Thursday 3rd June 2010
Another lovely sunny day. For breakfast today we paid for a buffet breakfast in the ajoining Hotel Metropol. It was an interesting offering. Two cereals, several yogurt in jugs, salted herring, boiled eggs, scrambled egg, tiny hot sausages, breads, cold meat selections, cheese, tomato, cucumber, pickles together with juices, tea and coffee. Certainly enough to keep us happy and fed.
Then quite soon afterwards, we headed out for the Old Town. We did call into a few shops before the rush of cruise boat tourists arrived. Some very nice Russian Dolls and Christmas decorations. We wondered about adding some to our existing collection.
But the first target was to visit the Photography Museum, which is housed in the town's historic and old prison building, just behind the Town Hall. We both got senior price plus a photography permit wo that I could snap away at anything I saw and wanted to record. The display centred on the history of Estonian photgraphy although its camera collection went wider than that. There were a few examples of early techniques such at ferrotype. The work of significant Estonian photographers both professional and amature were featured in displays of their work. A sample darkroom of the early 20th century was set up in one room. I spotted a device to re-photograph prints which I had not seen before.
There several old studio cameras from the time before fitted shutters and a posing chair with a head holding bracket for the long exposures required at that time. I don't think I have seen an actual chair like this before.
Upstairs – and they were steep, narrow winding stairs – was a couple of rooms with display cabnets of cameras. There were some home made Estonian cameras which I do not think were mass produced. There were a number of old folding cameras. However, the most interesting was the displays of Russian made cameras. Of course there were examples of the usual models: Fed, Zenit, Lubitel, and the Kiev 66 under a different name. But there were others which were new to me and very interesting to see. I took quite a few photos of these examples.
They had a couple of 3D cameras including the usual Kodak model. There was also a Victorian stereoscope viewer and some sample view cards. They also had an example of the stereo camera which took glass plates in a fast loading magazine. They also had some of the original glass negatives from the camera. I had first seen an example of this at the Cinematography Museum in Lodz.
They had a wall display of negatives ranging from really large, say, 10 ins x 12ins down to 5ins x 4 ins. They certainly used big negatives in the early days but most prints were contact printed in a one to one copy. Enlargers and improving film quality permitted the use of smaller negative sizes over time.
There was a small display of small negative cameras including some sub-minatures. One was called the 'Junky' which may well describe it quite well. I don't know though. There was a Russian sub miniture which used 14mm film. There was a display of the Minox and some of its supporting equipment. I was surprised to see the claim that the Minox was invented in Estonia was the Riga Photography Museum claims it as a Latvian invention. Here in Tallinn they claim the invention and the first Estonian camera patent, but say that they passed production to Latvia as they could not do that in Estonia.
They had a couple early Leica 35mm cameras as well.
So all up it was an interesting visit and it was a pity that the displays were not more extensive.
Then after a quick re-visit to Cafe Paree for coffee and a sandwich (actually we would call it a filled roll), before heading up the hill to the castle area.
The castle area was nicely set out with the old town wall and castle towers as well as the Estonian Parliament Buildings, which are in a palace built within the castle area by Catherine of Russia along classical lines. Facing it was the three high onion domed towers of the Alexander Nevesky Russian Orthodox Cathederal. We went in and looked at the variety of paintings and ikons around the interior. An interesting visit as it is so different to my regular church experiences.
A block or two down the road was the Church of St Mary the Virgin.Built in the 1200's this is the oldest church building in the city. Although it was a Cathloic church at the Reformation it changed to Lutherian which it still is. So there is the evidence of it being Lutherian but also a few Catholic hints as well. Although the notices said no cameras no filming I noticed that cameras were being used all over the church and flashes were flashing and no one was trying to stop it. So I took some stills and video as well.
As we wandered around Robyn and I saw three viewpoints which gave us a look out over the city. The first was in the pleasant gardens next to the tallest of the castle towers. This looked over the newer city suburbs. The next two both looked out over the old town area. We got some good views and took a number of photos of course.
With the afternoon fast running out we made our way down from the hill and walked along a few streetwe we had not been on before. We wanted to find an ATM or Bankomat but there were none in this area. We were both running out of cash and I only had 35 kroon which is about NZ$4.
Our target was to get to the far end of the Old Town where there were two things to see. First was the Three Sisters. This is actually three identical buildings standing wall to wall together. They were painted in contrasting colours and house a hotel called -wait for it- the Three Sisters Hotel.
A few metres along the road and there was the curved archway of a gate in the old wall. This was the Great Coastal Gate, named I expect, because it was the closest gateway to the harbour. Beside it was a large round tower called Fat Margaret. It was obviously built to house canon to defend against sea borne attacks. Not a lot to see but we saw it anyway. A Maritime Museum is housed in the gate and tower complex.
From here we made our way back to the hostel. I was surprised to find that the nearby spac between buildings had been transformed into a great big outside dinning area. In the middle was a round stage with a band doing sound checks. But around the area were scores of tables covered in white table clothes, wine glasses and cutlery in place. Back at hostel reception I asked about it. I was told that there was seating for 700 ticket holders. They were going to have a 6 or 7 course supper. It sounded fun and was designed to draw attention to the surrounding redeveloping commercial area.
Robyn visited the local supermarket and we had a few courses of our own. Scrimp salad, eggs, a vegetable soup, a yogurt desert, red wine and potato chips. A filling feed but I would hazzard a guess and say that it would not be what the outside dinners would be having.
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