04Jul — Tallinn

Today, Rob took an early morning run about Tallinn’s Old Town. It provided a rare opportunity to have photos taken of street scenes sans people.

After breakfast, everyone gathered for today’s bus ride to Tallinn’s Lauluväljak Song Festival Grounds for a guided walking tour. On this site, mass singing demonstrations that took place in 1988 are credited with beginning the restoration of Estonian independence. Now, as then, the Estonian Song Festival (think of the end of The Sound of Music) is held here every five years.

We made a brief stop in the former Olympic area along the Baltic coast.

Then we all returned to Tallinn for an afternoon on our own. Rob and I walked back to the Old Town and headed for Toompea Hill, the “upper town”, of Tallinn.

After meandering through the medieval streets and sites of Toompea Hill, we descending to the lower town and took it outside…meaning outside the city’s walls…where the grounds were a landscaped park all along the old city wall. After our communion with nature, our empty bellies directed us to re-enter Tallinn and head for a restaurant that had been recommended to us by Rob’s Mom for their pig’s knuckles.

But, not only did they have big ‘n’ tasty pig’s knuckles on the luncheon menu, the entire restaurant was a pig-themed paradise. And the booths, perched on stepped wooden platforms rising with the cobblestone street as it advanced upward to Toompea Hill, afforded us prime viewing of all the street theatre that was playing out in tourist-engorged Tallinn.

With the afternoon free of any group activities, Rob and I decided to rent bicycles and ride out east (I think!) along Tallinn’s waterfront riding trail. The path was level and easy to navigate and we passed a lot of interesting monuments and installations along the way. Here are some of their stories:

• The angel atop the rocky pinnacle marked the ninth anniversary of the sinking of the Russian warship “Mermaid” (Rusalka) in 1893. The sculptor was an Estonian, a first, and the model was his house cleaner.
• The 1996 monument to Estonian wrestler Georg Lurich marks the 100th anniversary of the modern Olympics. The giant granite slab references the wrestling mat; and the small statue casting the long, black metal silhouette was so popular that it was stolen ten times before the monument was moved here for protection.
• The Maarjamäe Memorial was dedicated in 1975 to those who had fallen defending the Soviet Union…and had been attacking Estonia. In spite of its original purpose, this Soviet leftover has survived decommunization. But its future is still debated.
• The Resting Man (1995) is by Estonian sculptor, Tauno Kangro, whose monumental works have been exhibited worldwide. The lazy dude sunbathing here is made of granite.
• The abstract Charles Leroux Memorial is dedicated to the untimely death of an American balloonist and parachutist. In 1889, on his 239th parachute jump from a balloon, high winds carried him over Tallinn bay where he drowned. The steel tubing is meant to recall the canopy and twisted strings of a parachute.

After dinner, we invited Aida to join us for cocktails and conversation watching the sun set from the crumbling concrete steps of a massive Soviet-era structure on Tallinn’s waterfront, the Linnahall.

 The Linnahall (literal translation: city hall, as in “a hall for the city” and not a governmental building) is a symmetrical, monumental concrete structure that dominates the harbor of Tallinn. The multi-purpose sports and events venue was the former Vladimir I. Lenin Palace of Sports and Culture, initially built to stage the sailing championships at the 1980 Summer Olympics. In its heyday, the Linnahall hosted performances by both Soviet and foreign music stars, before its gradual decay forced closure of its venues. Although closed to the public, the building can still be visited from the outside with tremendous views of the sunset.