Date: 02 – 03/08/2017
From/To: Helsinki – Tallinn
Distance: 5 Km
Total Distance: 14046 Km
Weather: Cloudy, Sunny
Road: Paved
In the morning the ferry arrived in Helsinki and I was happy to see that both bikes were still there without anything missing or damaged.
I had ‘Sibelius Monument’ earmarked to visit. When we had a closer look, it looked like somebody has welded old flues together and sprayed them silverJ. Actually, the pipes resemble organ pipes and the face is the face of Mr. Sibelius, a famous Finland composer.
From here we returned to the harbour, and after finding the right gate, the ferry was coming in with not much time to spare. The ferry was new, and the interior was impressive. Bummer that the crossing takes only 2.5 hours.
And this was our first view onto Tallinn. I felt a bit like we had our private rain cloud with us again this year.
We arrived at the prebooked flat. The host did welcome us, showed us the flat, gave us the keys and we settled in. The next day we decided to walk to the old town, it was less then 6km. On our way we came across a street fare, so we made a small detour. It was a bit early and not all stalls were open. There were some intersting art stalls where we had to buy something (small). Lucky enough
The first monument we came across was the ‘War of Independence Victory Column’ at the ‘Fredom square’. It is a pillar out of glas squares with a cross on top. It should remember all people fallen during the war of independence (1918-21 -Wiki is great). Not far from the Freedom square is an old Bastions Tower (Kik in de koek).
From here we entered the old town, it looked quite nice considering that a large part of the old town was destroyed during the second world war.
Some sovenier shops come up with unique exhibits.
Next we visited the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, it is the largest Cathedral in Estonia.
On our way back we passed a couple more town walls with intact guard towers.
And there are the monks, some sculputers in the Danish Kings Garden.
We discoverred a restaurant on the town wall, so we had a look. On the left you can see the first steps, after that it gets really steep, but there is a chain to hang on.
The view from the restaurant was great-the prices were as high as the view, so we gave it a miss.
This is a sculpture, representing the Danish flag falling from the sky during a battle, which encouraged the troops to win the battle.
This is a rain gutter of a church, I thought what a great idea.
And here it is, we found an Irish Pub with a happy hour J
Not far from the pub was a pedestrian path with a square plate for important historic dates. Looks like the guy putting the stones down must have been in the pub before, since he put the events for 2384 and 2418 down J
From here we walked to the other end of the old town. I like the narrow streets and the small yards.
Here we are at the entrance of the old town. The two watch toweres in the foreground.
When we walked home, we passed an art museum, with a piece of Berlin Wall and some suite cases. Sigrid tried to pinch one.
We found as well a sculpture with two boys, which sort of reminded us on the Angry boy from Oslo.
Next we will travel to Riga