Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.
After visiting the Baltic states I’ve got the feeling that Tallinn, Estonia (formerly also called ‘Reval‘) is the one best known to Germans. That is probably because it has a harbour close to the city center where cruise ships can stop and unload masses of tourists. But that didn’t disturb me much during my visit and of course one should use the situation to give the Baltic sea a visit.
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Tallinn, Estonia is beautifully located on and around the Toompea (cathedral hill). A unique feature of the city are the remaining historical city walls and fortification towers. In medieval times 40 of these towers with red roofs existed and still today they shape the skyline of the city. A tour to the city walls typically starts at the castle with the town’s landmark – the Pikk Hermann (‘tall Hermann’) tower.
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When you’re on the Toompea (cathedral hill) of Tallinn, Estonia it’s not the castle standing there or the Pikk Hermann tower that is catching your views – it is the beautiful Aleksander Nevski katedraal with its six black onion domes. It is a Russian-orthodox church that was built between 1894 and 1900 CE. The location was well-chosen and during the first independence of Estonia it was planned to remove the church as it was and is a strong symbol of Russian influence.
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The Toompea is a natural hill at the city centre of Tallinn, Estonia and as it is an easy to defend place it was used for hundreds of years as a stronghold. It is even named in ancient Estonia mythology and is said to be created by the giant Linda. In the year 1219 Danish forces conquered this place and according to a Danish legend the Danish flag – the Dannebrog – fell from the sky during an important phase of the battle and motivated the Danish crusaders.
Continue reading “Toompea loss”
The lennujaam (airport) of Tallinn, Estonia is a fantastic small airport. The people there are relaxed and quite, the terminal building is short, the shops are nice and the waiting areas creative and really inviting. It is only a short way to the tram stop (line 4 stops here and brings you to the city center) and when standing outside the airport you’re still standing directly at the airfield and can watch plains.
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It’s a simple but good coffee bar and restaurant close to the central campus of the university of Kassel, Germany. Located at the Gottschalkstraße just 100 meters afar from the main lecture buildings this place is often crowded with students. They offer seats inside but also have a medium size outdoor terrace where you can sit next to the quiet street.
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The Landesmuseum Hannover is a special museum located between the Sprengel-Museum and the Neues Rathaus of Hannover, Germany. It calls itself ‘WeltenMuseum‘ because it shows different separate worlds: nature, mankind and art. The building in renaissance revival architecture style was built in 1902.
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Directly next to the Maschsee at Hannover, Germany you can find one of the most important museums of modern art in Germany. It focusses on German expressionism and modern art of French artists. The starting point was the collection of Margit and Bernhard Sprengel – chocolate factory owners from Hannover-Vinnhorst.
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The Großer Garten (great garden) is the centerpiece of the Herrenhäuser Gärten and the most important tourist highlight of Hannover, Germany. It is a vast French formal garden that is seen as one of the most significant of its kind. The garden has a rectangular shape and is 905 meters long and 555 meters wide. It dates back to the 17th century CE.
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In 1666 the House of Welf was in need of a place to grow vegetables and created the Berggarten on a sand dune from the last glacial period (therefore the name ‘mountain garden‘). Later greenhouses were built to grow rice, tobacco and morus plants. Since the year 1750 it is solely a botanical garden and one of the oldest in Germany. It also contains a mausoleum for members of the House of Welf.
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