Estonia - Tallinn

Estonia is the smallest Baltic state and yet it is the most vibrant compared to Lithuania and Lavia.

Our journey in Estonia started with a walking tour in the old medieval town of Tallinn which became a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in 1997. We started our walk in the upper town and walked down towards the lower town. 

The first building we saw was this magnificent looking Russian church, the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Talinn

Toompea Castle which is situated opposite Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is currently the House of Parliament. Ever since the castle was first built in 1227-1229, every foreign empire that ruled Estonia used this castle as its base. Front the front, what is visible is this pink baroque palace while a look from the base of the hill will give a more Medieval perspective.

Toompea Castle, Talinn

Kiek in de Kök is an artillery tower built in 1475. It gained the name Kiek in de Kok from the ability of tower occupants to see into kitchens of nearby houses. The tower is 38 m high and has walls 4 m thick. Cannon balls dating back to 1577 are still embedded in its outer walls. Throughout its working life, the tower was extensively remodeled. By 1760, the tower had become obsolete. At this time it became a repository for archives and some floors were converted to apartments.

Kiek in de Kok, Tallinn Estonia

More shots of Kiek in de Kok from the back where you can see the museum and there are also restaurants on the upper wall.

Kiek in de Kok, Tallinn Estonia

As our walking tour was a brief one, we didn't enter any of the buildings in the old town. Some photos below, some of which were taken when we walked about on our own after our official guided walk ended.

Tallinn, Estonia

We stumbled upon St Catherine's passage when we were exploring the old town on our own. At that time we didn't know of the significance of the passageway. Just thought that it was an interesting lane. Apparently the passageway is the remains of St Catherine's Church and is also one of the prettiest little walkways in all of old town. We didn't walk all the way to the other end as it was starting to get dark. After our little "adventure" with the homeless/drunk guy (see below), we decided not to be too adventurous :)

The old town of Tallinn is generally peaceful with tourists and locals walking up and down the different alleys minding their own business. But we were unfortunate that we bumped into a homeless/drunk guy who came after us asking for food initially and then for money. He refused to go away even when I had my umbrella in front of me, with the intention of "shooing" him away. He stopped following us when we reached the Town Hall Square where there were many people. Pheww,... thank God, he didn't attack us!!

Even after 7 centuries the Town Hall Square – Raekoja plats - still remains as the social heart of the city: during summer, it hosts several outdoor cafes, concerts and fairs and in December is transformed into a charming Christmas Market. Town Hall on Raekoja square, the only intact Gothic town hall in Northern Europe, now operates as a museum and concert hall. On top of the Town Hall tower, you will see the guard of Tallinn Old Town – Vana Toomas.

Town Hall, Tallinn

The oldest continuously working pharmacy in Europe, Raeapteek, is located right across the square.  

Raeapteek, oldest pharmacy in Europe

This building, RESTORAN KAERAJAAN, sounds like "Government Restaurant" in Malaysian. It's strange how diverse is the language and culture between Estonia and Malaysia and yet at the same time there are also similarities :)

Dome Cathedral - view from the back.

Dome Cathedral

The cross like structure on the left of the picture below is the Cross of Liberty  which was created to recognise the services of participants in the War of Independence 1918-1920.

Monument to the War of Independence

The Tallinn Song Stage was built in 1959 for the Estonian Song Festival. In 1988 Estonians gathered here – at the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds – to sing patriotic hymns in what became known as the Singing Revolution that led to the overthrow of Soviet rule.Today, Tallinn's Song Festival Grounds are also used for hosting international concerts.

Tallinn Festival of Songs Venue

Our hotel in Tallinn for 2 nights - Sokos Hotel Viru - is just in front of the old town and we have a magnificent view of the old town skyline at all times :) 

Tallinn old town

Latvia - Riga (Part 2)

From the Freedom Monument, we walked through the park and crossed the road the see the Powder Tower in Riga. The Powder Tower is the only tower of the old fortification system that is still standing. Originally called the Sand Tower because it defended the city from the side of the Big Sand Road, it dates back to 1330. Rebulid numerous times, it gained its current name in the 17th century when they began to store gunpowder in the tower. Today it is part of the Military Museum. Next to the Powder Tower is an interesting building that is painted with different coat of arms in Latvia.

