From Toompea Hill it is time to head to the major museum we planned for the day, Kiek in de Kök. Near the entrance there is an interesting statue complex of what appear to be plague doctors or some other nightmare persons lurking from different places. But we are more interested in the fat, lazy pigeons relaxing on the ground, they are quite fun and likely enjoy one of the rare sunny days in the area.
Kiek in de Kök is a museum set in the city wall and from it we can climb the ramparts to view the city from high above or descend into a network of tunnels and we are looking forward to both.
The first section has an exhibit about how the Danish flag Dannebrog fell down from the sky in Tallinn during a battle of the Danish king helping him to win a battle that seemed lost. It is a story that we didn’t know so we find it quite interesting. Another section is a painter studio and then we find a cafe and soon we understand that the museum is a collection of many disparate exhibits that sometimes don’t seem to have any connection between them.
We now walk the ramparts for a while enjoying the views and sitting at a table to eat some marzipan that we bought at the entrance as are quite hungry already.
Of course the marzipan attracts some very brave sparrows, who as far as we know don’t even like marzipan but still come to investigate. Then we continue to the end of the ramparts in this direction which end in an exhibit of Estonian francmasonery, as mentioned the mix of exhibit topics can be dizzying.
We now return and pass where we entered and continue on the ramparts which are quite scenic and less popular in this section. The views here are not that good though due to the trees and buildings blocking any sweeping vistas.
Now we enter the history section which shows the history of Tallinn and the fortifications in the context of different historical eras. Some are quite interestingly realized including the section about the plague with a plague doctor holding a rat on his shoulder while looking at the dead people.
In this tower you can climb up and town and at different levels there are different exhibits including one about weaponry. While it appears that the exhibit is for medieval weapons we find also more modern weapons unless Estonia was much more advanced in medieval weapons than we thought.
Other levels have some exhibits about farming and cooking, with some interesting real life dioramas about life in the city before all those pesky rules requiring animals to not be raised inside the city limits.
Some other exhibits are even more weird like one about a spider with egg sacks (what is up with that exhibit?) and one with a skeleton of a giraffe (also quite weird for Estonia).
Then we arrive at another possible entrance into the museum that also leads to the second section, the tunnels. It is a long descent into the tunnels for our tired feet, on multiple stairs that are also quite different from each other, some modern, some rock hewn.
And then we are at the bottom looking at a weird green lit machine that we assume was used to create part of the tunnels? Or maybe not who knows, what we know is that the lightning is quite psychedelic and you can go for what seems to be kilometers in these underground tunnels.
At different points in the tunnels there are exhibits related to the tunnels, showing how they were used through the decades. Lately they have been used by homeless but previously it was used for militarily purposes and as shelter during bombing in WW2.
It was also used funnily to store all the placards people were forced to carry during the obligatory communist parades.
At the end is a lapidarium, a collection of tombstones and other carved stones collected from different places in Tallinn. They are quite well preserved and interesting but we are quite tired at this point and are looking for the exit that our map shows is at the end of the tunnels. And we are shocked to find out that it is closed so we have to walk back the couple kilometers to the entrance we passed on our way so we can exit.
We exit in a different part of the town near the Independence Monument and after taking our bearings it is time to return to our program of sightseeing.
