Aurora at Tallinn

Before returning to the ship I visit a trailer that is parked at the port. It is selling chocolates. Kalev Chocolates started under that name in 1948 but the confectionary business in Tallinn can be traced back to 1806. For €5 I get a 185 gr box which carries an 1830 picture by Joseph Steingrübeli of the Town Hall.

Kungsgatan

An even busier city centre street is Kungsgatan.

Bridges, strewn with flags and banners, cross from the upper storeys of department stores.

Birger Jarlsgaten

Birger Jarlsgaten is a busy road full of shops. One of the side-streets appears to end at the bottom of a steep flight of steps.

Lighthouse and Teepot

Suitably refreshed, we meander down the busy Alter Strom. This is the former port entrance. On one side are pavement cafés and small boats; on the other an array of various shops.

Up a side street, we find a shop where we buy some small bottles of water. The road emerges by the lighthouse and the Teepot. The lighthouse was built in 1897/98 and if you have the energy you can climb the 32 metres to the top. At its base is a building called the Teepot, an exhibition centre built in the late 60s.

Ice Bear

I return past the yachts and come to a rest area. Here I buy an ice-cream; sit and look at the sculpture of a polar bear on an iceflow with two cubs. This monument, made by Holger Wederkinck and erected in 1937 represents Greenland.

It is time to visit the row of shops that run along the landward side of the pier. They are mainly clothes and souvenir shops. By UK standards the clothing is quite expensive, but one shop has a reasonable deal on offer and I buy three tee-shirts. I also purchase ten postcards and a very nice 'fridge magnet.

When packing for the holiday, Christine forgot her scissors. I find some in one of the shops and although I'm a few kroner short of the asking price, the shopkeeper lets me have them without needing to break into a banknote. When my bag goes through the scanner on my return to the ship, the scissors show up. The security people say I cannot bring them on board. They want to keep hold of them until we disembark. I explain that we won't want them when we get home — my wife forgot to pack her own and she needs them to cut up some material she is working with. With some obvious reluctance they agree to let me bring them on board.

With temperatures in the high 20s, it has been an enjoyable but exhausting day, so we order a pot of tea and some cakes from room service. I realise later that it is only a short walk past the Little Mermaid to the Gefion Fountain and the Eastern end of the city. In hindsight, I'd have done better to miss walking to the seaward end of the pier and gone to take a closer look at the fountain. I could then have returned via the Kasellet or Citadel which stands on a grassy island. I'd seen this as we'd gone around it in the bus but hadn't known just how accessible it is.

But, no matter, I won't loose sleep regretting the sites I didn't see; rather enjoy the many I did.

Peace Angel

A little later, I venture out on my own.

First I walk down to the end of Langelinje Pier. It has a few eating places, an information kiosk and bus shelter but is fairly uninspiring. I take the elevated road back. This goes over the top of the rows of shops and comes out near the Peace Angel.

This statue, overlooking a small yacht basin, is, if I recall correctly what our guide told us earlier, a memorial to the Second World War. Around it are the flags of the Scandinavian countries.