We have just come back from a nice long weekend in Tallinn. For those who don’t know, Tallinn is the capital of Estonia and sits on the coast of the Baltic Sea bordering Latvia and Russia. Our hotel was just outside the Old Town, about ten minutes walk. From our room on the 23rd floor we were afforded excellent views of the bay. It was a shame that the view of the Old Town was disrupted by a large mirrored office block :-(.
After checking in to our hotel on Friday night we opened up some beers from the mini bar and had an early night while watching a little TV. I had just flown back from Ottawa that morning so my body clock was all over the place. For the record Tallinn is 2 hours ahead of the UK so I was coping with 7 hours of jet lag!
The next day we had a look around the Old Town which was full of wonderfully preserved gothic buildings. The Old Town was partially enclosed by the remains of the old fortified wall and topped by Toompea castle. We had our lunch/brunch in the town square and then sauntered up the hill to check out the views from the castle. I took a few photos but the sky was a disappointingly overcast which resulted in ‘blow out’ skies in the majority of my landscape photos.
Out next port of call was the Museum of Occupation which had a small but fascinating display of emphemera collected during the German and Soviet occupations. We paid a little extra for the audio tour which made sense of the many little nick-nacks which were presented behind their glass cases. Down in the basement there were several statues and heads of Lenin and other communist primaries. The decision to place these artifacts next to the toilets was quite deliberate I imagine. We spent the rest of hte day wandering around the various nooks and crannies of Tallinn and retired in the evening tired but happy. We decided to have our dinner in the hotel because we couldn’t be bothered to go out again. We both had delicious steaks. Amy washed hers down with Strawberry Daiquiris while I had a few glasses of Saku Kuld, the local beer.
On Sunday we went for a long walk along Piritu beach. Our original plan was to walk to the TV tower. On the way we came across the desolate World War II memorial to fallen Russian soliders. It was a typically brutal Soviet piece of architecture and rather depressing. A little farther along we came across three large crosses and the names of the many German soliders who fell during 1940-41. We found out later that this Soviet memorial was built on the graves of German soldiers. So this was obvisouly an attempt to once again recognise the dead German soldiers who fell during the second Soviet occupation. After all the walking we were dog tired and with the TV tower still at least an hours walk away we decided to head back.
At the hotel we rested and then booked into the Hotel Spa for a romantic couples full-body massage. We were led into a room and were left to get undressed. We were provided with little pairs of pants which, quite frankly, looked ridiculous. The massage was lovely(once I had sufficiently relaxed) and lasted an hour. To start with I was covered by a thin sheet. The masseuse uncovered one side from the shoulder to my toes and then poured hot oil on the skin. The massage then began. When she had finished one side she put some hot towels on my oiled skin and then covered me up with the sheet again which she prepared some more oil. The next stage was to uncover and massage the other side of my body. When my back, legs and shoulders had been pummeled sufficiently, I was asked to turn onto my back(no I didn’t embarrass myself) and then had a towel placed on my face. So it carried on in this fashion and finished with an amazing face and head massage. Very nice and very relaxing although my back was aching a little afterwards.