Since we had some time in the morning, we spent half an hour doing the Tower exercise track. In a wide stairway set aside for the purpose, there were exercise options at different difficulty levels. It was fun trying the different exercises on each floor - and also enjoying the changing view of the city at each level.
At 10, we were joined by a local guide and took the tram to the start of our tour of the city. We saw the city wall and some community gardens. Then we went inside the wall and saw St Olaf’s cathedral, the house of the Blackheads, and some of the Art Nouveau buildings of Tallinn.
We saw a lot of evidence of Anti- Russia sentiment, especially in front of the consulate (which stays in place because of the number of Russian citizens here, despite the fact that there are no real diplomatic relations with Russia anymore).
We saw the short-leg gate to the upper city (for people, as opposed to the long-leg gate for horses), as well as a number of squares, churches, medieval arches and alleyways. By the end of our city tour, we had a good sense of Old Town.
We spent a bit of time exploring some of the handicraft shops. There were many interesting locally made handcrafts to enjoy. Then we had a Medieval lunch at a very dark restaurant in the old City Hall. The staff were suppose to be rude like in a medieval public house. It was pretty funny. We had Elk soup and vegetable pies - no utensils in Medieval times evidently, so we drank the delicious soup directly from the bowl. (That’s the way Ruth likes it!)
We shopped some more, and then had hot tea and chocolate and marzipan in the oldest cafe in Estonia. Yum! One of the most difficult decisions of the day… which of the many marzipan options to try (we got an Estonian flag)!
Finally, we visited the Estonia History Museum in the Great Guild Hall. We learned a lot about the Hanseatic League, as well as the requirements and benefits of being a trader at that time. It was also a very medieval building, especially on the lower floor. It was really interesting.
We walked a few blocks back to our hotel to rest a bit. In the evening we returned to Old Town for a duck dinner, and tasted the Vale Tallinn traditional liquor - much more palatable than the two we tried in Riga.
Despite sprinkling on and off all day, we managed to have a lovely day. The huge rain storm last night evidently downed trees all over and knocked out power for 250,000 people in Latvia. We were really lucky to miss it!
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