the good weather ran out. we woke up to rain, wind and low 60s. a tour of old town was scheduled for the morning and then we had the rest of the afternoon to do whatever.

we met the group and tour guide in the lobby of the hotel. the tour guide was a nice old lady who spoke very good english. we meandered through the cobblestone streets and went in various places to have a look around. prior to the trip, i had read the information about the various places in the guide book, but i hadn’t taken the time to locate them in the town. now that the guide was pointing out the places, i realized i had walked right by them the day before.

the guide pointed out fat margaret, st olaf’s church, the three sisters,

(the above pictures is in the same order as the list) the various merchant guilds like the brotherhood of blackheads (named after their patron saint, an african warrior), st nicolas’s church, alexander nevksky cathedral, lutheran dome church, the virgin tower (the square tower in the pic), long leg gate tower, short leg, and my favorite, a keik-in-de-kok, a round tower with the german name meaning a peep in the kitchen instead of what i thought it stood for. it is called peep in the kitchen cause it was so tall that from the tower windows you could see into everyone’s kitchen.

it was sunday and church was letting out as we approached the entrance to the alexander nevsky cathedral, which is russian orthodox, and in front of the main entrance was a line of beggars capitalizing on the church goers guilt and pity. as people left, they turned around to face the cathedral, sign of the cross on their body and then bow.

the inside of the church was very ornate, dark wood, and gold, however, no pews or chairs for the congregation. the church goers had to stand for the service. like the uspenski cathedral in helsinki, everyone was quietly milling around. some of the church goers were bowing and crossing their bodies in front of paintings lining the columns and walls. photography wasn’t allowed so i couldn’t take any pictures.

up on toompea, we passed the lutheran dome church, parliament buildings, and went to a great lookout of the city. even though it was overcast, the old town still looked amazing.

we walked down short leg to the lower old town and passed by st. nicolas church and then into the town square where she concluded the tour.

john and i left the group and went to a street we had discovered last night. the street’s entrance was through a tunnel and opened up into a cool alley way with several shops and restaurants. we had a tasty italian lunch and then headed over to the museum of occupation. it was a museum day with the rainy, cold weather.

the museum of occupation was a museum about the years during WWII where estonia was occupied by russia and the nazis. estonia’s location next to the baltic sea is a desirable location, and they have been invaded by the swedes, the germans and russians to name a few. the museum contained artifacts from that era such as different chairs (dentist/barber), the uniforms the military wore, different chairs (dentist/barber), a row boat used by estonians trying to escape,

(another pics follow list) sea mine, luggage, prison doors, statues of stalin and others in the basement, telephone booths, old cars, and old radios.

we watched a video about the first red year from 1939 – 1940. russia was such a huge superpower that estonia couldn’t justify fighting so they accepted the fate of being occupied by the red. in the video, a lady talked about crying with her country as the prime minister said they would have to suffer and be controlled by the russians. everyone was told lies, mass deportation of baltic nationals, and those that did not conform were killed. the nazi gained control of the area from 1941 to 1944, and then the russians regained control from 1944 to 1991 when estonia gained their independence. these terrible experiences have shaped the states and the minds of the people. for example, you don’t want to open a conversation in russian. the people are extremely proud of their country for having survived the russian occupation. estonia joined the UN in 1991 and the EU in 2004.

we left the museum and headed up into toompea again to explore the various winding, narrow streets. we discovered a couple other lookout points, but only one was toward the old town and it was a great view. i had downloaded the same scene before the trip to be used as my desktop wallpaper. it was pretty cool to be there after looking at the picture on my computer numerous times wondering what it would be like in person.

we found our way back to the town hall and had a coffee at a small, quaint coffee shop inside the town hall. afterwards, john went to the sauna, which gave me the chance to check out to the museum of torture. the museum was a small room with all kinds of devices used to inflict pain and

death on mostly witches, homosexuals, and sinners. the museum had the device along with an illustration of how it was used and information on the origins and timeframe. while i’m sure the torture has become even more sophisticated today, the crude, raw piercing of the flesh and ripping it apart is just gruesome to think about. one such device is called the spanish tickler. looks like a rake and it is used to tear flesh from the bone. there was the stretcher that had roller spikes that would stretch a person causing the muscles to be torn apart, a chair with spikes (they were wooden, splinters takes on a new meaning with this chair), a chastity belt, a pyramid shaped object used to inflict pain and destroy female gentials, whips, axes, saws, and various other hanging devices.

afterwards, i headed back to the hotel where the connection was much better than other places. i uploaded photos and finished writing about the day before.

two hours flew by and i met up with john in the town square. we grabbed dinner at the “bar with no name”, which was an english pub. i had the english breakfast and a carlsberg. still no traditional estonian dinner.

after dinner, we walked around old town. besides the usual assortment of restorans (restaurant), cafes, and bars, old town had a lot of amber (amber is a big deal in the baltics), souvenir, and antique stores. all the stores had some cool things to buy, but we would be back and i didn’t want to carry the stuff all over the trip.

we stopped in several bars to just take a look around and ended up at the oldest pub in tallinn where we watched the closing ceremonies of the olympics and drank the local brew called saku. the pub was underground but it didn’t have anything that would suggest it being the oldest pub in tallinn. the olympic ceremony was so impressive with the fireworks, the amount of people participating, and the tower with the dancers in two colored outfits giving the structure color and form. it was really impressive. london definitely has their work cut out for them.

when we left, it was dark out and the rain had stopped. it was quite pleasant outside. i was waiting for the night so we could go to the lookouts and take some photos of the old town at night. the pictures are fantastic with the cloud cover reflecting the light from the church spire.

walking around old town at night is a lot of fun. the yellow lights add to the medieval experience. while walking back, we found a bar called depeche mode. it was decked out in all depeche mode posters and played depeche mode. we took a picture of the sign for rodney cause he loves depeche mode.

we headed back to the hotel and went to sleep.