Toompea Hill is the upper town, the most historic section of Tallinn (or Reval as it was originally called). It is even older than the section of Tallinn contiguous with it, Vanalinn (the Old Town). Ülemlinn (Upper Town) is the site of Tallinn’s first settlement by the Danish in 1219. Among the tourist hotspots are the Riigikogu (housed in Toompea Castle) and one of Tallinn’s most impressive kõrgumas (wall towers). Also worthy of a look on the Hill are its famous Russian Orthodox (Alexander Nevsky) Cathedral and Lutheran Cathedral (Toomkirik or Dome Church). What attracts visitors to Toompea in particular is the great views of the wider Tallinn. Toompea Hill sits on a limestone tableland 20-30 metres above the surrounding areas. Large numbers of tourists jostle for optimal position on the purpose-built Kohtuotsa and Patkuli viewing platforms, to catch a view (and a photo or thirty) of the fantastic panoramic scenery.

The Nevsky Cathedral, a striking looking structure on the aptly named Cathedral Hill (AKA Toompea) opposite the city castle, is one of the first buildings you are likely to spot if you enter Tallinn from the south-west. It caught my eye straight away as we drove up Komandandi tee on the way to our hotel (a converted factory in Pohja). A closer inspection of the Nevsky church will reward the visitor with the sight of one of the best Russian Orthodox cathedrals outside of the Russian Federation (in fact the Nevsky Cathedral is a wonderful taste of what is to come if your plans include going on to visit Saint-Petersburg or Moscow at a later point). On the first day I visited the area, there was a souvenir stall seller dressed in medieval religious garb outside the church (darkly hooded, he looked a bit ominous and clandestine, like something you’d see emerging out of a darkened recess in the The Da Vinci Code). Monumental in appearance, the Nevsky Cathedral’s most distinctive external feature is the five, soaring, black onion domes. The Church, dating from the late Tsarist period, was not without controversy when completed in 1900, as it was built on a location that many Estonians believe was the gravesite of the legendary king, Kalev. The Cathedral has some 11 bells, the largest of which weighs 15 tons, large but not significantly so if you contrast it with the Kremlin’s phenomenal 202 ton Tsar Bell, but it is (unlike Tsar Bell) capable of being hung – and rung! Be prepared to queue if you want to look inside.

On the same square, a matter of metres from the building that is the apogee of Russian Orthodoxy in Estonia, is the building that embodies the sovereignty of the independent Estonian nation, Toompea Castle, which serves as the seat of parliament, the Riigikogu (literally the “state assembly” in Estonian). The structure is a large pink building (lending it the appearance of being cute but still imposing!), corner-posted at one end by Pikk Herman’s Tower, one of Tallinn’s most formidable, historic towers.

Tucked away behind the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral a short distance, you will see a quite different but equally significant old church. Toomkirik, or to give it its formal name, the Cathedral of St Mary the Virgin, is the oldest and most famous Lutheran church in the city, The two great city cathedrals are quite a contrast architecturally. From the outside the white Dome Church (Toomkirik) looks a little drained in colour, making a more subdued statement than the nearby domineering Nevsky Church. Inside St Mary’s though it is more visual stimulating despite it being a bit low on lighting. The highlight of the interior for me is the various Teutonic shields with their heraldic insignias and banners displayed on the walls.

The Patkuli vaateplatvorm is located on the western edge of Toompea hill. The spacious, tableland platform looks out on a sweeping vista of Tallinn which encapsulates the contrasting old and newer parts. The view from the platform ranges from Rocca al Mare, Balti Jaam terminus to Pelgulinn, Kalamaja (with its characteristic older wooden “fish houses”), the city ports and the Baltic, to the distant TV Tower (the highest ‘spire’ in Talinn). Immediately to the left of the viewing platform you will see the back of a government building, an elegant white, neo-classical building with a fine colonnade facade.

After getting your fill of the high views you may want to lope down the 157 steps of the winding Patkuli staircase to picturesque Toomparki below. Down below, the park is a terrific position to survey the western side of Toompea. The best views of the old wall are to be had from a number of vantage-points in both the western side parks (Schnelli, Toom, Falgi ōu) and the southern parks and gardens (Lindamägi, Hirve, Harju, Komandandi and Taani Kuninga). Taani Kuninga Aed (Danish King’s Garden) is interesting to visit because it’s another place in Ülemlinn (the Upper Town) which signifies an convergence of Tallinn history and mythology. Supposedly this is where the Danish flag fell from the sky in 1219 turning the tide of battle against the Estonians. Not really something worthy of memorialising if you were an Estonian nationalist I would have thought, but it is a nice spot with an attractive setting.

