Tallinn
The morning started with a quick tour to the festival field for the singing contests. That is quite an issue in the Baltic States! Somehow to compare with the Olympics.
The Baltic Singing contests are once in 5 years, prepared through regional contests and national contest. Only Baltic groups can participate: singing, dancing, instrumental groups, as long as they honour folk’s traditions.
There are Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian communities all over the world due to the expats through the ages. Wars, economic issues, religion… history had enough reasons to drive people away from home. But not from their singing contests.
The convent in Pirita officially was closed at the moment: the next day, they will have the Birgitte Festival, honouring the founder of the convent. After that, a reconstruction phase will start. We were allowed into the yard of the convent, but no step further, tried to look around a corner made the security woman jell!
Interesting about the convent is: they had a nun’s as a monk’s convent as well. Monks were allowed to preach. The nuns had to stay in between the walls with a very strict scheme.
Our walk through the city started at the dom. Wooden closed banks, family heralds at the walls, an impressive organ. A little, but amazing dom!
Along the old city walls, there was a ‘kitchen check point’. Centuries ago, on Sunday, people had to go to church and were not allowed to make a fire in the kitchen to prepare meals. From the wall, inspectors check, that the chimneys staid blank.
A rich man had ordered three plastics of monks. Seems, they wouldn’t fit into his house, thus he donated them to the city. Standing now near the city wall.
In Tallinn, the lower city is the historic city center (next to it, the modern city center is to be found). Dom, basilica and governmental buildings are up on the Dom hill. This part was founded by the Danish (the nowadays name of the city still reflects to it).
In early days, the only connection between both the historic parts was via the Pikk (Leg): the long leg was for carriages [horses], the short leg (stairs) was for the common people.
Maybe because of its connections with Lübeck, Tallinn is also the city of marzipan. Next to the Old Pharmacy, the oldest manufacture is still working. Special feature: all the figures are hand-painted. Of course, also the Old Pharmacy is interesting, still in function, too.
The Catharina Gilde opens a woman’s hart. And purse. Fine hats, leather works, silk and fabriques, glass, jewellery, woodcarvings… name it and you will find it here, in great quality, made with exceptional care and passion. The pathway next to it is one of the few, you’ll find the medieval narrow, darkness, and: a tomb plate for a woman! Kunigunde Schotmund.
This afternoon was for us exploring and shopping time. We started with an Estonian Restaurant, tried some specialties and went back to explore the streets, we didn’t saw until now. Even found an historic Baltic cooking book in German. Nice gem!
Dinner for us was organised in a medieval restaurant. Good, we had a nice chat with each other. Not outstanding, not very medieval, well local grounded cuisine. And even after dinner we found some streets to explore. Saw the historic path, which nicely goes on into the future, found stone plates at the city theatre, where they register the number of performances of every play and concert. Buzzed, with the energy in the streets where the youth had a nice time and, finally, walked back to the hotel.