Powder tower, Riga

Opposite the restored portion of  Riga's old fortification wall is Jacob's Barrack (yellow building below) which used to be the longest building until recent times. The old Swedish gate (bottom right) is the only town gate that has been preserved in its original form.

Riga Old Fortification Wall

The Three Brothers are good examples buildings during medieval  Rīga. The eldest brother, house no. 17, is the white building and it was built in the late 15th century. It is the oldest stone dwelling structure in Riga. No 19 and 21 were built  in the 17th and 18th century respectively.Being built in different centuries, I think they are too old to be brothers, they are more like son, father and grandfather :)

The Three Brothers

In the heart of Old Riga is the largest square, Dome Square, where the Dome Cathedral is located. The Dome Cathedral has been destroyed and rebuilt many times, so presently it is a composite of different architectural styles. The cathedral's last reconstruction took place in 1776 where the tower was raised to the height of 90m. The famous organ of the Dome Cathedral was made in 1884 and it was the biggest organ in the world comprising 6,718 pipes. Unfortunately, we arrived when the cathedral was closed and hence didn't get to see the organ.

Riga Dome Cathedral

St Peter's church was first mentioned in 1209. Throughout the centuries, the church tower was burned down and rebuilt many times. It was first destroyed in 1666 and the last calamity it suffered was on St Peter's Day in 1941.

St John's church was built as a chapel for the Dominican monastery after 1234.

The House of Blackheads, built in 14th century belonged to the Guild of Unmarried Merchants. At the time it was the richest and most prestigious venue in the whole city. It was severely damaged during WWII, but was rebuilt again in 1999.

The House of Blackheads

The Central Market is one of the largest and oldest markets in Europe with five food pavilions located inside vast converted Zeppellin hangars. By the time our walking tour ended, we could not go to to the market as it was already closed.   And our local guide wasn't aware and was not responsible to take us to the market.  This is another problem with Parlo Tour, bad planning.! There seems to be a lot of miscommunication between the local guide and our tour operator. The local guide's scope of work is much narrower than what is prescribed in our itinerary. Hence, a couple of sites were left out and we didn't have time to enter many of the historical buildings, not only in Latvia but also in Lithuania and Estonia. And our dear tour leader was very defensive when a couple of us asked about the differences.

Our local guide Margita was kind enough to come half an hour earlier the next morning so that she can take us to the Central Market. But only to the fish and vegetable pavillion. That's the most we can get in 20 minutes. The market is very clean, no wet floors like the ones we have in Malaysia. Even the fish pavillion smelled fresh :) And there was plenty of my favourite fish - salmon! Fresh salmon, grilled salmon, smoked salmon, salted salmon...:) You name it, they have it!

Central Market, Riga

Central Market, Riga

After the quick visit to the Central Market, we traveled up north towards Turaida Castle. Work on the Turaida Stone Castle began in 1214 and it was mainly used by Riga's Archbishop as their residence outside of Riga. As a results of the many war over the centuries, parts of the castle wall was destroyed and had to be reconstructed.

Entrance toTuraida Castle

 View of Turaida Castle from the tower. As can be seen from this picture, Turaida Castle is surrounded by lush greenery.

Turaida Castle

The different shades of green coupled with the clear blue sky made Turaida look really really beautiful. The name "Turaida" which means "God's garden" is indeed a very appropriate name for this place. I may not know how God's garden look like but being surrounded by the beauty of God's creation in Turaida does make me feel like I'm in heaven!

Turaida

Tulips are aplenty in Turaida. But somehow these tulips has dark center, looks kind of like poppy. Could they be poppy?

