July 1: Tallinn, Estonia
Dear Friends and Relatives,
It was quite a restful night, and today was sunny but also increasingly windier in our fair city of Tallinn. We had breakfast a little earlier this morning and then took off walking a bit. Stores were open, and I bought a very nice brown blazer for this and subsequent trips and teaching assignments. At 10:00 a.m. we boarded the bus for our first venue of the day—the Estonian Open-Air Museum. It is an attraction in Tallinn’s western outskirts, and is 6 km away in the suburb of Rocca al Mare.
The museum is arranged in a spacious wooded park and brings together more than one hundred 18th and 19th c. village buildings from different parts of the country of Estonia. Exhibits illustrate how Estonian dwellings developed from single longhouses (very Viking in appearance), in which both people and animals lived, to more sophisticated farmsteads in which barns and other outbuildings were built to accommodate the animals.
A summer manor was established here in 1863 by local baron Arthur Girard de Soucanton. That estate if now the site of the Estonian Open AIr Museum. The museum includes farms, mills, net sheds, a village school, a chapel, a fire house, and more. Museum workers in period costume demonstrate the crafts of old and provide a glimpse into the lifestyles of the 18th and 19th c.
Estonian living rooms were traditionally around open hearths with no chimneys. The resulting atmosphere facilitated the drying of grain and the curing of meat and fish. Until the 20th c., most Estonian houses were built from spruce or pine, but there were also a few made of stone walls which were also exhibited in the collection of buildings. The museum also includes a wooden church, its roof supported by swelling, cigar-shaped pillars.
Lunch was on the premises, and there was also a folklore show, with five girls from the local university studying dance performing in native costume. Please see my Facebook photo entries to gain an idea about the vitality and beauty of their performance.
After lunch and the folklore performance, we re-boarded the bus and were dropped at the Estonian History Museum. The museum contains a superbly organized collection brought to life by costumes, medieval street sounds and English-language texts. We were introduced to an examination of merchant guilds and houses. Original furnishings and costumes, firearms, specialized collections of native sons were show, with several pieces that were of real interest to me: a flask used by Tsar Peter the Great; a notebook with seven different cadenzas Mozart wrote for his Piano Concert #27; a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; and a spoon belonging to Vladimir Lenin—an astounding variety!!!!!
At the end of the visit most left for the hotel, but Elaine and I went to the gift shop. Elaine bought bird earrings and postcards, while I bought two different items for Alexandra (sorry, Alexandra—can’t let you know what they are, but they were created by local craftsmen).
Then we walked around a bit, finally entering the Photography Museum on Town Hall Square. The museum is housed in what used to be a jail. We explored three floors of photographic equipment, atmospheric photos of the city of Tallinn, and innovative photos by current artists. Climbing up and down those stairs was no picnic, as there were no handrails and each step had an uneven tread. However, we clambered and scrambled our way up and down, and enjoyed our time there completely!
This evening we had dinner at the hotel, and tomorrow we are off to Riga, the capital of Latvia, our next Baltic state. On the way, we will be exploring Turaida Castle and a Soviet bunker—but more of that later. Have to pack and be ready for an 8:00 a.m.departure tomorrow morning. As it is still so light here, it is hard to realize that it is almost 10:00 p.m. Take care, and so good night! As ever, SV
It was quite a restful night, and today was sunny but also increasingly windier in our fair city of Tallinn. We had breakfast a little earlier this morning and then took off walking a bit. Stores were open, and I bought a very nice brown blazer for this and subsequent trips and teaching assignments. At 10:00 a.m. we boarded the bus for our first venue of the day—the Estonian Open-Air Museum. It is an attraction in Tallinn’s western outskirts, and is 6 km away in the suburb of Rocca al Mare.
The museum is arranged in a spacious wooded park and brings together more than one hundred 18th and 19th c. village buildings from different parts of the country of Estonia. Exhibits illustrate how Estonian dwellings developed from single longhouses (very Viking in appearance), in which both people and animals lived, to more sophisticated farmsteads in which barns and other outbuildings were built to accommodate the animals.
A summer manor was established here in 1863 by local baron Arthur Girard de Soucanton. That estate if now the site of the Estonian Open AIr Museum. The museum includes farms, mills, net sheds, a village school, a chapel, a fire house, and more. Museum workers in period costume demonstrate the crafts of old and provide a glimpse into the lifestyles of the 18th and 19th c.
Estonian living rooms were traditionally around open hearths with no chimneys. The resulting atmosphere facilitated the drying of grain and the curing of meat and fish. Until the 20th c., most Estonian houses were built from spruce or pine, but there were also a few made of stone walls which were also exhibited in the collection of buildings. The museum also includes a wooden church, its roof supported by swelling, cigar-shaped pillars.
Lunch was on the premises, and there was also a folklore show, with five girls from the local university studying dance performing in native costume. Please see my Facebook photo entries to gain an idea about the vitality and beauty of their performance.
After lunch and the folklore performance, we re-boarded the bus and were dropped at the Estonian History Museum. The museum contains a superbly organized collection brought to life by costumes, medieval street sounds and English-language texts. We were introduced to an examination of merchant guilds and houses. Original furnishings and costumes, firearms, specialized collections of native sons were show, with several pieces that were of real interest to me: a flask used by Tsar Peter the Great; a notebook with seven different cadenzas Mozart wrote for his Piano Concert #27; a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; and a spoon belonging to Vladimir Lenin—an astounding variety!!!!!
At the end of the visit most left for the hotel, but Elaine and I went to the gift shop. Elaine bought bird earrings and postcards, while I bought two different items for Alexandra (sorry, Alexandra—can’t let you know what they are, but they were created by local craftsmen).
Then we walked around a bit, finally entering the Photography Museum on Town Hall Square. The museum is housed in what used to be a jail. We explored three floors of photographic equipment, atmospheric photos of the city of Tallinn, and innovative photos by current artists. Climbing up and down those stairs was no picnic, as there were no handrails and each step had an uneven tread. However, we clambered and scrambled our way up and down, and enjoyed our time there completely!
This evening we had dinner at the hotel, and tomorrow we are off to Riga, the capital of Latvia, our next Baltic state. On the way, we will be exploring Turaida Castle and a Soviet bunker—but more of that later. Have to pack and be ready for an 8:00 a.m.departure tomorrow morning. As it is still so light here, it is hard to realize that it is almost 10:00 p.m. Take care, and so good night! As ever, SV
Can't wait to see this blazer! Nothing like adding a new piece to the wardrobe from fashion abroad :) what a treat
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