The Wall around Old Town, Part 3: Atop the Wall

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Looking towards the next tower along the wall around Old Town.

Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.

Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)

This is, in my opinion, one of the most spectacular views I've ever had the pleasure to see. I hope my photographs from atop the wall around Old Town can capture this for you well enough that you understand what I saw and experienced while I was in Tallinn.

Looking towards the next tower along the inner portion of wall around Old Town.

Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.

Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)

This is the inner part of the wall that overlooks Old Town and separates Old Town from the rest of Tallinn,which is a modern city with the usual modern skyscrapers in those areas that are rising from the ruins of the old Soviet empire.

Looking straight down.

Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.

Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)

Looking straight down from my perch on the wall was dizzying, even though it wasn't that high .. Okay, I would have broken most of my bones if I was dumb enough to fall from this height onto those streets, but don't forget that I am so skilled at bone breakage that I can break bones just by walking down the street!

Looking straight down.

Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.

Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)

At another location along the wall, another look straight down.

Looking straight down.

Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.

Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)

Oh, and what is that lovely green alcove in the previous photograph? Here's a closer look. The colors in this image are simply glorious -- and the image is not as brilliant as real life was. Amazing, huh?

Old house in Old Town.

Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.

Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)

The above image gives you a nice view of one of the many beautiful old houses in Old Town .. I think most of these have been transformed into consulates, hotels and other sorts of businesses, although I can easily imagine being very content to live in one of these houses, or even living in just one room in one of these houses!

Farming gadgetry of ancient implement of death?

Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.

Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)

One of the many windows through the backside of the wall that faces the rest of the world that the original builders were trying to protect themselves from. As the image caption states, is this .. thing .. a piece of farming equipment or an ancient implement of death? Wondering minds wanna know ..

Through the window ..

Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.

Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)

There are old houses outside the wall, too, as you can see in this picture taken through a window in the stone wall surrounding Old Town.

Through the window ..

Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.

Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)

Okay, I won't lie: I love this picture (above). It's just so .. amazing (even though I was the photographer, I still love it). Yes, I know it is not perfect, but I'll let you tell me how to make it better. I am just going to sit back and love it.

Tallinn from atop the wall.

Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.

Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)

One last look at Tallinn from the top of the wall (I took this pic through a window in the wall, as you can see from a teensy hint of rock on the upper right corner) before I went descended those steep, narrow, dark stone steps to the ground. You can see that the clouds were once again closing in, for probably the 20th time that day, but oddly, it never rained when I was there.

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What can that roller of a rotary cultivator be doing at the town wall?

Some great shots, although from what you've shown it might be difficult to take a really bad photo of Talinn.

I think there's a tendancy for us, even in Europe, to associate the former Eastern bloc countries with hideous industrialisation so it's nice to know that some of the great old architecture is preserved.

If you ever get the chance, two other towns I can heartily recommend to you are Carcassone in southern France and Santillana del Mar in northern Spain. Santillana's quite a small town but very pretty, and close to the Altamira caves. Carcasonne is rather more famous of course, being a World Heritage Site, like Talinn's old town.