Turaida

Turaida Castle is the last place in Latvia that we visited. On our way to Talinn in Estonia, we were supposed to go to Cesis to see the old Latvian town. But due to timing issues we had to take another route directly to Talinn. And guess what excuse our tour leader gave us for this change? She said the person who planned the itinerary did not look at the map. Palm in my face!!

Latvia - Riga (Part 1)

We crossed over from Lithuania to Latvia on 12 May 2013. Our first sight seeing spot was the Latvian Ethnographic Museum in Riga.

The Open-Air Museum, which covers an area of 87.66 hectares of a pine forest in Riga on the shores of Jugla Lake, is one of the oldest and largest open air museums in Europe. The museum houses 118 old buildings from all historical districts of Latvia – Kurzeme, Vidzeme, Zemgale and Latgale– built from the end of the 17th century up to the second half of the 1930s.

Latvian Ethnographic Museum

Within the open air museum, there is a church at 10am every Sunday at the Usma Church.The interior of the church is decorated with paintings of angels playing musical instruments. Interesting!

Usma Church - Latvian Open air Ethnographic Museum

It was a very pleasant walk for us through the open air museum given the fresh air and the abundance of greenery around us. However, the occasional wind and drizzle did send the temperature down by a fair bit. As winter was long, small little flowers were just beginning to bloom when we were there. Here's a picture of Jugla Lake together with some of the new blooms and leaves we saw.

Plants in open air museum

After enjoying the nature, we were brought back to Riga city and checked into our "home" for the next 2 nights at the Radisson Blu Daugava Hotel. Our hotel provides free shuttle to the Old Town which is across the Daugava river right in front of the hotel. The shuttle which stops at the House of BlackHead ends at 9pm. You can also take the bridge across the river, though we did not as it was freezing cold!

View of Riga old Town, such a beauty :). No wonder it has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Riga Old Town

The next morning we visited Rundale Palace, which is located in the south of Latvia. The Rundāle Palace ensamble, one of the most outstanding monuments of Baroque and Rococo architecture in Latvia. It was built between 1736 and 1740 as a summer residence for Ernst Johann Biron, Duke of Courland and a favourite of the Russian Empress Anna Ioannovna. The palace was designed by the Russian court architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli and built under his supervision.

Rundale Palace

Most of the interior decorations were created between 1765 and 1768 when a sculptor from Berlin Johann Michael Graff, and Italian painters from St. Petersburg Francesco Martini and Carlo Zucchi worked at the palace.

Rundale Palace

Both the interior and exterior, including the garden, of the Rundale Palace reminded me of Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna, only that Schonbrunn Palace is much bigger and was very crowded at the time of our visit. 

Rundale Palace

At the reception counter of our lunch place, I found narcissus flower! They look so much like a daffodil with 6 petals all around and a little trumpet in the center. Maybe from the same family/species? I took many shots of the narcissus since there was plenty of time. Who knows when I may need to make a gumpaste narcissus? This picture will definitely be my guide:)

Narcissus

After lunch, we went back to the city and was taken for a walking tour of the city of Riga. As we were walking towards the Freedom Monument, we came across a magnolia tree, my first time seeing a real magnolia :) Unfortunately the flowers have withered and I couldn't take any good shots of magnolia to add to my collection of flowers of the world. Even with withered magnolias, the magnolia tree is still such a beauty, isn't it?

Magnolia

Next to the magnolia tree, we saw another beautiful flower, the rhododendrum. Aahhh...I am in love with spring :)

Rhododendrum

The Freedom Monument is a memorial honouring soldiers killed during the Latvian War of Independence (1918–1920). It is considered an important symbol of the freedom, independence, and sovereignty of Latvia. The words “For the Fatherland and Freedom” is inscribed at the base of the Freedom Monument.

 And next to the city canal there is also a love lock bridge like the one in Salzburg, Austria.

Freedom Monument and love lock bridge, Riga

Riga is such a beautiful city:) There are so many more photos that I want to share. Will continue in the next post. Stay tuned!

Lithuania - Vilnius and Hill of Crosses

Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania and is also the largest city in Lithuania.

