The Battle of Lyndanisse was a battle which helped King Valdemar II of Denmark establish the territory of Danish Estonia during the Northern Crusades which were undertaken in response to an order from the Pope. The battle was not going well and the Danes were getting their butts kicked. As one of the priest prayed to god for help, god honored the prayers. In a turn around, as the Danes were about to lose the battle, Dannebrog - the name of the Danish flag, fell from the heavens. The King took the flag, showed it to the troops and they became filled with courage and went on to win the battle. According to the legend, the flag was given to the Danes from god himself and from that day forward, Dannebrog has remained the flag of the Danish people.
No historical record supports this legend - hence the word - "legend". And there are similar versions of it. The battle did take place in 1219 and the flag did originate during this time and from this part of the world. I could cut and paste all kinds of stuff here and bore you to tears or you could just google Danish Flag for yourself and you will get all kinds of info with all kinds of interesting links.
And so it is according to this legend, Denmark is the country with the worlds oldest national flag. Because of this romantic legend, many Danes travel to Tallinn to see the spot where the beloved Dannebrog fell from the heavens.
Our original journey was planned so that we would visit Tallinn and then sail to St. Petersburg. But after all the whacked out news and laws against homos there, we decided not to visit the Royal Russian Winter Palace and certainly not depart from our money to such a homophobic country. However, once Russia wakes up to the 21st century, we'll be on the first Atlantis Baltic Cruise to St. Petersburg - ha ha.
So we Putout Putin and instead made a stop in Helsinki. After all.... SAS has 7 to 9 flights daily from CPH.
Our flight to Helsinki was like our flight to Madrid - Copenhagen was hot and sunny. Helsinki was..........
A local neighborhood.
Hop On - Hop Off city bus tour.
This fountain was too provocative at the time of its installation in 1908.
(click the link)
Harbor cruise.
The day before our departure, I received an e-mail concerning a friend of mine in NY. He had just passed away very unexpectedly. On the day of our arrival, I went to this church and gave thanks for his friendship and prayed for his friends and his family.
Smack in the heart of the city is Esplanade Park.
After a day and a half of wandering the streets of Helsinki, we head back to Market Square to catch a catamaran to Tallinn. It takes only 1½ hour to sail from port to port.
Having a coffee in the departure hall.
Having a smoke on the departure terrace.
Getting ready to board.
Boarding.
Leaving Helsinki.
One last look. Good-bye Helsinki.
Somewhere out on the Baltic Sea I almost got blown off this boat snapping this pix - really!
We arrive at some 3rd world dump of a harbor.
I'm glad that I read somewhere on the internet that you shouldn't let the ugly port scare you.
The brochures and the internet warn against taxi scams as well. Even the major of Tallinn got ripped off.
So we walked to town. Only a 15 minute walk. Looks nice and sunny right?
This is a sunny hole in a black sky that poured down on us just 5 minutes after we arrived.
We pull out our map and we are not quite sure where we are to go as the archway to the city does not seem to match the map. Jens wants to walk down to the next street which IS the street that we were looking for but I can't quite see it from where we are standing because it doesn't actually meet with the main road that we were on. And I say to Jens that we just ought to walk through this arch because it is clearly the entrance to the town and it was just too cute not to walk through. We were looking for Lai Street but we instead giggled at the name of the street that started at the arch; Pikk Street which in Danish has a very provocative sound.
We pass through the arch and come to a town that made you feel like you had just crossed a line from a black and white world and onto a very colorful Hollywood studio set just after getting hit in the head by a window due to a cornfield twister. I looked down to see if I had red ruby slippers on. No, I had on wet stinky socks due to all the rain puddles but the instant beauty and amazement of all the buildings in pastel Crayola colors made you forget everything you ever knew.
We just passed through this arch. It is much more colorful than the camera can show.
We stopped dead in our tracks at this beautiful garden restaurant and decided that after we check-in, we would come back here for lunch.
We walked into the garden and it was all wet. We then walked into the hotel lobby and asked if they were still serving lunch as the sign out front welcomed us to come in and have a light lunch in their beautiful garden.
"It's all wet out there", said the maïtre d'. "Do you really want to sit out there?"
