Medieval Estonia

We've been able to do a little sightseeing the past few days and I snapped some pictures to share.

On Wednesday we went to the Museum of Estonian Struggle for Liberty. Right away we were taken with this old bridge leading into the museum area....
The man who operates this museum has collected at least a dozen tanks and other military vehicles from Estonia's history. Several of them are still running and being used!....
Here my kids are just looking at the tank, but soon after they were climbing on it and exploring.

The curator of the museum told us that the missile in this next photo was on display in a museum in Tallinn. He approached the owners and asked if he could purchase it, but they refused to sell it to him. He said that he studied the rotation of their guards and one night came and stole the missile and brought it here. Not sure if that's true or not, but after listening to him for a while, it doesn't sound too far-fetched....
On the property was also a house that belonged to the first Estonian president's brother. Inside was jam-packed full of Estonian history. Pictures, documents, books, uniforms, weapons, ammunition, etc. My husband was intrigued by this next item and made me take a picture. It's a torture chair used by the KGB during WWII. It even has bullet holes in it....
A while back there was a ceremony at the museum where representatives from many different countries came and planted trees. I thought it was interesting that the tree planted by the American ambassador was quite a bit taller than all the others....

On Friday we went into Tallinn's Old Town to visit their Medieval Days celebration. It wasn't as great as I was hoping it would be, but we did see a few fun things. We got to watch an archery contest....
And then afterwards they allowed children to try on all sorts of fun medieval-wear....
This is my son, ready to do battle. The kids had fun having "sword fights" and "jousting" with each other.

In the center of town there were many people selling their handicrafts. Here's one view of a couple of vendors all dressed up....
We enjoyed watching this lady weaving. She and her husband made bases out of wood, drilled small holes around the upper edges and then the wife did basket weaving all around the top. She had many different designs and they were all very pretty (I brought a couple home with me ;)....
We are really enjoying this summer in Estonia. It's too bad that the warm weather will be gone in only a few short weeks. We'll try to soak up as much as we can while it's here!