Vilnius, Lithuania

We started our in the Vilnius Old Town which is listed in UNESCO World Heritage List and also as Europe's largest baroque old town.

Vilnius Old Town

Our first stop was at the Baroque Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, a masterpiece of the 17th century.

Church of St Peter and St Paul

The interior of the church is decorated with about 2,000 stucco figures. Reminds me very much of a church I visited in Salzburg, cant recall the name right now. The dragon boat at the bottom right of the picture below was made to resemble Peter's fishing boat.

Church of St Peter and St Paul

After visiting the Church of St Peter and St Paul, our coach dropped us near the Gates of Dawn where we started on our walking tour. The Old Town was just very big. The 1 1/2 hours walk we had was just not enough to admire and enjoy the impressive architecture and history of Vilnius old town.

I found on the internet that The Gates of Dawn is one of the most visited shrines in Vilnius that is famous not only in Lithuania but also abroad, worshipped by the representatives of other creeds too. This is the only surviving gate of the first original five gates in the city wall that was built between 1503 and 1522. The gates were first mentioned in 1514. Although it is called the Gates of Dawn, this gate actually faces sunrise.

The Gates of Dawn

Walking through the Gates of Dawn

The painting of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy, in the Chapel of the Gates of Dawn is known all over the world apparently. Many churches in other countries have copies of this painting. The picture, which is also called “Vilnius Madonna”, was painted in 17th century. It is painted in the Renaissance style, on oak boards, later repainted in oil. Since the middle of the 17th century it has been said to have miracle-working powers. 

Blessed Virgin Mary 

The chapel was crowded with worshippers when we first visited it in the evening and I couldn't really take a good picture of Virgin Mary's painting without disturbing the worshippers. The next morning after breakfast (our hotel is just a stone's throw away from the chapel), I went up again to take another shot. Even then, there were already many people praying there. Such devotion from the Christians there...hmm...there must be some truth to the miracle healing power of this painting :)

Our hotel, Europa Royale Vilnius. Oops.. the guy just walked in front of me. Sorry no time to take another photo of the hotel.

Europa Royale Vilnius Hotel

Further down the road we saw the Church of St Theresa but didn't get to go in. This is one of the early Baroque buildings in Lithuania. Expensive construction materials – Swedish sandstone, marble, and granite – were used in the façade of St. Theresa’s Church. The Church of St. Theresa belonged to the Monastery of the Discalced Carmelites. The Carmelites is a religious order with eight hundred years of history. The name of the order comes from Mount Carmel in Palestine. In the 16th century, a reformed branch of the order – the Discalced Carmelites, famous for their mystical theology – separated from the mainstream order.

Church of St Theresa, Vilnius

Orthodox Church of the Holy Spirit

This was on the signage outside the church - The Church of St Casimir is the first baroque church built in Vilnius by the Jesuits. The cornerstone of the church, dragged by 700 people, was laid in 1604. The building has sufferred a lot from wars and fire. In the 18th century the collapsed dome was replaced by a new one with a crown and the interior was decorated with 13 late-baroque altars, most of which were destroyed by Napolean's army. In 1868, it was adapted for the Russian Orthodox Church, the towers were lowered and topped with onion shaped helmets. And the baroque frescoes and sculptures were demolished. After WW2, the church was turned into the Museum of Atheism and in 1991 returned to the Jesuits.

St Casimir Church

While walking in the old town square, we were fortunate to see this looong limousine going around the square with the passengers cheering and drinking. Looks like someone's getting married!

Wedding limousine

As it was early spring, we also saw plenty of flowers along the way with tulip being the most common. Eventually we saw more tulips being planted by the roadside and in roundabouts. And every house would have a flower bed planted with tulips of various color - red, white, pink, yellow, orange, white with pink stripes and purple too.

