Estonia; Monday, 24 July, 2006

Most of the morning was spent taking in the sights of Tallinn and the surrounding countryside from the top decks of three different hop-on-hop-off busses. Tallinn city tour run three routes; one around the city centre, one out South West to the zoo and folk park and one out North West to the TV Tower, Botanical gardens and St Bridget Covent ruins, and it was all free with the Tallinn card so I made sure I got my moneys worth.

After a brief pause for a very late lunch I walked through the old town to the city museum which tells the history of the development of Tallinn from its founding through until the present day. The top floor of the exhibition focuses on, naturally, the period 1939-1991 when the country was occupied by the Soviets, then the Nazis then the Soviets again!

Just up the street from the city museum are the remains of a Dominican monastery. From the outside all you can see is a pretty standard looking small church in good repair, but this forms just one side of an inner courtyard, the remainder being made up of the remains of the monastery. One museum lets you look around the courtyard and ground floor level, another, for an additional entrance fee, the first floor of one of the buildings.

Having looked around these, and the nearby St Nicholas Orthodox church which is a really plain church on the outside, but a little gregarious inside! I caught the tram back to the hotel for a short rest before heading back into town for dinner and a wander through the streets at sort of dusk. By 10pm the light has started to go from the sky, and though it does get dark it doesn't get truly dark, at this time of year there is always a little bit of light in the sky. I was hoping to get some photos of the city from the top of Toompea hill. Unfortunately, the glorious weather of the day appeared to be giving way, rapidly, to a sea mist that was pouring in off of the Baltic making the whole place just grey, and slightly damp, so I headed back to the hotel for the night.