Tallinn — the Estonian capital

Our apartment sits right in the centre, so we started by checking out St Charles’ Church from the window. On Peace Square, the Ukrainian flag flew alongside the Estonian one — support for Ukraine is truly visible everywhere across the Baltics.

We continued to the Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. The design is unfamiliar to us, but the bulbous cupolas are lovely. Then on to Kiek in de Kök, a complex of four towers and underground tunnels.

Our next stops: around the town hall, past the Russian embassy, all the way to St Olaf’s Church. We didn’t go inside — Sunday services everywhere — but it has a viewing tower (232 stairs). The panorama was spectacular.

The next stop had the unfortunate name Tallinn City Hall, but is actually an abandoned, crumbling venue by the sea. It served as the sailing arena during the 1980 Moscow Olympics, later became a skatepark, then a concert venue, and now waits for its next act. A strange, slightly boring, rather fascinating place.

Since we were already by the water, we detoured into the maritime museum Lennusadam. It occupies a hangar where submarines were built nearly a century ago. A decommissioned one is open to visitors — you can walk right through it.

We closed the day at Proto Invention Factory, a play space where many games use VR headsets (Kubík finally got his turn). Cooperative games, or games tied to mechanical rigs — for example, the hot-air balloon ride has a lever that controls the burner while the entire basket tilts.

For the first time in my life I ordered via Wolt. It works well and the selection is huge. We went for poké bowls. Tomorrow: more Tallinn, then the start of our journey home.