Anyway, on to the photos. They are fairly self explanatory. The carpet was woven with names and distances to capital cities around the world, hence the picture of the carpet with "Wellington" in it.
Monday, 17 June 2013
Europe Trip 2013: Tallinna Teletorn
In addition to Fat Margaret and the other attractions I visited yesterday, I visited the "Tallinna Teletorn", or Tallinn TV Tower. The Teletorn is about 30 minutes on one of the Hop-On Hop-Off bus routes and despite being so far out of town, it offers great views back to Tallinn and the surrounding areas. The tower was started in 1975 and finished in 1979, in time for the 1980 Olympics. This of course was during the occupation by the soviets. The tower was shut for a few years recently when it was refurbished.
Sunday, 16 June 2013
Europe Trip 2013: Fat Margaret [& the Maritime Museum], St Olavs and the Old Town Centre
I went to see Fat Margaret today. No, I didn't get slapped! "Fat Margaret" is the name of one of the old buildings in the Old Town centre :-) You can see it on the left side of the first picture :-)
Inside Fat Margaret is the Estonian Maritime Museum. I'm not really overly interested in maritime stuff, but it was nice to have a look around, only EUR4 [or was it EUR6?], either way, cheap as, and there was some interesting stuff to look at. Perhaps most interesting was that you could get onto the roof and get a good look around the city - particularly the port and the Old Town. Well worth the money even if boats are not your thing!
Next up was a bit of walking through the city then in to St Olav's. The church itself was closed due to a funeral but for just EUR2 visitors can walk up to the 60 meter high "viewing area". To say it was a hard climb, would be understating it somewhat. The steps are narrow, there's only one "rest area" about 45 meters up and traffic is in both directions! The viewing area is extremely narrow but the views are amazing.
Lastly I have a few photos of the Old Town [there are a lot more I might just publish one day], the Hop-On, Hop-Off bus [more on the bus tour later] and an odd one, the "Hawaii Express" [still no idea what it was for...] :-)
Europe Trip 2013: Visiting Tallinn
Two days ago I started looking around Tallinn and took the opportunity to have a quick walk around part of the Old Town centre, then get a Hop-On, Hop-Off bus for a look at the wider city area. I was particularly interested in seeing the Seaplane Harbour Museum, so I stopped off there also.
The Old Town city area was interesting, and you'll see from the pictures from that follow and old city wall, the central garden area as well as a city tram. Following this are are few general pictures from the bus tour and then from the Seaplane Harbour Museum.
I have to say the Seaplane Harbour Museum was a bit of a disappointment. I was expecting to see some seaplanes, but instead it was more of a maritime museum with only a single replica seaplane and lots of ships, a submarine, some tanks. There was a moving simulator plane which was a bit of fun... loops and rolls etc :-) At least the submarine was interesting, and I was able to walk through it. The "Lembit" was launched in 1936 and was built by Vickers and Armstrongs in Great Britain.
Anyway, here are some photos. My next post will have a lot more from the old town centre and some of the attractions in there... Enjoy!
The Old Town city area was interesting, and you'll see from the pictures from that follow and old city wall, the central garden area as well as a city tram. Following this are are few general pictures from the bus tour and then from the Seaplane Harbour Museum.
I have to say the Seaplane Harbour Museum was a bit of a disappointment. I was expecting to see some seaplanes, but instead it was more of a maritime museum with only a single replica seaplane and lots of ships, a submarine, some tanks. There was a moving simulator plane which was a bit of fun... loops and rolls etc :-) At least the submarine was interesting, and I was able to walk through it. The "Lembit" was launched in 1936 and was built by Vickers and Armstrongs in Great Britain.
Anyway, here are some photos. My next post will have a lot more from the old town centre and some of the attractions in there... Enjoy!
Wednesday, 12 June 2013
Europe Trip 2013: Helsinki City
Yesterday I visited Helsinki City proper. I had held off until I found out how to get there and back to the hotel, which as it turned out was a simple case of catching a bus from the closest bus stop :-). The price for the bus was EUR4.50 each way which was not too bad for what is roughly a 30 minute trip, including both built up and relatively quite, almost rural, areas.
The city itself was quite nice. A lot of old buildings of course, but also some much newer areas in places. probably the best idea was when I saw a hop on, hop off bus. EUR25 is a bit expensive, but it did give a good look around the key parts of the city, including the ports, flash business and residential areas and key residential and political areas.
I can confirm that the Scottish Farmer's Family Restaurant [think about it...] is the same here as elsewhere :-).
One good score was the local Lutheran Cathedral - the major church in Finland and unlike many cathedrals elsewhere in Europe and the UK was free entry. There was a gift shop, but this was in a separate building so did not detract from the Cathedral itself.
Other things of note include the extensive tram network, the ports being close to much of the town, plenty of green spaces and everyone being very friendly. Actually, everywhere I have been people have been friendly, from the bus drivers to the hotel workers, from the supermarket workers to the random suit-wearing office worker from Finnair that said 'hello' at the airport earlier today [actually, he said something else, but when I said 'hello' he instantly switched to English :-)].
Anyway, here are the photos... I haven't labelled them individually - I wasn't taking notes. Just believe me when I say I enjoyed the visit and would be happy to come back again one day.
The city itself was quite nice. A lot of old buildings of course, but also some much newer areas in places. probably the best idea was when I saw a hop on, hop off bus. EUR25 is a bit expensive, but it did give a good look around the key parts of the city, including the ports, flash business and residential areas and key residential and political areas.
I can confirm that the Scottish Farmer's Family Restaurant [think about it...] is the same here as elsewhere :-).
One good score was the local Lutheran Cathedral - the major church in Finland and unlike many cathedrals elsewhere in Europe and the UK was free entry. There was a gift shop, but this was in a separate building so did not detract from the Cathedral itself.
Other things of note include the extensive tram network, the ports being close to much of the town, plenty of green spaces and everyone being very friendly. Actually, everywhere I have been people have been friendly, from the bus drivers to the hotel workers, from the supermarket workers to the random suit-wearing office worker from Finnair that said 'hello' at the airport earlier today [actually, he said something else, but when I said 'hello' he instantly switched to English :-)].
Anyway, here are the photos... I haven't labelled them individually - I wasn't taking notes. Just believe me when I say I enjoyed the visit and would be happy to come back again one day.
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