Tallinn: first 24 hours

Everything until has run smoothly, connecting flights, trains, transfers, accommodation etc... Our first hiccup was arriving at our apartment in Tallinn. It took nearly 2 hours after we arrived at the address before we got in the apartment,  very frustrating! The apartment is in a great location but could do with some improvements, but it does have its own sauna, we haven't  tried it yet!
 Our first evening was spent in and around the old town hall square. For dinner we had Elk soup (pretty good) and wild boar pie washed down with some dark ale, served by a buxom wench! Tallinn is certainly playing on the medieval  theme!

Anyhow, Tallinn (the capital of Estonia) is a port city on the Baltic Sea, with the main attraction being the Old Town,  which is within the old city walls, about 1 km by 500m.
Within the walls there are several churches  of different denomiations (Catholic, Lutheran, Russian Orthodox  amongst others ) and the Town Hall square. St. Olav's Cathedral was once the highest building in the world (15th century).
Today's  sight seeing started with the walk up to the fortress area of Toompea Hill, just outside the city walls.

We first went to  The Cathedral of Saint Mary the Virgin in Tallinn, (also known as the Dome Church). Originally established by Danes in the 13th century, it is the oldest church in Tallinn and mainland Estonia. It is also the only building in Toompea which survived a 17th-century fire. We climbed the tower to get some magnificent  view of Tallinn and the harbour.  We thought this climb was tough but as we found out later it was a minor climb.

Nearby was the Russian Orthodox  church,  The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, it is Tallinn's largest and grandest orthodox cupola cathedral. It is dedicated to Saint Alexander Nevsky who in 1242 won the Battle of the Ice on Lake Peipus, in the territorial waters of present-day Estonia. A typical Russian church, very ornate on both the inside and out.

Next we went to the Danish King's  garden. Then onto the Niguliste Muuseum, which is part of St. Nicholas Cathedral. We were lucky enough to listen to stringed quartet perform several songs in the main church.

After a bit of shopping and a break back at the apartment, we headed out exploring again

This time, we headed outside the Western side of the City Walls,  and saw somw floral displays and some temporary altetnative displays/statues.

When we reached the Northern end of the walls, we went back inside and went to St. Olav's  Cathedral.  It is nice enough inside but the real attraction is to climb the tower. The were over 250 steps on a spiral, narrow staircase. The view at the top is  the best view in Tallinn.

From St. Olav's we went for a walk to the harbour and had a drinks break at a lovely cafe.

After returning back to our apartment  for a freshening up, we had a pre-dinner drink(beer served with chocolate, WTF!) in the town hall square before having a lovely (middle eastern type) Armenian restaurant.

Back to our apartment and in bed (about 10:30 pm & still daylight outside) we feel like naughty kids who have been sent to bed early!
We have planned a  deviation to our original plan. Looking forward to the day. More details to come.
Cheers,
A & K.