Tallinn Day 2 - Old Town Preview and Fat Margaret

Today started dreary and rainy - so we hung around in the lodging waiting for the forecast of a break in the weather to come true.  After 2:30 the sky broke blue and we headed out to salvage the day.

Tomorrow we plan the Rick Steves' Guidebook 2-hour tour of Old Tallinn - a highest rated thing to do here.  But we worry a bit about the weather, so we free-lance seeing some of old town to grab some sunny pictures and find somewheres to eat lunch.

This square is as good as any in Europe, in some ways better with the open spaces nicely equipped with stuff.

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Onto Fat Margaret - legends talk of stories about a cook called Margaret claimed by storytellers to have worked in this defensive tower of the city walls, others say it was a really big cannon peaking out one its port holes. Maybe it's because it's just a really fat tower.  Anyways, today it houses Part II of the Estonian Maritime Museum - our ticket from yesterday is still good here today.

​"I need a few sizes bigger please."

The centerpiece of this facility is a 700 year old sailing vessel found in the ground of Tallinn.

Awesome collections abound - this museum is filled with maritime treasures - the entire internal volume is 7 levels of modern steel and concrete with a central staircase and elevator.

More knot meter tools than we've ever seen before...

The ship model room is here - even a very detailed one of Suur Toll which we went aboard yesterday.

Happenings during the 20th century - so much unheralded (at least for us) history to learn about...

The highest level, on top of Fat Margaret, giving us a view of the rooftops of Old Tallinn...

We can even see all the way out to the cruise ship berths, seeing a little one and two large.  It does seem a bit crowded on the streets today.

...and there's "New" Tallinn over yonder.

Tomorrow we'll do our guide book walk-about of the Old Town - it promises to be awesome!