April 16: Tallinn – Oleviste kirik 1

First we made our way by an odd jumble of buildings at the port and to Oleviste kirik (St. Olaf's Church) in the old city.

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A curious mini-Brutalist block.

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A rather pleasant stone-and-wood mix...

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And then, an old-style wooden building, reminiscent of old Finnish town architecture; also, a 900; also, a funny license plate.

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I've never seen this particular sort of detailing before. It's kind of ridiculous, but I appreciate the thoroughness with which it was explored, such as in the multi-level, extra-deep protrusions on the front end of the building.

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Nicely battered wall.

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V V

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The city wall.

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A mysterious quasi-classical façade.

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Now into the Vanalinn, the old town.

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The tower of Oleviste kirik.

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The side of the vestibule has quite a high ceiling...

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but not as high as the center of the vestibule, which extends far up into the tower.

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Arch through a wall of apparently incredible depth.

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We took an arduous climb up stairs to a lookout around the perimeter of the spire.

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The vertigo-inducing view up to the tip of the spire.

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Looking back to the harbor.

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Fortunately for one's sense of security, there was this thorough cable-and-screen enclosure.

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A meeting of Vanalinn and a newer part of town.

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Looking nearly straight down, cold checkin' out the courtyard.

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The bulk of the rest of the church.

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A serpentine street, with some roof construction happening to the lower left.

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Multi additional churches, the Russian Orthodox church in the center; you can see from the cliff under the buildings before the Orthodox church that they are part of the highest-up, oldest part of Vanalinn, called Toompea.