Tallinn

Tallinn pleasantly surprised us. To be honest, we didn't expect the old city to be so good. I would say that, due to its topography and size, the old town, in terms of tourism, is closer to the Portuguese cities, which for us are the benchmark.

We stayed at the Original Sokos Hotel Viru (booking.com), a high-rise hotel a stone's throw from the old town. Took a junior suite with great views of the city.






The same views can be seen from the KGB Museum, which is located on the top floor. And you can also see the old city right from the balconies in the corridors. The next pictures were taken from the corridor. In fact, after looking at them, you already want to come to Tallinn.


Old Town

The Old Town is divided into the Upper Town, where the nobility lived, and the Lower Town, home to merchants and artisans.


In the next picture clearly visible noble palaces, in particular the palace of Baron Kaulbars.


The main part of the Church of St. Nicholas or Niguliste was built in 1405-1420. Now it is the main medieval church in Tallinn.


One of the entrances to the old city, the Viru Gate, one of the two surviving medieval gates.




We walked around the old town for a few days, and also walked around it in a circle, outside the walls.












































It was especially beautiful at dawn.












There are a lot of restaurants in the old city, we went several times to the Odessa Restaurant, it has a good Ukrainian cuisine.


The city hall, in the Gothic style, was built in the 13th century.


Since the old town is located on a hill, there are a lot of viewpoints.




The two best viewpoints are Patkuli (59.438547, 24.740781) and Kohtuotsa (59.437802, 24.742087).






Linnahall

In addition to the old city, we visited several other locations. The most unusual place in Tallinn, of course, is Linnahall, a huge cultural and sports center built for the 1980 Olympics. At the moment, it's completely abandoned, and I'm surprised as to why Tallinn's most upscale location has these ruins standing around. Why not make a neighborhood like Aker Brugge in Oslo.








The complex became famous after Christopher Nolan shot Tenet here. By the way, it was filmed just before our visit.


Tallinn Creative Hub

Between Linnahall and Old Town stands the Tallinn Creative Hub, a standard European cultural center on the site of a former industrial location.


There was a long wall of graffiti near it in 2019, but it's gone now.












Kadriorg Palace

We also took a walk in the park around the baroque Kadriorg palace, which was built from 1718 by order of Peter the Great, although he never had time to live there. The territory is quite large, you have to walk a lot. There is even a Japanese garden.
















Public transportation is well developed. You can buy tickets at R-Kiosks, but we had no problem buying online here https://tallinn.pilet.ee/buy.


If you plan to visit different places in the city and travel by public transport, then pay attention to the Tallinn Card.




Getting there: all kinds of transportation, including ferries.