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The first visit I had here was a little sub-optimal as it was cloudy and that does impact a view somewhat when you’re in the middle of the bloody cloud.

I was nearby so I decided to have another go at getting photos and here they are. I had purchased the Tallinn Card again, so there was no additional charge for popping back.

The botanical gardens that we visited last time. That was really for Susanna, I didn’t go back this time.

This photo had some snow in it for extra excitement.

Yes, it was quite windy up there. It’s rather warmer when standing inside looking out, but I didn’t really want photos with reflection all over them so I went outside. It’s not visible from the photos but there is a gate there to stop people falling off the side.

One of the holes in the floor.

It was nice to visit again, although I only stayed for around twenty minutes as there’s a limit to how much excitement can be dragged out of a visit like this.

After Polarbeargate, I was ready to explore the rest of Tallinn Zoo which is the only zoo in Estonia.

The zoo map which has been in operation since the 1930s (the zoo, not the map). Although for anyone interested in old maps of the zoo, here’s one from fifteen years ago.

First of all, I was not impressed to see this. I don’t get my glasses until later this week and I had just been reading about a tiger which had escaped from San Francisco Zoo so I planned how to attack what I thought was an escaped tiger at Tallinn Zoo. I thought I’d hit it with my battery pack, but I wasn’t entirely sure that this was a viable strategy. It turned out that it wasn’t a real tiger, so I’m left wondering whether a tiger would run off after being hit by a battery pack or just be even more annoyed. I rather suspect the latter.

The zoo’s leopard was just pacing up and down, which I’m really not sure is a healthy situation for a big cat.

An emerald tree skink.

I thought that this looked very realistic. I then realised it looked realistic as it was real. I’m looking forward to my glasses.

A reticulated python eyeing me up for lunch.

It didn’t take its eyes off me.

The camouflage really is impressive.

This is a pitcher plant which is a carnivorous plant which traps insects.

Cute, this is a dhole.

My new favourite animal since I’ve gone off polar bears, the meerkat.

Sleepy.

Tortoises.

All was well and I didn’t need to alert the zookeepers.

A rhino.

A cuddly seal! I’d add, it’s recommended not to cuddle them as otherwise they’ll want to be domesticated and taken on trips to the shopping centre.

Two yellow tree monitors.

A green tree python.

I don’t want one as a pet, although apparently people do keep these to love and hold them.

A white faced muskox. If I had to choose between a green tree python and this as a pet, I’d have this. I suspect that this would cause issues on Wizz Air flights as I’d struggle to call this a support animal and I’d have to pay for a separate seat. I never pay to select my seat, so the same would happen here and my pet muskox would be someone else’s problem to sit next to for the flight.

It’s a generally decent zoo, although there are signs where there are some outdated enclosures and there’s obviously work to do. I know some people would like zoos to close, but I still think that they have a valuable educational, breeding, conservation and protection role to play. There were nearly no other visitors when I was there, other than hoards of kids on school trips although they were young and easy to avoid as they were quite noisy which meant I could bypass them without any issues.

Incidentally, I can’t get very good photos with my phone at the moment of any animal that’s actually moving. It takes around five seconds to get the camera on now and another extra second to take a photo. This is fine for snakes and lazy animals that don’t much move about, but it makes taking photographs of cats much harder.

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.