Various days, between Friday 07-June-2024 through Sunday, 09-June-2024

During my early adventures around Tallinn, I noticed something about the Old Town of the city… it was ringed by walls. Now, in retrospect that shouldn’t be a surprise – European Cities were generally fortified at some point in the past, which inherently means walls. I hadn’t really seen any walled cities on this trip so far, though – Iceland and Greenland didn’t have city walls, and Oslo / Stockholm / Helsinki didn’t appear to have them either. Perhaps because they were all water-based cities, and didn’t have such a risk of land-based invasion?

Either way, Tallinn did have city walls. City walls which made for an excellent hiking target.


I woke up, got some coffee and food inside me, and headed out to circumnavigate the old town of Tallinn.

(Now, keep in mind that most of this happened on Sunday the 9th… but my adventures and wanderings on previous days did take me around and through the Old Town. I’ve included those pictures here, just to keep everything simple)

The wall around Tallinn isn’t continuous, I quickly learned, and is instead sort of like a dashed line – some sections have fallen to time, and some sections are effectively just houses now. While it wasn’t a clean and easy trail, it was definitely a fun way to wander around the city. I passed shops, found gardens, and saw quite a few towers and ramparts along the way.

I didn’t dive into any of the museums surrounding the town – and there were quite a few. Each tower seemed to have its own gallery, and while they would have been a welcome respite from the rain… galleries and museums weren’t my goal for the day. I wanted to walk – to be outdoors, and to have some time for my mind to rest and parse through some of the adventures I’ve had… basically, time for both my mind and body to wander.

I accomplished that goal perfectly, I have to say. For an active rest day, the Walls of Tallinn were a great companion.