Tallin, Estonia

Tallinn, Estonia was our first port stop on our Northern Europe / Baltic Cruise, and we docked at the Old City Harbor.

The port is about a 1.2km (appx 25 minute) walk into the old city; the walking route is easy to find.

It is simple to follow the path to the gift shop where a convenient map of the city is available to pick up before exiting the port on foot. These tourists are returning from their visit and heading back to their ship which docked a little closer to the port exit.

Instead of walking to Old Town, we took a complimentary port shuttle bus from our ship to a drop-off point for exploring Old Town on foot. That saved several steps in our day of walking.

Typically I enjoy using a hop-on-hop-off bus in cities, and even though they were available, it did not seem worthwhile to take one in Tallinn. The buses cannot go into the downtown streets – they only circle around the outside streets, and the main sites are close together.

Currency is the Euro and is available in paper currency of 5,10,20,50,100,200, and 500. Each bill is a separate color and they vary in size. The cents are 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50, and there is a 1 Euro and a 2 Euro coin.

Viru Gate is the nearest entrance to the Old Town from our drop-off point and is pictured at the start of this post.

A pretty fancy McDonald’s building sits just inside the entrance.

Old town has an upper level and a lower level. We meandered through the cobblestone streets through the arch, and…….climbed a fairly steep incline to get to the upper level so we could work our way back down to the port.

Toompea Parliament Building

St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral directly across from the Parliament building.

Cathedral of St. Mary the Virgin

St Nicholas Church

A sculpture depicting St. Christopher

Kiek in de Kok Fortress Museum was closed, but we enjoyed walking through the grounds.

Town Hall Square

Town Hall Pharmacy Looking out onto Town Square from the Old Town Pharmacy. We were told that bottles of red and blue liquid have been placed in the windows of pharmacies for years. I had never heard of that.