Day trip to Tallinn

We spent the most perfect day in Tallinn! It’s only 1 hour 45 minutes drive to Helsinki and only 1 hour 40 minutes ferry connection from Helsinki to Tallinn and then you are in whole different surroundings. The old town with medieval architecture is the most charming place! We had a late lunch in the restaurant Spot. Then we walked around the Old Town and visited the walkway on top of the walls of Tallinn, which are the medieval defensive walls. The walkway offered excellent views across Old Town.

Work on the town's defences first began in 1265, but the current outline of the wall dates to the 14th century. Back then citizens of Tallinn were required to turn out for guard duty, which meant to wear their armour and demonstrate their readiness to face off invaders. By its heyday in the 16th century, the wall was 2.4 km long, 14 to 16 metres high, up to three metres thick, and included 46 towers. Today roughly half of the original towers exist - this is one of the reasons that Tallinn's old town became a World Heritage Site.

We also climbed 232 steep steps up to the viewing platform of St. Olav’s Church tower. The photo is from there. I must say, it’s not a place for people suffering from acrophobia! I was quite scared, too. I added some additional photos to extras, and one of them shows how the viewing platform looks like. The church can also be seen in one of the photos.

We were very lucky with the weather, it was very warm and sunny day, it felt very much like summer. The ferry back was much more crowded than what it was in the morning. And driving back home late in the evening was quite nice now when it’s light!


+22°C, sunny