Old Town Tallinn

We took a boat to Tallinn, Estonia this weekend. Estonia is just south of Helsinki, about 1.5 - 3 hours by boat depending upon how much you want to spend on the boat you take. Need I say our boat took 3 hours?

Old Town Tallinn is a medieval walled community with lots of towers, thick brick walls, medieval ambiance, wenches, jesters and souvenir shops! If you like old architecture (like me) Tallinn is your place to be.

We had beautiful weather--72 degrees and sunny and not a cloud in the sky. I took a lot of pictures.  However, some of these pictures were taken the weekend before our trip when I got to explore Tallinn with the American Womens' Club of Helsinki.  It was cloudy and chilly that day.

 Old Town Tallinn's towers, turrets, tunnels, tall walls and tumbled cobblestones tickle my fancy. 

Kiek en de Kok (A Peek in the Kitchen)  It is said that from this tower you could peek into many kitchens.

You could walk along some parts of the wall.  I never really thought I had a fear of heights, until I watched my children scamper along the wall with a wobbly, 600 year old wooden fence the only thing keeping them from a head injury and the cobblestones below.  (I'm sure the fence has been replaced at some point in time!)



This is the view from below. 

The stairs on the inside of the towers weren't any better.  Every stone or wooden step was a different height and many of them were half as tall as Lily herself.  I was sure she would roll down the stairs at any minute.  Lucky for us we had that sturdy rope to hang on to to help pull ourselves up the stairs!  It was quite a thigh workout running up and down towers all day!

This photo was taken while walking along the wall.  See?  It was perfectly safe--except for those windows behind them that they kept crawling into in order to look at the ground and the people below.

Honestly, every time I turned around, there was another beautiful tower.  . 

Gorgeous weather and a gorgeous place!