More from Tallinn, Estonia
Saturday,
June 15
We
set out to explore the area around the town wall nearest our apartment.
Usually, it’s Ardith that is driven up the wall by Jim, but Jim was the one
climbing the wall today.
The
stair risers were at least twice as high as normal – not a good place for a bad
ankle.
Jim
got to see what the “real Tallinn” looked like and decided he wanted to go
there later today.
We tried
the cathedral at the top of the hill and saw that there would be an organ
concert there later, so we planned on coming back when the crowds of tour
groups would be less and getting to hear music at the same time. We did enjoy seeing the Estonian parliament
building’s exterior, but it isn’t open on weekends.
One
section of the town walls is dedicated to artists displaying their works.
We
enjoy good street musicians and usually toss some money their way. There were many to choose from here.
Jim
hoped he could go up the tower in the town hall. It apparently isn’t open on weekends. We browsed around more of the streets and
Ardith went back to the apartment to help her ankle. (Sounds like helping your
uncle).
The
controls of the dishwasher and clothes washer were very interesting. We figured out the dishwasher right away and
managed to get the clothes washer to do our laundry nicely, but weren’t quite
sure why.
Jim
headed for the other side of the walls – and escape! Just inside the gate, he saw more
orange. This time it was on a pair of
feet. A husband and wife had new, very
bright sneakers. Jim loved them. Their owners liked having their picture
taken.
Just
outside the gate was more orange, this time from Hare Krishna’s chanting and
drumming. Jim hadn’t seen any in several
years, but remembers back in the 60s and 70s when they seemed to be in every
public space.

A
few blocks into the city, he saw a building with the word Frida on it. He snapped its picture since we had seen the
movie of that title a few weeks ago and heard the music from it at the guitar
concert.
Jim’s
walk took him past several interesting buildings and many as boring as
run-of-the –mill American ones.
He
passed a small Orthodox church and saw that there was a funeral going on
inside. He resisted the temptation to go
in – he actually shows restraint from time to time.
There
are various big chunks of concrete used in many places to tell folks where not
to park or which roads are forbidden to cars.
Jim thinks he would like to put something like this at the mouth of his
driveway where people are constantly knocking down the low set of blocks used
to separate our garden from the road.
When
we first entered the town in the taxi, Jim attempted to take a picture showing
gas prices. Despite the fact that humans
see lots of digits across, only one is actually lit at a time as seen by a fast
camera lens. Jim slowed his shutter down
and saw the all the digits at once, after a few tries. Gas is roughly $6.50 a gallon, about the same
as we saw in Helsinki.
Even
though he was taking a somewhat random walk, he had 2 destinations in mind. He
wanted to check the bus terminal to see what we would encounter tomorrow. There was a grand old bus out in front.
He
also decided that a men’s room would be most useful at this time. Much to his dismay, he saw that it was
necessary to pay – roughly 40 cents. He
fumbled through his pockets and found the right amount. He has been noticing
pay toilets in many of the places where we have been. In St. Petersburg, there was one that cost
roughly a dollar. Later in this walk he
saw ones for a quarter and 13 cents.
His
next destination was the big park in town.
He had to walk along a major roadway to get there. He saw that the only safe way was to cross on
an overpass. The bridge had an
interesting graffito.
When
he got to it, he could either walk a longish way to get to its surface or climb
up. He thought that there was a nice
rough surface, but on closer inspection, it was a cloth used to control
erosion. Up the steep concrete path!
When
he got to the park, he encountered locked, rusted gates and hoped that didn't mean the park was closed. He decided they blocked off areas used for sporting
events and continued along the edge of the park.
While
he was there, he heard a chorus of beautiful bird songs and paused to record them.
He
finally got to the formal gardens in the park.
As he guessed, there were wedding pictures happening there.
His
watch told him it was time to head back to the Old Town if he was going to get
to the organ concert on time. Just
outside the park, he saw a house with For Sale on a big sign in English. Early in our marriage, we would see
interesting fixer-uppers and think about doing so. This would have been a great challenge.
Just
a few doors away, he saw the biggest single family house he has seen on this
trip, so the neighborhood is good, despite a building being torn down next
door.
He
noticed water ahead of him on the sidewalk.
It hadn’t rained the whole time we were here, so he paid attention to
what was happening. The water was coming
from two guys who were washing windows on a tall building using long
poles. It must take a lot of muscle to
control them.
He
got back in time for us to go to Saint Nicholas church for the organ
concert. There is a huge candelabra inside
that welcomes your entry to the building.
We
initially thought the bluish structure inside was some sort of confessional,
but it actually was a baptistery.
The
church had a series of photos on the wall showing destruction and
reconstruction.
There
were many shields on the wall. The
English translations call these epitaphs, but we commonly use that term for a
set of words. These were commemorative
objects for deceased merchants and noblemen.
There
was a treasury room filled with silver and some gold, much of it communion
ware.
The
most famous piece of art there is called Danse Macabre (Dance of Death), done
in the 15th century. What
remains is about 30 feet wide. It was
originally about 100 ft. but the ravages of wars and fires took away much of
it. It was a great challenge to
photograph and Photoshop because it was covered with a non-glare plexiglass. The explanation said that this was quite a
topic at the time because of the prevalence of the Black Plague.
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Tombstone in church |
At
last to the music. The sound was quite
wonderful, the playing excellent. We
didn’t get a program, so we weren’t sure what we were listening to. It was modern, but not crazy. We were glad we had the experience.
After
we went back to our apartment and rested a bit, it was time for dinner. We opted to go nearby. Nearby meant the place we could see looking
out our window – probably 50 feet from our door to theirs. We had enjoyed the aromas from Grillhaus Daube.
The taste matched the smell.
In
our restaurants here and in Helsinki, servers didn’t bring silverware to the
table. There was a container filled with
forks and knives already there.
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