Elowen in Estonia: Day 2

We packed a lot into our first full day in Tallinn--it was unexpectedly hot but the forecast showed rain the next three days, so we felt like a death march was in order (though it never actually rained, so I suppose we could have enjoyed these sites in cooler weather). 

Since we bought a huge bag of blueberries at a market in Riga, we fed Elowen a breakfast of her beloved fruit and then caught a cab to Kadriorg Park, a huge green space in Tallinn where the jewel is Kadriorg Palace, built by Peter the Great for Catherine in the early 1700s. He died before they could live in it, so Catherine never moved in--but we also saw the much more modest accommodations where they stayed during various visits while the palace was being built. 

 

  Kadriorg Palace is now a small but lovely art museum, though the real highlight is the palace architecture itself--the main hall was especially breathtaking. In fact, Kadriorg is the only palace built for Peter the Great where the stateroom is preserved in its original form--the central ceiling painting is of Diana and Actaeon from Ovid's Metamorphoses, and you can see Peter and Catherine's initials above the grand fireplaces. We also enjoyed becoming living art in the booths they had set up around the second floor.

I can't take a picture straight to save my life...

The modest accommodations that Peter and Catherine would stay in when visiting the area and while the palace was being built.

 

After the museum, we took a walk through the lush green meadows and towering trees to a Japanese garden, and then over to the Baltic Sea. While no one was swimming--it was much too cold to get in--I was still excited for Elowen to see another body of water! She's racking up quite a list. 

The Baltic Sea

 

Sweaty and exhausted, we then made our way back to Old Town, walking past the beautiful daily flower market and a hilarious Kim Kardashian window display, and decided to eat in an Italian restaurant called Amalfi. Taylor and Elowen shared a roasted branzino and a cheese plate, while I had burrata and a salami and nduja pizza. 

 

Kim, there's people that are dying.

 

Since it wasn't quite naptime, we then whiled away some time wandering the narrow streets of the Old Town, took some more pictures of the main square, and strolled through St. Catherine's Alley, marveling at the huge old tombstones that lined the path. The alley is also lined with artisan shops where you can watch weavers, ceramicists, leatherworkers, and other artists at their craft. (I ended up buying a vase from a very lovely woman named Ulli...she's part of a women's artisan guild in the city.) 

 

 

In front of the Russian embassy was a protest against the war in Ukraine--the bloody teddy bears are really like a punch in the stomach when you think about what's going on the country next door. You could feel the rage of the Estonian people as you walked by the angry signs. 

 

After Elowen's nap, we followed the old city walls and fortifications to a little park, where Elowen had the best time bouncing on some play ponies, and from there we trekked to one of Estonia's best chocolate shops, Chocolala. It even had a chocolate museum in the basement with a 30-pound chocolate lion and a history of sweets in Estonia. One of the most interesting parts of the museum was seeing pictures of the famous cafe, Maiasmokk, which is the oldest in the city. It's famous for its intricate marzipan figures and uses molds dating back 100 years--you can even watch a candy artist work on certain days. (While Germany claims to have invented marzipan, Estonia fiercely contests this--and fun fact, the almond paste candy was originally created as a cure for heartbreak.)

The cafe, in 1806 and today...I loved the ferris wheel made of tea cups, saucers, and tea spoons spinning in the window.

 

How creepy is this puppet museum? Next time I must go in...

 

The hall to the museum and a chocolate wall

 

From Chocolala it was on to Sigmund Freud for more fun cocktails, a stop by the famous chimneysweep statue to rub his buttons for luck, and then to Restaurant Tchaivosky for dinner. 

 

The restaurant was in our hotel, but it felt much too fancy to drag a toddler into--especially when we realized she was a little too zaftig for the high chair. However, through a combination of Cocomelon, doling out ravioli, and toys, we kept her quiet and happy for two hours! (Though at one point she did charge down the long couch to try to make a new friend with a man dining solo on the other end--he was not into it.) I started with white asparagus and scallops (Elowen ate my scallops, she's very obliging) and then had a delicious eggplant and goat cheese ravioli. Elowen had King crab pelmeni too, but her favorite part of the meal by far was the blood orange sorbet palate cleanser they brought out before the entree. She got her own and she was VERY pleased. 

 

For dessert, we had a strawberry pavlova with edible flowers and a little chocolate ballerina (since the dessert is named after the famous Russian dancer Anna Pavlov). Elowen was pretty impressed by the dry ice.

 

And that was it for the second day!