History

Taking the ferry from Helsinki to Talinn, Estonia was, of course, much shorter than the hours-long one from Stockholm to Turku, Finland, so we didn’t even bother with a room. We just sat at a table by one of the windows.

We entered this gate to the old town. Our hotel was fairly close. This was once the main entrance into town but now it is relatively quiet.

Our first view of the city from our ferry. The **upper town** is visible in the center of the photo.

The ferry trip was short and pleasant – except for the music, which was quite loud and grating. A Finnish rock group was making a train wreck of **Hotel California**. Added to that the vocalist and instrumentalists apparently couldn’t agree on a key.

Looking like so many stubby pencils, these towers guard west-facing old Town Wal

Supposedly the tallest building in the world from 1549 to 1625 the 12th-century St. Olaf’s Church, named after King Olaf II of Norway, is now a Baptist church.

Jeweled figurines in a Lower Town shop window

**Town Hall Square**. Town Hall on the right. Normally there would be a lot more tourists here, but it was still pretty cold this morning.

Colorful wooden door to the House of the Brotherhood of the Black Heads, also in the Lower Town. The Brotherhood of Black Heads was originally a military unit that helped in the defense of the city. It was also an association of **Hanseatic** guilds of various trades and crafts. Later the military aspect faded into the background, especially after the Soviets overran the city. But it is still an important social organization.

The door was painted in the early 1640’s but the building itself is much older.

Who are the Black Heads? They are named after their patron saint, the Egyptian **Saint Maurice**. You can see his portrait over the door. This is not the only Black Heads building. We later came across an even more impressive building of that name in Riga, Latvia. (More on that in a later article).

The imposing **Toompea Castle** protected the upper town for many centuries. The tower to the right is **Pikk Hermann.** Danes, Germans, Swedes, and Russians all had the eyes on this important trade crossroad of Talinn. The Estonians (then called Livonians, along with a good part of what is now Latvia) won many defensive battles against the Russians and others. But they were finally overcome in 1721 by the Russians. Livonia then became part of the burgeoning Russian Empire. The castle grounds now includes the Estonian Parliament.

Across the road from the Parliament is the Russian Orthodox **St. Nevsky Church**. It has a beautiful interior of gold paintings and and intricate woodwork. Like in many orthodox churches, they must be admired standing up, seats being scarce.

Looking northward at the Lower Town from the **Patkuli** viewing platform.

My impression is that there are three parts to this city: the tourist-friendly Old Town, Upper and Lower. Then there is the modern high-tech business district (pictures below). And lastly, pictured here, is the “normal” city of middle to low income people. Neither touristy nor glistening. In fact, in many places, somewhat run down.

But the people are interesting. I am always interested in the ethnicities of a place. The three largest groups in Talinn are:
Estonians 233,518 53.34%
Russians 149,878 34.23%
Ukrainians 15,449 3.53%
(From 2022, Wikipedia)

Walking on our way to the bus station on our last morning we went through a very modern section of the city

“Tallinn has the highest number of startup companies per person among all capitals and larger cities in Europe and is the birthplace of many international high-technology companies, including Skype, Wise and Bolt.” – from Wikipedia

Seegi Church, now closed. One Estonian local spoke of this church being in a neighborhood of “*cloud climbers*” (Google translate from the Estonian. Apparently their word for *skyscraper*!)

On our way down to Riga, Latvia. Once again I get to take a few pictures of the local countryside.

Before we leave this article I should mention a favorite candy of ours – **Marzipan**. We found this in all three of the Baltic countries. This photo is actually from Riga but it should be here since Talinn, along with Lubeck, Germany, has a longstanding connection with this candy. Both Hanseatic cities had their own version of the candy at about the same time.
Did I say “*candy*“? Marzipan (“*March Bread*“) was first considered a medicine, known as “*Panis Martius*“. It also appeared in **Shakespeare’s** “*Romeo and Juliet*“. A servant at work in Capulet’s house says:

“Away with the joint-stools, remove the
court-cupboard, look to the plate. Good thou, save
me a piece of marchpane;”

Next: Riga, Latvia

Today being the tragic anniversary of the atomic bombing of this city I thought it might be a good topic to cover in this blog. I noticed that Wikipedia did not see fit to list this anniversary on its short list of “On This Day”. Apparently it is more important to remember that, on this day in 1861, “Dosunmu, Oba of Lagos, ceded the island of Lagos to British forces.”!

What happened on that day was a terrible stain on the professed moral character of our country. I guess I can see why Wikipedia, clearly not the relatively unbiased trustworthy source it used to be, would want to downplay this.

Also clearly in the immoral column was President Truman’s disingenuous announcement shortly after the bombing:

” The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians. “

The base was a few kilometers away from where the bomb dropped – right in the middle of the city.

We did appreciate our visit here, not just seeing the Museums and Memorial exhibits but also the city itself, its people, culture, and food. Hiroshima had a lot to offer. If it were not so hard on our budget we would have been tempted to stay longer.

I took a lot of photos here. Unfortunately, my best photos from our 2018 visit to Hiroshima were on my phone which was subsequently stolen in Rome. (Bus number 64, nota bene). Thankfully I do have these other photos from my camera.