Runinn around Tallinn

 Sun is out and blue skies when I arrived in Tallinn. Get a Bolt taxi to the hotel which is well located near the Viru Gates. First day just try and orient myself in town. Head up to the top of the hill with the Parliament building which looks rather plain next to the beautiful Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. However the parliament incorporates thei historic Toompea castle, although can only be viewed for the outside, as a working building (you can tell be the amount of swish black BMW/Lexus parked around!)

The Bishop's Garden is one of many viewpoints overlooking the walled old town.

Later that night I went to a touristy restraurant where the servers are all decked out in medival costumes. I opted moose cutlets with honey beer. Moose tasted like strong beef with just a dash of gristle. Occasionally they have mock sword betweens each other, but not on the night I was there unfortunately!

 I opted to get a TallinnCard which is an App that for a flat fee gives you access to all the museums and sights in Tallinn. You just show a QR code at the entrance and they scan it instead of paying. Allows you to pop into places where you might be swithering about paying the entrance fee, and there are loads of sights, almost 100 places included. Too much for a few days, so just tried for the highlights

It's the 1st May, a national holiday, Spring Day rather than May Day. Headed to the leaft suburbs of Tallinn to visit the Kadriorg Park Quarter. The grand building here is the Kadriorg Art Museum formerly a summer residents for Russian rulers, nowadays it houses Western & Russian art. The temporary exhibit was around Spanish artists and had many paintings from a place I had visited before the Carmen Thyssen Museum in Malaga.

A small building elsewhere in the park was the Mikkel collection, a private collector who had assembled a mix of paintings from all over, including ceramics from Asia. This was the kind of museum where the TallinnCard is useful, as can pop in and have a quick nosy round as entrance ticket in included.

Back to the big museums, KUMU houses a history of Estonain art in a flash new building. Over about 5 floors, this spacious structure charts arts from the past up to present day, although they were changing the temporary exhibit when I was there. Need a rest, I poped in to the museum cafe for a spot of Duck Borsch, with side of rye bread, minced garlic and sour cream. Unsurpsingly a heavy Russian influence in the cuisine here, that night I tried Plemeni pork & beef (dumplings) with horseradish sauce and mushroom broth.

Next day I jumped on the bus (can use TallinnCard for public transport also) to get out to the Estonian Open Air museum. This seemed to have lifted and shifted farmhouses of various styles into a rural museum. Not quite sure I got the full value out of this, as the people in the houses didn't speak much English, think they told stories to the locals about 'the old days'. Still, it was nice to get out ofr a country walk.

After that it was onto the Zoo, this also had a good sizable preservation area embedded inside it, consiting of natural forest and spring wildflowers. Lots of horned beasts to look at in the exhibits, also a sticky, humid rainforest section to walk through. One of these places where you look in a glass tank and can't see see anything, then suddenly notice a six foot python in the corner.

Time was running out on the TallinnCard, so bussed back into town. A quick look round the Guild hall, a few exhibits rather than grand hall. Onto the Natural history musuem, animals less active here than the zoo! Next up Health Museum, with some good interactive pieces, can you find the spleen? Finally I wanted to see Fotografiska, a high end photography studio (you can tell it's fancy when the pictures are in black and white).

Finally after all that it was time for some food, stuck my head in to a beer house to peruse the menu, seem overpriced so I headed for Viru Lokall, handily near my hotel. On the menu they had very reasonable priced traditional Estonian food: Herring, boiled potatoes & eggs, which was a lot tastier than it sounds!