Prior to going there I can’t say I’ve ever thought much about Tallinn. Having been there I now know, not only how to correctly spell its name, but what a fascinating place it is – in particular the Old Town which is one of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe. The Old Town, or Vanalinn in Estonian, possesses a neat symmetry in its circumference. You can enter Vanalinn at one medieval set of gates (Viru Gates) and follow various narrow winding cobblestone roads, past the central Raekoja plats (Town Hall Square) and eventually come through to the end (northern) point of Vanalinn (Fat Margaret’s Tower). Conversely you can start at the north end, at the Fat Margaret gate, and do it in reverse (a practical option if you are, like I was, staying in the Pohja/Sadama part of town). Much of the original old city wall has been retained and you can follow the wall as it jags round the parameter of Vanalinn.

The Wall on the western side separates Vanalinn from Toompea (Katedraal Hill) which sits on a high bluff around 30 metres above the Old Town. On the eastern side of the wall, especially in Müürivahe, the environs can get a bit smelly, it was decidedly “on the nose” when I visited, so much so that it put me off going to a restaurant I had singled out in this street! The wall towers and old merchant houses in the Lower Town with their reddish-orange roofs exude a real old world charm and you quickly come to appreciate the many different foreign influences that have exerted themselves on the city at different points in its history – Danish, Swedish, German and Russian (particularly this last one). You also get a feel for Tallinn’s past of being once part of the Hanseatic regional trading confederation.

In the course of your peregrinations around the town you will see several notable old spiralled churches, especially around Pikk tänav or Harju tänav. Most visitors are happy to leisurely stroll through the cobbled streets and lanes (the Old Town is very navigable by foot in good shoes), but there is also a lot of transport that can be called on. You can take one of the myriad of bicycles fitted with a box for sitting in (velotaksos) operated by boys and girls who look like (and probably are) university students. A second option is you can tour the Old Town in a toy ‘train’, the Vana Toomas. Or you might like to hail down one of the horse-drawn carriages and be driven around by two rather severe looking lady drivers in smart if a little undertaker-like outfits.

Raekoja plats is the tourist centre of Vanalinn. It’s a terrific spot to stroll round and take in the splendid architecture of the historic town. Great place also for lunch or dinner, Town Hall Square has many food choices, Estonian and Russian are popular naturally enough but also plenty of Asian, Italian, etc), as well as cafés and bars. In the Square you’ll find a big selection of what Americans call ‘sidewalk’ eateries and cafés, all grouped in an L-shaped row, a very popular spot to dine in summer. Totally predictably there’s a very touristy feel to the quarter and many restorans like Olde Hansa have gone over-the-top with the full medieval peasant kit for their serving staff! I spoke to one such ridiculously-attired waiter at this open air restaurant and I swear he sounded just like the dude in the Husqvarna TV commercial doing the exaggerated and deliberately silly Swedish accent!

During the day suvenyras stalls monopolise Raekoja Square with stacks of clothing, bags, amber, being flogged to the mingling multitude of visitors. This is one of the best places in Tallinn to score the cheaper-priced souvenirs. When the weather obliges there is often a band or musical performers of some description performing on the stage in front of the Town Hall … that’s when it gets really crowded in the Square! Hang around the edge of Raekoja long enough and you’ll probably catch a glimpse of the horse-coach with the equestrian-garbed women drivers passing by or lined up for a fare.

Wandering around the Old Town especially close to Toompea Hill you will regularly run into sections of the still significantly intact medieval town wall. Tallinn owes its status as a UNESCO World Heritage city in no small measure to its winding, elongated and largely preserved historic old town wall. For the visitor, Vanalinn’s numerous passageways and towers, most famously Kiek in de Kök and Tall Herman’s Tower, are redolent of history. A particularly popular spot on the wall is Neitsitorn, which doesn’t translate as “No-sit-on” but means Maiden’s Tower (a somewhat ironic name given that at one time the Tower was uncomfortably close to a prostitutes’ prison!). Neitsitorn, now a museum cafe, draws many visitors to sit on its long balcony high up on the wall and enjoy its fine views over the city. Kiek in de Kök with the voyeuristic connotations of its name (translating as “peeping into kitchens”) is also now a military museum of sorts, appropriately enough as the tower still has nine cannonballs embedded in it from the 16th century Livonian War.