So he put out all of the chair and sofa cushions on the furniture that had been removed due to the down pour. "They said it was supposed to be sunny all day today", he reported to us and it must of been what he had heard on the news.
We sat down and he handed us the menu. The sign out front said light lunch but the meals were dinner heavy. When we saw the prices we suddenly weren't so hungry any more.
We ordered the €9 / $12 soup - each! - and a beer.
It was the largest bowls we have ever seen but it held only a spoonful of soup. We laughed when we saw the bowls and we cried when we saw the bill.
The rest of the day we walked around the town and snapped a million pictures of the beautiful buildings and then had dinner at The Golden Piglet Inn just next to our hotel.
(click onto the links for more info.)
The next day, breakfast was served in the basement. A very well taken care of basement but a basement nonetheless and we wanted out!
After breakfast we went on a hunt for the spot where the flag fell from the heavens. Our friends John and Birthe have been there and they told us it was hard to find. With the help of Google Earth and lots of searching, I found it. It's right there where all the tourist go but it's down the hill via 4 or 5 steps. Your natural instincts is to go up and up to the top of the city wall if you have the strength. But according to Google Earth, we needed to go down and the steps are in such a place that you don't even notice that there are steps to go down on. I only knew of the steps because I read it on the net. This is on Toompea hill in the Danish King's Garden.
John and Birthe told us that it's just a little plaque on the wall that you don't even notice. I thought it was unusual that with such a historic event about the battle and the flag, that there should have been a lot more focus on the area and the figure. It wasn't even a plaque but rather a piece of iron art without any indication as to what it was. And it was all fenced off as well. You could see that they were repairing the area. Maybe they are going to give more focus and attention to the area. I couldn't believe that we came all this way and the area was fenced off. Well.... I just grabbed onto the fence and pulled it open and walked into the area that we were supposed to stay out of and started to command Jens to "stand over there!" "Smile!" I was having a fun time being there and understanding what the place was all about and I'll be damned if some stupid fence is going to keep me and my hubby from taking pictures.
It is right about here where the flag fell from god.
Had we more time, we would have gone into this city museum. Maybe there was more info about the battle of Lyndanisse (it means Danish or Danes in Estonian and Tallinn means town or castle of the Danes)
in the museum.
I'll visit the museum next time and find out. But instead of the museum, we decided to climb the tower and get a coffee on the old city wall at Dannebrog café (Dannebrog is the name of the flag)
St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is one of the favorite sites of tourist because it is such a beautiful building. But the Estonians hate that the tourist give so much attention to this building and that it is among the favorite because for the Estonians, it represent years and years of Russian oppression. (it still stands for Russian oppression).
I have hundreds of photos of buildings. I have never snapped a city as much as I have this one. When I told Jens that I have at least 500 photos his response was, "ja, that means you told me to stand there and smile at least 400 times"
Here are a few pix and the rest can be seen on my shutterfly.
Notice the clown at the top of the building.
I'm glad that I read somewhere on the internet that you shouldn't let the ugly port scare you.
The brochures and the internet warn against taxi scams as well. Even the major of Tallinn got ripped off.
So we walked to town. Only a 15 minute walk. Looks nice and sunny right?
This is a sunny hole in a black sky that poured down on us just 5 minutes after we arrived.
We pull out our map and we are not quite sure where we are to go as the archway to the city does not seem to match the map. Jens wants to walk down to the next street which IS the street that we were looking for but I can't quite see it from where we are standing because it doesn't actually meet with the main road that we were on. And I say to Jens that we just ought to walk through this arch because it is clearly the entrance to the town and it was just too cute not to walk through. We were looking for Lai Street but we instead giggled at the name of the street that started at the arch; Pikk Street which in Danish has a very provocative sound.
We pass through the arch and come to a town that made you feel like you had just crossed a line from a black and white world and onto a very colorful Hollywood studio set just after getting hit in the head by a window due to a cornfield twister. I looked down to see if I had red ruby slippers on. No, I had on wet stinky socks due to all the rain puddles but the instant beauty and amazement of all the buildings in pastel Crayola colors made you forget everything you ever knew.
