearby, this Long one doesn't seem to be associated to any ghost story.
We were looking for a cafe that I marked on Google map but somehow couldn't find it. We reached the Town Hall square again and stepped into a cafe called Kehrwieder there. The inside was like a stone cave. Some large and small rooms were connected through a narrow, uneven path. The low ceiling rooms were decorated with quirky furniture. There were several cake options, mainly chocolate cakes. At that moment I didn't know the cafe was actually a chocolaterie. We shared a kind of chocolate cake. I had green tea and J had cappuccino. The tea time wrapped up our first travel day smoothly.
To be continued...
