Ferry Cross the Gulf of Finland

Looking down on the Old Town Tallinn, Estonia.
I mean that in terms of elevation and camera angle. I'm not being condescending.

Today I took a ferry to a whole different country. Estonia. Specifically, its capital city Tallinn. This is my 38th country I've now been to, and my first country visited that was part of the old "classic line up" of the Soviet Union.

It was a two-hour ferry ride from Helsinki to the Port of Tallinn, Estonia. From there, it was only a 10-minute walk through part of the modern city to the medieval core of Tallinn.

Soon the gates of the old medieval city beckoned the tourist throng.

The great travel guru Rick Steves has described Tallinn, Estonia, as a "medieval theme park," and he's 100 percent right about that.

He also stated that, even with the touristy atmosphere, it is worth a visit. It definitely was worth the day trip from Helsinki.

To the left in the photo below is the "Old Hansa," one of those medieval themed restaurants that serves cuisine from the medieval era. That means: no potatoes or tomatoes imported to Europe from the New World following Columbus's discovery of the Americas. Back in the European medieval period, the New World was "beyond here be dragons" territory. (Yes. I know. America was there before Columbus arrived. Yes. It is proper to say he "discovered" it. Anything you or I or anyone else has ever "discovered" was there all along before we found it. That's what the word "discover" means. End o' rant.) 

 

This is the huge Old Town Square of Old Tallinn, Old Tallinn being otherwise known as Vanalinn:

It was so big that walking around it necessitated having a snack. I chose a poppy seed bun.

My afternoon coffee break, "fika," came early today.

And nothing says tourist-friendly quite like a horse-drawn carriage, now does it?

Actually, the old, medieval city was not as filled with hansom cabs and horse-drawn carriages as I would have expected. Perhaps horses had not arrived in the Baltics at that point.

At this point in the walking tour we were climbing up from the Old Town Square to the "other" city that formed medieval Tallinn: Toompea. The lower part of the medieval city was known as "Reval," an old Hanseatic League trading port filled with merchants, money, and medieval disease. The upper town, Toompea, was the haunt of the noble elite.

And by "haunt," I don't necessarily means these figures.

These statues of friars with no faces, only empty hoods, are found along the trek up from Reval to Toompea in the old city. They are creepy.

"Creepy" as in the "Ghost of Christmas Future" from the old black & white version of Dickens's "A Christmas Carol," the one that would give you nightmares when you were a kid. Not that happy, pleasant Mr. Magoo version.

We are now in the Toompea part of our Old Medieval Tallinn guided walking tour. This is the most prominent, most ornate Russian Orthodox cathedral in town.

Aleksander Nevski katedraal.

No photography was permitted inside, otherwise I would have committed acts of photography inside. But when a church orders me not to commit photography, I do not commit photography.

This is the Estonian parliament building.

And this is a sea gull.

This is a nice viewpoint. You can even see the Gulf of Finland, part of the Baltic Sea, in the back of the picture. It's right undeneath the sky.

This is the house of one of old nobel families, one that still lives in Toompea, Tallinn.

And this St. Mary's Cathedral, or Toomkirk.

But Aleksander Nevski katedraal dominates the skyline in Toompea, Tallinn.

Did you ever photograph an interesting-looking old building and then forget why it was you were told that it was interesting?

Yes. I don't remember why the building above was sufficiently interesting as to be worth photographing. Oh well, it is interesting, even if it is not the least bit "medieval." And pixels are cheap, not like the old days of film photography, So click away with impunity.

And we are back on the Old Town Square. Back in the lower city. And at the end of my guided tour of medieval Tallinn. 

 

I do have a couple of hours to wander the city on my own before I need to catch the ferry back across the Gulf of Finland to Finland. So let's wander a little.

My first stop of two on my solitary wandering in medieval Tallinn was to the Saint Nicholas Church. It was severely damaged during World War II bombing by the Soviet Red Army and, Estonia being a particularly non-religious country, it was re-opened as the Niguliste Museum.

It is primarily known for having a "Danse Macabre" in its collection. A "danse macabre" is one of those medieval paintings, generally from the time of the Black Death, in which all sorts of people are dancing hand-in-hand with skeletons, the dead. Yes, that not only was a thing, it was a "thing" that for some reason I enjoy seeing. So let's pay our admission fee and go have a look inside.

The first floor is primarily medieval religious art:

There is a tower you can climb into with commanding views of Tallinn old and new:

You can walk up the 200-plus steps or you can take the elevator. I compromised. Elevator up. Stairs down.

While the old church sanctuary is not packed with religious art, what it does have is interesting.

Primarily it is the hinged, wooden altarpieces, which are closed during ordinary time and are opened to spectacular displays during special occasions.

I liked this painting that depicted both the crufixion and Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in one tableau.

And now for the star of the Niguliste Museum show:

The "danse macabre," or "Dance of Death." Let me take my place in the Dance.

What is interesting about this "danse macabre" is that it is the only surviving "danse macabre" that was painted on canvas. And it survives only as a fragment. Whenever you see these anywhere else in Europe, they were frescoes.

Next, I am going to attempt to walk the city walls of medieval Tallinn.

The problem is not much survives of the original walls. And what does exist exists in separated fragments.

