This place is quite extraordinry, not just for its beauty but for how it came about. The mining quarry was established in 1938 and mined by inmates from the nearby prison. In fact the mountain like structure you will see was man made from the residue from the quarry which piled up over the years and now stands at an incredible height of 70 meters at its tallest.... 
We stopped for a very nice lunch in what was once the sealed off town of Paldiski with a couple of rather lively locals, much the worse (or better) for a few vodkas. Situated in the North Western Region of Estonia on the Pakri Peninsula it bacame a Russian naval base in the 18th century. In 1962 during the Soviet occupation of Estonia the town became a Soviet Navy... 
Padise Abbey, which was once a Cistercian monastery was the next stop on our one day trip from Tallinn. This somewhat crumbling but beautiful building dates back to the 14th century when it was settled by some dispossessed monks from Dünamünde Abbey, Latvia. It had its share of medievil history when it was burned down in 1343 during the St. Georges Night uprising.... 
Like the other two baltic states, Lithuania and Latvia, Estonia also had a Jewish population, cerainly smaller in numbers but prior to World War Two and the Nazi occupation between 1941 – 1944 there was a thriving Jewish population in Estonia numbering about 4,300 (0.4% of the population). In 1940 during the Soviet occupation of Estonia about 10% of the Jewish... 
Continuing on our one day tour outside of Tallinn we came to the Keila waterfull which is one of the largest and most well known in Estonia. Situated in a park with access to the sea the waterfall is 6 meters in height and 10’s of meters in length. Situated in the same grounds is an old manor, built in the 19th century by Alexander von Benckendorff who was head of... 
There is something sinister about the limestone cliffs, which were on the schedule and part of an all day trip from Tallinn, but before I get to that a few words about these stunning cliffs. Dating back millions of years the cliffs have been through just about every natural phenomenon in their long lives including tectonic plate movements, meteorite impacts, volcanic... 
The Estonian History Museum was started on the whim of a local town hall pharmacist called Johann Burchard decided way back in 1802 to start a collection which he called “Mon Faible” (in french “my weakness”). His “weakness” for collecting was inspired by a marbled easter egg. By 1822 a Chinese opium pipe led to the first exhibition in...  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
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