Cruise Day 4 Tallinn

We made a sharp start getting promptly off the ship and on to a shuttle bus from the dock area. We needed to first find a shopping centre as Lee's glasses had a broken nose piece. Luckily there were several suitable places and the repair took only ten minutes and cost only 4 euros. From there we caught a tram out to Kadriorg - a former Russian palace. Despite long since being a non-imperial building it still has its sense of grandeur, especially the central hall with its interior plasterworks. A curious feature was multiple rooms having original tile heaters. Freestanding but going from floor to ceiling, these look much like indoor kilns, covered by white and blue tiles. From there it was a short walk through the palace gardens to KUMU, the Art Museum of Estonia. This very modern building had five large floors of Estonian art from throughout its history as well as contemporary (ie like everywhere else in the world, items require generosity to be called "art"). In many ways it was fascinating to see how Estonians had joined in global art trends of various periods, apparently despite the regimes they had been under. A tram back and we walked to start exploring the historic lower town. And while all the sightseeing guides say it, it is still quite a jolt to see such a medieval town, looking so much like a fairy tale at each glance. Yet, somewhat not as touristy as you might expect and while it might not be entirely true I did find myself presuming that many buildings had been in continuous usage. The adage has it that you can't get lost in old Tallinn but I think that's a polite way of saying that it's easy to find you'd walked the long way around to get from A to B. We went into a fair few historic buildings, including the town hall, which really was like a small town/village meeting place for the merchants. I was quite struck by an old Lutheran church as it had the kind of side balcony seating for the sort of choir for which Bach would have composed cantatas. We also walked a stretch of the original town wall, which had slot gaps for archers to hide behind yet be able to shoot in a wide angle range. While there were plenty of standard tourist trinkets for sale, it was apparent that a popular choice was to sit in the cafes & restaurants with tall glasses of the local ale. A second architectural example of past Russian dominance was the Russian orthodox church in the upper town. Glittering on the outside this was dark inside and so much was cordoned off that tourists were treading on each other's toes as soon as they were inside. This despite the fact that there was plenty of room. I suspect that the matrons who were slowly cleaning it would rather the tourists went elsewhere. The charges for entering the various places were all quite reasonable, and of course it was abundantly clear that maintaining such old structures requires resources. There was plenty more that we could have seen and read in Tallinn - any history buff would delight in the wealth of detail and the chance to look around and imagine life in a previous era.