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With my Tallinn Card, I took the bus to have a little look at the city’s zoo. One of the new parts of the zoo is the polar bear enclosure, or the Polarium as they call it.

The cuddly polar bear playing.

How cute.

She seemed to be enjoying herself. I’m not a polar bear expert, but the zoo has two of them and I’m going to gamble that this was the female one.

I can’t remember which one this was.

I think I was just about the only visitor at the zoo and the polar bear came over to have a look at what was happening. Actually, I’m not really sure which was which as they do both look like polar bears.

He had an appearance of not being entirely happy.

And then the bloody thing started running and jumped up to the glass in an attempt to hug me. I was bloody delighted at just how tough the glass was as the polar bear was determined to pounce and he came towards me at one hell of a rate. This was not a happy polar bear.

He seemed annoyed to have been foiled by what he must have thought was a force field. I’ve gone off polar bears now, I’ve decided that I wouldn’t have lasted long if that glass would have caved in. You know where you are with meerkats, so I’ve decided that I prefer them now.

Whilst I was at the zoo busy on Google finding out whether a polar bear could break glass, I read about the story of three idiots who annoyed a tiger at San Francisco zoo and the big cat managed to kill one of them.

I can confirm that this is accurate as a polar bear helpfully stood one side of the glass whilst I was on the other. They’re quite big when you get close up.

This painting, at the House of Peter the Great, of Mikhail I of Russia (the Russian Tsar between 1613 and 1645) is original, although it’s not known who painted it. It was donated to Tallinn’s Brotherhood of the Blackheads in 1639 and there was a copy made in 1728 by Johann Heinrich Wedekind and this is in a Moscow art gallery. It’s that copy which is used on sites such as Wikipedia to illustrate articles about the former Tsar, meaning that this painting tucked away in Estonia is one of the best representations that there is of the Russian leader Mikhail I.

He’s wearing the royal dress of the early seventeenth century and he had some reason to feel regal and proud as he brought a stability to Russia after the Time of Troubles which lasted between 1598 and 1613. This was a sub-optimal period for Russia, as there was a famine that killed a third of the country’s population and lawlessness was seemingly everywhere. Peter the Great lived between 1672 and 1725 and so I rather like to think that this painting was here during his time as Tsar, I can almost imagine him wandering by it giving a little nod to mark his seal of approval.

What else could I do in a relatively cold Tallinn on a Sunday evening in early February? After much thought, an Asian meal of some description seemed to be the most tempting and the reviews of Asian Wok were positive. They seem to cut across quite a chunk of southern Asian food, including plenty of Chinese and Indian dishes. I checked the menu on-line around fifteen seconds before going in, an advisable thing to do as the menu outside the front door has one of the smallest font sizes that I’ve ever seen. I’ve just had my eyes tested and told that I can see things up close perfectly, but my elderly friends (they know who they are) would have had one hell of a job.

I was the only customer in the restaurant when I entered, although a couple came in a little later on, but there were plenty of delivery orders going on. The service was friendly and personable, with the beer being served promptly, although the food took nearly forty minutes which seemed a little longer than I had expected. But, I was hardly in a rush.

They usually have Asian beers, but they’d run out tonight and so there was the lager from A. Le Coq, the oldest brewery in Estonia. As lagers go, it was fine, crisp and clean.

I went for the chicken madras and the curry really wasn’t particularly madras like and there was no evidence of chillies or anything with spice. I know that many Indian restaurants across mainland Europe tend to change their spice levels for the local market, but I was struggling to get any heat out of this. The restaurant uses chicken thigh meat which I accept can give more flavour and is likely more authentic, although personally I do prefer chicken breast for the texture. The menu made reference to this being at their highest spice level and mentioned that the madras came with coconut in the sauce. I’m not sure that’s always the case, but I think it would help balance the spice levels out somewhat, but it just made it even more creamy here. Having noted that, the taste wasn’t unpleasant, the rice was well cooked and the naan bread had a depth of flavour. I asked for plain naan, although I noted that half of the naan were garlic.

