Tallinn is the capital of Estonia which used to be part of the Soviet Union. They gained their independence from the USSR in 1991 and from what I can see they seem to be doing rather well on their own. Food for thought for Scots I think!
I’ve always been interested in architecture so buildings feature in most of my photos whenever I go to somewhere new. The onion domes seen through the trees say it all really – so exotic looking compared with the rather boring spires of churches in the UK.
But the crow stepped gables and red pantiles of the church below are rather reminiscent of old buildings in the east of Scotland. The pantiles in Fife came over as ballast in ships from Holland, I wonder if these ones in Tallinn came from Holland too.
Looking up at the architecture I began to feel like it reminded me of the old film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Below is a photo of the ministry of culture building. As you can see it has the beloved European flag flying from it. While we were in the Baltic all of the cities had campaign posters up for the then upcoming European elections. I didn’t see any at all in the UK.
Sadly it began to rain quite heavily towards the end of our day in Tallinn, as you can see from the green roof on this building below, I love the fancy weather vane though.
But cafe culture doesn’t stop because of a wee bit of rain.
Doors into buildings were often very ornate too as you can see below.
Tallinn is a medieval city and still has a lot of its ancient walls intact, you can walk around on top of them in parts.
The old part of the city is very busy with tourists, especially if there’s more than one cruise ship in town but it’s a lovely place to visit – as you can see.
I did get an email about this post, Katrina. Lovely pictures, a beautiful place to visit.
tracybham,
Good, thanks for letting me know.
Beautiful old city!
Joan,
It was a nice surprise to me.
It looks lovely. Despite the rain!
Sandra,
We were lucky as that was the only rain we had while we were away – until we got back to Newcastle!
What a splendid tour of this city in Estonia! The Baltic States interest me quite a bit because Ken is half-Lithuanian. His mother was the daughter of Lithuanian immigrants to Lawrence, Massachusetts, where they worked from Day One in the woolen mills.
I always threaten to take Ken to Vilna or Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, where his grandparents were from. He doesn’t protest, but I think–what a journey that would be. They emigrated to the US in 1911 when Vilna was part of the Russian Empire.
I’ve been looking forward to all the descriptions of your trip! I’m so glad that you really enjoyed your stay in St. Petersburg, because that would have been my highlight of the trip, for sure.
Judith,
That’s a surprise, I felt sure that with a name like Ken he would have had Scottish ancestors, but maybe they’re hiding in there somewhere. There are quite a few people of Lithuanian descent in the east of Scotland but they came around WW2.