So let's go find a fragment. By the way, in the picture above, those are cherry blossoms in bloom.

The fragment that I'm looking for is near the Aleksander Nevski katedraal, as you can see,

This is the fragment known as the "Kiek in de Kök," which sounds like it would really, really hurt.

The "Kiek in de Kök" bastion museum did not appear to be open, which is just as well.

Who really wants a "Kiek in de Kök" after all,

As they used to say in "Family Circus": Not me.

Time is running short.

Time to scurry back to the ferry cross the Baltic. Back to Helsinki.

Stockholm Syndrome: Last Day in the City of Sticks

Sinful Swedes enter the mouth of the beast for their eternal damnation. Best guess as to their sin? Public nudity.

Today is my last day in the City of Stockholm proper. My major observation? I did not schedule enough time here. But you live and you learn. I did not know before I came. But I do now. This is very nice to visit. Lots to see. Lots to do. I would have been worth more time than I what I allocated.

And the sun finally came out, even though it was cold and rainy. This is Vasagatan in the sun.

I have an afternoon ferry boat to catch to my next destinaion, so that means I have time for one more tourist attraction before I set sail like a Viking on a mission of plunder.

And I will travel to that destination via Metro.

The Stockholm Metro is renowned for its vibrantly decorated stations. This is the station "T-Centralen." 

Not bad for a Metro station. Apparently there are others that are even more vibrant. But that will wait for another trip because my trip planner failed to schedule me for a sufficient amount of time in Stockholm. Which, by the way, did you know that the name "Stockholm" means "City of Sticks"?

My destination for my last day in Stockholm was the Swedish History Museum.

I know, that doesn't sound like "saving the best fot last." But the best museum in town is the Vasa, and I did that yesterday. And I love history. And I love learning about the history of the countries I visit.

The first collection viewed was the prehistoric era of Sweden:

The petroglyphs reproduced on the museum floor looked like something one would see in the Nevada desert. Valley of Fire, perhaps?

Bronze tools:

What's interesting is how primitive the area of modern-day Sweden was a couple of thousand years B.C., compared to ancient Egypt. (And, yes, it is "B.C." and not "B.C.E," because that's the way I roll. Respect my acronyms!) When Egypt was building the great pyramids, Sweden could make a decent bronze act. That's not a negative comment on prehistoric Sweden. It's an observation about how advanced was Egypt at that time, relative to the rest of the planet.

They did n't identify either object as a "rune stone," but I will surmise these are rune stones.

They did have a display about the runic alphabet, which was in a children's section. I'm not the curator. The decision was not mine. But adults are interested in the runic alphabet, too, aren't we?

I think this was from the section of Swedish history about the arrival of Christianity:

Scandinavia was a relative late comer to Christianity. It was converted only in the 11th Century. And it did not stay in communion with Rome for long, as it was swept up in the Protestant Reformation only a few hundred years later.

This is a reliquay of St. Bridget of Sweden.

She lived in the 14th Century, which was the time of the Black Death. Sweden's population was just about cut in half during the plague years.

This is, maybe, the most anguished-looking crufixion scene I've seen.

What was most interesting about this museum was the religious art and, most specifically, the religious art from the medieval period.

The art from the time of the Renaissance and from the Bqroque era is nice, but the painted wood carvings from the medieval period are particularly striking.

I really liked this Last Supper:

I'm guessing this figure is Judas Iscariot.

There are 12 disciples presented, so Judas would be present. This one is one of the few sitting on the opposite side of the table from Christ. And this is the only one depicted with his head in his hands. It's got to be Judas. As for the other 11, I do not have a clue. I don't even know, for certain, which one is which in the Leonardo da Vinci version, which, we all can agree, is the definitive Last Supper. But this is the best rendering in wood I've yet seen.

This is Thomas Becket. There was a cult about him in Sweden during its period of Roman Catholicism.

Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest? King Henry II of England purportedly said of Thomas Becket, which prompted his murder. King Henrys and heads of the church in England named "Thomas" seems to make for a bad combination.

These are Saints Eric and Olaf:

Scandinavian martyrs. Depicted standing on the heads of their respective assassins.

And here is a pieta, in wood.

It's not Michelangelo. And this is not St. Peter's. But it's done well.

This one was a stunner:

As was this. We are getting progressively more lavish as the medieval period is about to transition into the Renaissance period.

The figures along the bottom are particularly nice. This is the Annunciation, where the Angel comes to Mary to tell her she will bear a child:

This is Mary's visit to her cousin, Elizabeth:

This is an unusually detailed circumcision of Christ:

And this is the presentment, which I thought was a more polite term for the circumcision but, at least according to this altarpiece, was a separate event.

Mary, with a crucifix from across the room artsily reflected on the artwork:

We then move into the Baroque period.

Again, as I said, nice, but no "wow" to it.

And while there was more museum I could've seen, it was time to go back to my hotel, collect my bags, and head for the ferry dock to be whisked away to my next destination.

This is the Klara Kyrka. seen in the rare Stockholm sun (rare at least on this visit).

And off I head to my ferry boat.

By way of the Slussen metro station, another of the artistically decorated metro stations of Stockholm, the City of Sticks.