Tartu, Estonia — This morning Bill Ausich and I walked to the new Estonian National Museum, shown above. It has a most unusual elongated building constructed on an abandoned secret Soviet airbase for bombers (Raadi Airfield). It follows an old runway with the revetments still in place. It is striking.
Parts of the Soviet base are still preserved, including these concrete fence posts.
This is an old Soviet air force garage on the way to the museum. This base was so secret that the entire city of Tartu was closed to foreigners. Now Bill and I stroll the grounds. We did the same in a once-secret Soviet missile base on Saaremaa.
The front entrance of the Estonian National Museum.
I don’t have a lot to show you in the museum itself, since it is mostly about fold and cultural history (which was fascinating). Bill and I appreciated the digital signs. They appear first in Estonian, like this one. We were issued special language cards, though.
When we pass the “English” card across the sensor, the text is instantly translated! Very clever.
Across the road from the museum is an upside-down house. It is apparently quite the tourist attraction, but we passed.
Back in the city center, in fact in front of our hotel, was a street festival. It had live music, fantastic food, and large, happy crowds.
There were lots of fried fish stands, with fish from the local lakes and the Baltic.
Here is Bill waiting for a meal. Impressively, by 10 pm the festival was over, and the streets completely clear the next morning. This is a very efficient, sensible country!
That digital signage is great; I’ve seen plenty of multi-language signs, but the problem, of course, is always limited space. What a good way to broaden the outreach! I don’t get out of the country much — any idea how common these are?
First time I’ve seen this system, Alex. It is very clever — there were at least a dozen other language cards available besides English. It also reveals your preferred language to anyone else watching!