Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Pikk street, Tallinn's historic main drag, which winds through the Old Town,
leading from Toompea down the hill (from right to left), through the gate
tower, past the Church of the Holy Ghost, behind St. Olav's, and out to the
harbor. Less picturesque is the clutter of Soviet-era apartment blocks on the
distant horizon. The nearest skyscraper (white) is Hotel Viru, in Soviet times
the biggest hotel in the Baltics, and infamous as a clunky, dingy slumber-
mill. Locals joke that Hotel Viru was built from a new Soviet wonder material
called “micro-concrete” (60 percent concrete, 40 percent microphones). Un-
derneath the hotel is the modern Viru Keskus, a huge shopping mall and local
transit center, where this walk will end. To the left of Hotel Viru, between it
and the ferry terminals, is the Rotermann Quarter, where old industrial build-
ings are being revamped into a new commercial zone.
