Estonia; Saturday, 22 July, 2006

Sadly my early night didn't have much effect as by midnight I had gone down with some kind of bug as was making regular trips to the small room. I struggled down to a late breakfast and by 11:00 felt better enough to head out into town.

First stop, once again was the old town, pausing at the Kiek in de Kök which houses a museum telling some of the history of Tallinn. From there I wandered slightly further up the hill to the Russian Orthodox cathedral of Alexander Nevsky. Much like the cathedrals in Riga and Helsinki, it is spectacularly decorated with more gold and bling than a South London gangster.

I walked back down the hill to the town hall. The building is the only Gothic town hall in Northern Europe and has been extensively restored over the last 50 years. The cellar is open as a museum on the history of the original building of the town hall, the next floors up are those used for public functions, and finally the attic has a display on the renovation.

After a brief pause for a spot of lunch I climbed the steps to the top of the town hall tower, from where there are stunning views of the city centre.

I had a short wander around the old town before heading over to the Occupation museum which tells the history of Estonia during it's occupation, first by the Nazi's and then by the USSR up to 21st August 1991 when, with an attempted coup going on in Moscow, it gained its independence once again.

From there I walked along the base of Toompea hill to the opposite end of the old town to visit a small part of the city wall that you can still climb up the towers and get to. From there I followed the walls round to the Miini muuseum which houses a display of the mines which have been dredged up (or carefully brought up in some cases) off the coast of Estonia, many used to form a barrier between Finland, Estonia and Russia over the last 100 years or so.

After looking around the museum I decided to head back to the hotel, as I was starting to feel quite ill again. I kicked off my shoes and lay back on the bed to watch a little bit of TV to see if I would feel better after a short while. 4 hours late I woke up feeling better than I had done all day, so I headed back into town for a late dinner.