Flowers

Along the way our tour guide showed us this interesting piece of "art wall". Can't remember the name. Anyone can create a piece of art and place in on this wall. Some famous Lithuanian artists started with this wall when they were young and it seems like this is where people are encouraged to be creative and expressive, some thing which Malaysia is lacking. It's interesting to see how a few knives and spanner can be made into art pieces :)

Art wall

Up next is this amazing church of St. Anne, a masterpiece of the late Gothic period.  St. Anne’s Church, which has survived to the present day without changing for over 500 years, has become a symbol of Vilnius. There is no nonsensus about its originator or its construction period. Popular legend has it that Napoleon Bonaparte, who was fascinated by the beauty of the church, wanted to take it back to Paris in the palm of his hand. Next to the church there is a bell tower initiating the Gothic style and built in the 19th century.

St Anne Church, Vilnius

Vilnius University is the oldest university in the Baltics is also located in the old town. The university was founded in 1579 by the Jesuits.

Vilnius University

The Cathedral Square in Vilnius is the main square of the Vilnius Old Town right in front of the Vilnius Cathedral. It is a key location in city's public life, situated as it is at the crossing of the city's main streets and reflecting the city's diversity. Regularly held at this site are faira and gatherings of townspeople, military parades, religious and official public events, attractions and large concerts. It is not merely the most lively and important location in the city, but is also one of the most significant and widely known symbols of Lithuania.

Cathedral Square

This piece of stone located in front of the Vilnius Cathedral Square is reputed to be a magical stone. The letters form a word stebuklas (using only one letter for the first and the last S) means miracle in Lithuanian. I read before arriving in Lithuania that if you make a wish and make a 360 degree turn starting from the letter "s", your wish will come true. After making a quick 360 degree turn on the magical stone, our local tour guide explained that you need to turn 3 times to have your wish come true, with single folks turning to the left and married ones turning to the right. Ooops... I realised that I have turned in the wrong direction...never mind, I made another turn, 3 times in the correct direction :)  

Stebuklas - magical stone

It was at the Cathedral Square that we meet some other tourists, most likely from some other European countries. They said we look exotic and wanted to take pictures with us. Us.... petite Asians with small eyes look exotic?? Well.... I guess the grass is always greener on the other side :)

Based on our tour itinerary,we were supposed to go shopping in Laisves aleja (Freedom Avenue) which is considered the loveliest street in Lithuania. It has a large pedestrian main street which is a must walk for every visitor. But our walk ended at the Cathedral Square. Another item omitted :( What happen Parlo Tours Sdn Bhd?

Our last stop in Lithuania was in Siauliai to see the Hill of Crosses which is located some 12km north of Šiauliai.

Hill of Crosses

From the signboard at the entrance to the Hill of Crosses:

The Hill of Crosses is a unique place in terms of its scale and history. At present some 200,000 crosses of various sizes adorn the hill. By continually putting up crosses there, people express their devotion to Christ, pray for his help and mercy, and identify Lithuania as a Christian land. This site is a reflection of the nation's spontaneous religiousness and is probably the place in Lithuania that is most often visited by pilgrims today. The Hill of Crosses gained significance in the lives of Lithuanian believers during the Soviet era as a sign of resistance to the totalitarian regime. After the re-establishment of independence, new life has been breathed into the Hill of Crosses and it has become the symbol of the entire nation's unshakeable faith,its past suffering and hope. The Hill of Crosses gained fame throughout the world on 7 September 1993 when Pope John Paul II visited it and celebrated the Holy Mass with 100,000 people who gathered there. In 1994, a cross was put up on the site using the crucifix that John Paul II gave to Lithunia. The cross blessed by Pope Benedict XIV was added in 2006. At the foot of the Hill of Crosses, stands a Franciscan monastery built with the encouragement of Pope John Paul II and consecrated in 2000. The feast of the Hills of Crosses reinstated in 1997 draws large crowd each year on the last Sunday of July.

From the words engrave at the base of the crucifix on the left of the picture below, we could tell that this is the one from Pope John Paul II. As for the rest, there is no way to tell who has put them there.

Hill of Crosses

Amongst the many crosses and crucifixes of various size, the is also a statue of the Virgin Mary some where towards the end of the hill.

Next stop is Riga in Latvia.