Trial By Card or How To Self-Apply Medieval Torture

I think I mentioned in my last post that we did a five story climb up a Medieval Tower. How many of you have climbed the typical Medieval staircase? I know a few of you have but many have not. Your typical Middle Ages architect pretty much thumbed their noses at modern building codes. And as far as accessibility..."Why you dirty American peeg dogs, why don't you go home and write up your ADA."

I bring this up because Wife and I have this amnesia related to age. We continually make serious...I mean SERIOUS vows that we will remember that we are not as strong and resilient as we were in the past...we will remember we have numerous and varied muscle and joint issues...we will remember that we don't have to do everything we did when we are younger.

And we continually completely ignore them.

Hence today we were sore as all get out, but still went on multiple long walks and are now trying to figure out how to say 'hip replacement' in Estonian.

Now a lot of this WOULDN'T HAPPEN AT ALL if it were not for the phenomena of 'Cards'. I speak of those 'Cards' that give you discounts off multiple attractions as well as giving you unlimited access to public transportation. The problem with 'Cards' is we have this need, no I'd say this compulsion to get our money's worth. This means you do everything you need to do to get more value than you spent on the 'Card' - even if it kills you. You may remember a couple of years ago when we bought the Istanbulcart and Wife insisted we go to numerous museums even though I was ill with a fever and the chills.

Today was one of those day. Wife hobbling up and down stairs or not, we had discounts we needed to earn!

Tallinn Estonia is a neat little city. The country has about the same population as New Mexico. Like Slovenia that we visited last year, with its newly one independence their is a feeling of freshness and enthusiasm. Did you know that Skype was developed by Estonian engineers? As an avid Skype user to keep contact with my far flung family, thanks Estonian innovators!

Here's today's pictures

In the morning we were back in the Medieval City

We visited a museum, an old church, that has an impressive display of Medieval art. I like Medieval art because it reminds us that our feeling that this was a black and white period is dispelled by the colors of the art.

Wife wanted to introduce me to one of her Mentors, the Dark Lord of Photography criticism.

Then we took tram and bus out of town to the Estonian TV Tower

We had lunch at the top which I will report more about in a foodie post but here are some shots from up in it.

Then it was taking a tram to Kadriorg Park. This park was established by Peter the Great after he conquered Tallinn from the Swedes. He built a 'summer cottage' for his wife that now houses an art museum but we got there to late to get in. Here are pictures of the summer palace and in the park as well as one of the houses that were built nearby in later centuries by Russian elites.