Walking east from Raekoja plats, along Harju street towards Kesklinn (the New Town), you will reach Freedom Square, a plaza of great national significance to Estonians. Towering over the square is a huge cross which symbolises the Estonian people’s struggle for independence after WWI, but more recently it was the gathering point for Estonians to proclaim their freedom from Soviet rule in 1991. Meetings and concerts are occasionally held here, but every time we visited, the predominant (indeed only) activity going on in the square was games of basketball between Tallinnese youth (basketball is Estonian’s national sport appropriately for a nation of tall people) … come to think of it, Tallinnese (linguistic purists humour me on this one!) is almost a homonym for ‘Tallness’! The large and St Johns Cathedral, a focal point of the community, is at one end of the square. This broad, open space is well worth a look even if just to get away from all the souvenir shops, narrow alleyways and confined spaces of the Old Town for a bit.

Spending time in Freedom Square will afford you a respite from the Old Town’s crowds and shops. Another, more aesthetically appealing place is the peaceful and tranquil parks on the western side of the city (between Toompea/Vanalinn and the central Baltic train station). Two in particular stand out, Schnelli Park and Tornide valjak. These long, delightful parklands represent a distinctive green zone cut off from the more densely populated parts of the inner city. Schnelli Park has a pond (Schnelli Tiik), once part of the medieval city’s moat, a rockery and fountain at the southern end. Within the northern section, Tornide valjak, there is two (new) small quirky, themed gardens each celebrating a (sister city) connection with Tallinn – a Kiev (Ukraine) ‘Ocean’ garden with colourfully painted tin and plastic figures of fish and other pelagic creatures; and a Ghent (Belgium) garden with vivid silhouettes of children at play. In winter Schnelli Park and the other adjoining parks take on a whole different complexion, becoming fields of snow!

During my stay in St Petersburg I got to appreciate the number and variety of bridges that there are in this “Venice of the North”. Given that St Petersburg is dissected by a series of islands and waterways, bridges are an integral part of the cityscape. There are hundreds of bridges scattered around the city and the easiest way of seeing a healthy percentage of them is from the deck of one of the innumerable canal boats. If you have the luxury of time though, on foot is a better way to view in detail at least a representative sample of the bridges. In the 19th century the city administrators decided to colour-code some of the bridges, but now-a-day only the Blue, Red, Green and Yellow (this last one now renamed Pevcheskiy) bridges remain of those originally designated by hue. The best known of these is the Blue Bridge (Siniy most), which crosses the Moika River and has the widest span of any bridge in St Petersburg. The other three ‘colour’ bridges also cross the Moika but they are less ambitious constructions than the Blue Bridge. I couldn’t really fathom where Pevcheskiy bridge (the Singers’ bridge) got its former name from (Zholtyi) as it looks more olive-green than yellow in its colouring. Some of the bridges display a mythological animal motif, eg griffins (Bank Bridge), the Sphinx chimera, aptly enough, on the Egyptian (pedestrian) Bridge.

One of the most famous bridges, in part because of its central spot in the city, is Anichkov Bridge. This bridge provides passage over Fontanka canal for traffic and pedestrians on busy Nevskiy Prospect. Visitors to St Petersburg invariably stop to admire the four bronze horse scultures on each corner of the bridge. I had several opportunities to do this as on our journeys along Nevskiy Pr we regularly crossed this spot back and forth. The four-cornered “Horse Tamers” are one of St Petersburg’s most recognisable landmarks.

Another bridge over the Fontanky River interesting in its design, is Lomonosov bridge. This bridge is a remnant of the movable, towered bridges common in 18th century St Petersburg. Lomonosov is characterised by four rusticated Doric columns which look a bit like sentry boxes on top of the bridge.

Further down the Fontanka River we came to Panteleymonovsky Bridge at the point of the river’s confluence with Moika (near the Mikhailovskiy castle). Pantelymonosky is an attractive bridge with some interesting martial elements. The bridge’s railings incorporate an impressive motif of shields, battle-axes, spears and other weapons of war. The end-columns holding up lanterns continue the theme. Its design of a bundle of spears, atop of which is a golden eagle, is suggestive of Imperial Rome.

Out on the Neva River the Palace Bridge (Dvoretsovy) is the bridge that gets most attention in St Petersburg. Dvoretsovy is probably the most photographed (and reproduced on posters, T-shirts, caps, etc) highlight in St Petersburg. The Palace is a bascule bridge with a mechanised, double-leaf lifting action. At night it is the standard pastime to take photos of the illuminated bridge opening for passing vessels on the Neva. The Palace bridge also features prominently in the “White Nights” cruise on the river from June to July each year.