I did enjoy the meal, the entire bill for the curry, rice, naan and half a litre of beer came to around £15, so it was all reasonably priced and the portion sizes were generous. It’s the first time incidentally that I’ve been given a curry in a bucket like that, although it helped keep it warm given that the plate itself was cold. I think if I came again I might request that the curry be made with more spice, although it feels quite British to do that in some macho way. I think I stayed here for around two hours as I rather got distracted with my book (well, book on a phone) and the service was always personable and helpful, so I’d recommend it if asked (the restaurant, not my phone which to be honest is on its last legs).

This painting is located at the House of Peter the Great and it was painted by Karl Burman (1882-1965) in June 1945. It makes him look like a hands-on ruler with his aides ready to offer help.

This is the location in the room where the artist thought that Peter the Great might have been sitting. It would have been an interesting time for Burman to paint something like this, Estonia was under effective Soviet control with the puppet leadership of Johannes Vares and they would have liked the thought of Peter the Great having a relevance here.

Incidentally, Vares killed himself at the Residence of the President of Estonia, located opposite from the museum.

This was an exciting little treat. OK, it might look like a bungalow in a park, but this is one of the oldest surviving properties in Tallinn and it’s also the former residential property of Peter the Great. There’s something quite decadent about spending an hour in a property where one of the most important figures in history once lived.

The staff here were friendly, engaging and helpful, so there was a welcoming feel to what is a relatively small museum. I was taken downstairs, and I wasn’t given much choice in the matter, to watch a video about the history of the building. However, I was pleased to see this as it was a useful introduction to the site and there are some information boards in the cellar as well.

The property was originally owned by the local merchant Hermann von Drenteln in the late seventeenth century and in 1714 it was sold to Peter the Great by his widow. She did well out of the arrangement, getting 1,400 roubles which apparently was a generous payment for the property. Peter the Great and his wife Catherine (later Catherine I) used the property when they stayed in Tallinn whilst the Kadroig Palace was being constructed. One of the reasons that the Tsar liked it was because it had views over the city and the Gulf of Tallinn (probably soon known in the US as the Gulf of America) which was handy as there were some battles going on in that area. The rooms H and I were wooden additions by Peter and they were later taken down, with A being the entrance hall, F the kitchen, C the living room and D the bedroom.

The living room with its large oval table.

The bedroom is located at the end of the building and it’s necessary to go through the living room to get there.

I understand that the bed is original, but the original silk canopy and bed cover fell apart during the eighteenth century and so these are more modern replacements. The video I watched at the beginning of the visit mentioned that visitors kept taking souvenirs such as feathers from the pillow and fabric from the coverings, so it’s not entirely that much of those remained. Bloody tourists.

The information about this room states that the armchair was owned by Peter the Great and was built by a local craftsman, although it looks in rather good condition to me for its age.

The dining room. In Peter the Great’s time, the dining room was located in the now demolished extension and a small mezzanine level was added in the 1804 to 1806 reconstruction and that’s when this room was added. That means that Peter and Catherine never visited the room in this state, but the table and chairs are original to the property and were used by the couple. I assume that quite a lot of repair and restoration has taken place here, particularly on the chairs, as they all look relatively new to me.

The kitchen which was basic, but functional.

The chimney type arrangement that’s above where the fire pit was located.

Peter the Great died in 1725 and the house began to fall into disrepair, although the interiors were mostly kept in place. Tsar Alexander I visited Tallinn in the early nineteenth century and was told about the property, which he went to visit. He ordered it to be restored and it was, opening as a museum in 1806, the oldest in Tallinn (or Reval as it was then). The rooms that had been located at the end of the property were demolished, but they were located in the foreground of the above photo. Catherine built herself quite a decent garden, but I think it’s fair to say (and I’m not a gardening expert) has been lost.

There’s normally an admission charge of €5 to visit, but I got in free with the Tallinn Card. The reviews are nearly all very positive about this museum and it’s surprised me with just how much has survived here from the eighteenth century. All really rather lovely.