We stopped dead in our tracks at this beautiful garden restaurant and decided that after we check-in, we would come back here for lunch.
We walked into the garden and it was all wet. We then walked into the hotel lobby and asked if they were still serving lunch as the sign out front welcomed us to come in and have a light lunch in their beautiful garden.
"It's all wet out there", said the maïtre d'. "Do you really want to sit out there?"
So he put out all of the chair and sofa cushions on the furniture that had been removed due to the down pour. "They said it was supposed to be sunny all day today", he reported to us and it must of been what he had heard on the news.
We sat down and he handed us the menu. The sign out front said light lunch but the meals were dinner heavy. When we saw the prices we suddenly weren't so hungry any more.
We ordered the €9 / $12 soup - each! - and a beer.
It was the largest bowls we have ever seen but it held only a spoonful of soup. We laughed when we saw the bowls and we cried when we saw the bill.
The rest of the day we walked around the town and snapped a million pictures of the beautiful buildings and then had dinner at The Golden Piglet Inn just next to our hotel.
(click onto the links for more info.)
The next day, breakfast was served in the basement. A very well taken care of basement but a basement nonetheless and we wanted out!
After breakfast we went on a hunt for the spot where the flag fell from the heavens. Our friends John and Birthe have been there and they told us it was hard to find. With the help of Google Earth and lots of searching, I found it. It's right there where all the tourist go but it's down the hill via 4 or 5 steps. Your natural instincts is to go up and up to the top of the city wall if you have the strength. But according to Google Earth, we needed to go down and the steps are in such a place that you don't even notice that there are steps to go down on. I only knew of the steps because I read it on the net. This is on Toompea hill in the Danish King's Garden.
John and Birthe told us that it's just a little plaque on the wall that you don't even notice. I thought it was unusual that with such a historic event about the battle and the flag, that there should have been a lot more focus on the area and the figure. It wasn't even a plaque but rather a piece of iron art without any indication as to what it was. And it was all fenced off as well. You could see that they were repairing the area. Maybe they are going to give more focus and attention to the area. I couldn't believe that we came all this way and the area was fenced off. Well.... I just grabbed onto the fence and pulled it open and walked into the area that we were supposed to stay out of and started to command Jens to "stand over there!" "Smile!" I was having a fun time being there and understanding what the place was all about and I'll be damned if some stupid fence is going to keep me and my hubby from taking pictures.
It is right about here where the flag fell from god.
Had we more time, we would have gone into this city museum. Maybe there was more info about the battle of Lyndanisse (it means Danish or Danes in Estonian and Tallinn means town or castle of the Danes)
in the museum.
I'll visit the museum next time and find out. But instead of the museum, we decided to climb the tower and get a coffee on the old city wall at Dannebrog café (Dannebrog is the name of the flag)
St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is one of the favorite sites of tourist because it is such a beautiful building. But the Estonians hate that the tourist give so much attention to this building and that it is among the favorite because for the Estonians, it represent years and years of Russian oppression. (it still stands for Russian oppression).
I have hundreds of photos of buildings. I have never snapped a city as much as I have this one. When I told Jens that I have at least 500 photos his response was, "ja, that means you told me to stand there and smile at least 400 times"
Here are a few pix and the rest can be seen on my shutterfly.
Notice the clown at the top of the building.
Thousands of tourist sit here on the bench and strike a pose with "Ferdinand the Bull". Provocatively a bull without horns and it's legs crossed. Created by Estonia's premiere sculpto Tauo Kango.
This is the fore-gates to the town of what was a much more complex gate system.
We decided to give our tootsies a break and do a bus tour.
After the tour I still had a bit more energy and made a quick dash out in town to do a bit more picture taking before packing for our journey home the following day.
Dinner again at the same place because it was soooooo tasty, traditional, just out the front door of our hotel and very reasonably priced.
After dinner we walk off our heavy pork meal and enjoy the twilight hours of Raekoja Plats - the town hall square which dates from 1402.
Tallinn is
an amazing place and if time and money flow your way, this definitely
should be one of the destinations on your "places to visit" list.
click this link to visit my shutterfly site with all 467 pictures.
click this link to visit my shutterfly site with all 467 pictures.