Along the river from Dvoretsovy is Trinity Bridge (Troitskiy most), another interesting segmental designed bridge and a single-wing lifting mechanism. most visitors appreciate Troitskiy bridge for its spectular Art Nouveau feature such as the elegant metal lanterns and the elaborate rostral columns at each end. Whilst visitors tend to focus, rightfully, on the feast of grand buildings on display in St Petersburg, its good to keep in mind that the city’s bridges have a particular charm and fascination of their own.

After we returned from Pushkin we decided to catch up on a few of the recommended places that we hadn’t got to on the walking tour. The Saviour on Blood Church (AKA ‘Church of the Spilled Blood’) is on most ‘unmissable’ lists for St Petersburg. The key to this cathedral’s origin lies in its name. The church was erected on the spot (the junction of Moika and Griboedova canals) where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881, hence the somewhat queasiness-inducing name. By the time I got round to visiting it I was probably suffering from ABC fatigue, the prospect of viewing yet “Another Bloody Church!” (having had my fill of them all over Eastern Europe) didn’t excite me. But even in this jaded state of mind I would have to admit that the exterior of “The Spilled Blood” left a strong impression on me. It is stunning admixture of different designs and patterns, domes with swirling colours, some pure gold and some looking like a “chocolate freckle”. I was reminded more than a little of the famous Pokrovskiy Cathedral (St Basil’s) in Moskva’s Red Square with its striped, multi-coloured domes & towers (but “The Spilled Blood” is a slightly scaled-down version of the Krasnaya church). The 16-17th century style building contrasts sharply with the Baroque, classical & more modern surrounding buildings of the area. Some expressive mosaics in the church’s interior. There’s a long string of souvenir stalls at the rear of church alongside the canal.

We crossed town to see St Issac’s Cathedral (in Russian transliterated as Isaakievskiy Sobor), one of the icons of Saint-Petersburg, right up there with Kazan Cathedral. It is located in the Admiralteiskaya district not far from the Neva River. St Issac’s is worthy of a look for its crowning glory alone – the huge fully gold-plated dome roof, identifiable from diverse parts of the city. The 250rbl entrance fee (as at 2015) is very good value because the interior is quite a treasure to behold, richly decorated with glittering mosaics & columns containing malachite & lapis-lazuli ornamentation. As an added bonus good views of the cityscape await climbers willing to walk up the 226 steps to the church’s colonnade.

We went next to St Micheal’s Castle (known variously as St Michael’s Castle, Mikhailovskiy Palace and the Engineers’ Castle), located on Sadovaya Ul near another junction of the city’s canals. Mikhailovskiy Palace is in a different league to the vainglorious excesses of St Petersburg’s better known architectural tourist magnets. It lacks the glamour, richness and sheer scope of Peterhof, the Winter Palace and Catherine Palace. As castles go this pink castle with a green roof is a formidable looking structure with a moat and strong walls. The castle has a big open courtyard in the middle which is quite barren, it could do with a few pot plants & a little imaginative planning to brighten the area up. Mikhailovskiy Palace’s beginnings had an ironic element which explains the castle’s air of foreboding – built by Tsar Pavel I with the purpose of strengthening the emperor’s personal security, however Pavel survived only 40 nights in it before he was murdered! Across the road in a pleasant park overlooking the palace there is a statue of Peter the Great posing as a Roman emperor. Today Mikhailovskiy Palace is an art museum (part of the Russian Museum) with lots of works by famous Russian artists including world-class painters like Chagall and Kandinsky. Architectural oddity: all four facades, N, S, E & W, are completely different in appearance.

Getting back on to Nevskiy Pr, a monumental piece of architecture that you’ll find hard to miss as you walk the street is Kazansky Cathedral. When I first noticed this panoramic building I mistook it for the parliament or the head-of-state’s residence, not a church. It has a large, extended colonnade, bookended by two huge square arches. The colonnade with a dominant central dome is shaped in a semi-circle which encloses a small, peaceful garden with a fountain. Kazansky Cathedral’s design was based on the iconic St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, much in the way that Peter the Great’s inspiration for Peterhof was the glory of Versailles. Visits inside the Cathedral during opening hours are free. Not far from here, still on Nevskiy, we stumbled on another ecclesiastical building very different to Kazansky. The St Catherine Armenian Apostolic Church, a little Armenian church set back from the street and dwarfed by all the large elegant Art Nouveau buildings close by. The Armenian church is a small but beautiful light blue and white building. From the street you only get only a glimpse of it as it is jammed in between two large, more pedestrian-looking buildings. Up close of course you get a better view, but unfortunately, the proximity of unconnected buildings block a full, wide shot of the whole facade. Still, it is worth your while to stop and check out this minor gem of a building.