We had made our mind up NOT to get the Hop On Hop Off Bus in Tallinn after our experience in Berlin – with all the waiting around for “(smoke) breaks” for the drivers. Plus with only two full days here, we wanted to focus on the old town – a UNESCO listed site.

So, after a pleasant evening doing a pub crawl last night, where Mick tasted two local delicacies, fried pig’s ears and fried dumplings, followed by a well-earned rest, we braced ourselves for the crowds today and set off in search of our three chosen attractions.

And to our great surprise, the crowds did not appear. The ship had obviously sailed!

We strolled down Catherine’s Passage – and I did try not to smile at some of Mick’s jokes about its name. He always refers to the place where we live on Pummicestone Passage as “the back passage”.

These are remnants of very old tombstones.

When we emerged at the other end of Catherine Passage we came across this section of the town wall.

The Old Town of Tallinn was one of the best fortified cities in Europe. It still has 26 of its original 66 towers along its wall intact.

We paid €3 each to enter and walk along this section known as Hellermann Tower and Old Wall Walkway. It was much better than the section I visited yesterday. It was hard to comprehend this wall was commenced in 1390.

We had a different view of Tallinn from here.

Mick loved it.

Our third selection for today was the Estonian Museum of Occupations. I have no photos of here, but we were fascinated.

Even Mick, who is pretty smart and who has studied a lot more history at school and at university than I have, did not know about much of this.

Estonia as we know it today has only been a free country since 1991. The Germans and the Russians have taken turns of treating Estonia like a football ground. The museum focuses on three periods of occupation : 1940-41 / Soviet; 1941-44 / German; and 1944-91 / Soviets again.

The largest number of people moving into Estonia now are people who had fled or been forced out in the last 50+ years.

We spent almost two hours here, and we really needed at least another three but our legs and our tummies wouldn’t allow it.

After a little “nanny nap”, we headed out in the rain towards ……

It was good, but not a patch on Berlin’s. But Mick was interested to see how the beer was stored in plastic bags!!!! Inside plastic kegs.

We stopped off here for our next beer.

Eventually having dinner in the same place as last night. No photos – as it wasn’t brilliant.

Off to Tartu tomorrow.