If you have an interest in eating and drinking what the folks in the Middle Ages ate and drank, then you may wish to stop in at Tallinn, Estonia. It’s a place known for its Medieval History, its collection of 14th and 15th Century buildings, complete with Medieval walls and needle spires and cobblestone streets that twist through the old buildings, including a Town Hall that’s been in operation for nearly six hundred years. The place contains, too, a variety of museums and attractions of history, including St. Catherine’s Guild, the House of the Brotherhood of the Blackheads, and the Guildhall, dating back to the 15th Century, which now contains the History Museum.
Whether you’re coming from a Baltic Cruise or whether you’ve stayed the night in one of the hotels Tallinn treats its travelers to, you’ll find a city of architecture that’s amazingly preserved. The people here are wam and friendly; there are terrific hand-crafted woolens, and papercraft and leatherwork. But, perhaps a favorite place to go may be a restaurant known as Olde Hansa, which serves Medieval fare. On the menu, you’ll find elk and bear and boar. Take a walking tour first, which will tell you about these times and people, then sit down and eat like them!
Chances are good that you’ll like just walking down the streets, where there’s always something new to notice: a decorated drainpipe, a particularly attractive door, an intriguing alleyway. There’s handicrafts in stalls and little ships. And, if you tire, there’s coffee in any one of a number of small cafes. In the summer, you’ll find live street music; there may even be a Medieval market with sellers in costumes. It’s an impressive little city of about four hundred thousand with a number of museums and architectural interests, including the Old Town, the Raekoda (the aforementioned Town Hall), as well as the tallest church in Medieval Europe, St. Olav’s (built somewhere in the 13th Century). Tallinn is a relaxing place, with an abundance of charm, and, if you’re hankering for boar or elk or bear, it may well be the place you should visit next.