Baltic States and Scandinavia

I can't remember which side of the border the road works were, but on the way to Parnu, the road was being repaired. Anywhere else they would do one side then the other - not here. The whole road had been taken up and for the next 10km we are driving along a dirt track that is the main road - made worse by all the rain - If you don't believe me take a look.

The next stop on the way to Tallinn, was a beach resort at Parnu. The rain is holding off a little bit so a few of us go for a paddle in the Baltic Sea - OK there were three of us who actually got our feet wet. Others, about a dozen, watched from the beach and the rest went inside for a coffee.

The bus was then back on the road through Estonia and the houses were looking a bit Scandinavian - many of them wooden constructions. Estonia is very close to Finland and is used by many Fins as a convenient weekend break - somewhere where the cost of living is a fraction to that in Finland. The guide told some Estonian jokes - the tapes of contest winner Marie N got a better response.

With a great deal of surprise we arrive at our hotel in Tallinn at a very civilised time - can't remember what it was, though, probably about 7.00pm. A quick cuppa soup then we hit the town trail.

The order of play will be very similar to Riga - tonight we'll have a walk round ourselves but taking cameras this time, tomorrow will be the "official city tour", then later (after an excursion to Kadriorg Palace) we'll catch up on the sights we missed. You can go straight to Russia now or, and I recommend this, you can read on........

Since we don't know where tomorrows tour will take us we make a start on the upper part of the old town. Obviously to get there you also need to walk through the lower part so we admire the views as we go along

The streets are much more commercialised than Riga, and there are loads of cafes, bars and restaurants competing for custom. We walk up the main restaurant street (Viru) to the Town Hall Square then up to the Russian Orthodox Church and Cathedral on the upper part of the city and seek out the panoramic views. One looks over the old town proper, but with the tower of Puhavaimu (Holy Spirit) church in scaffolding the view is nothing to write home about - unlike the panorama viewpoint round the corner which has towers and spires to give interest.

We walk around to the castle to look at Big Hermann - on of the original towers of the city walls, before walking down Pikk Jalg, then onto Lai to look at some of the older buildings. Down this road, some of the building are in the middle of renovation and some don't seem to have started, it very much is the Old Town.

Past Oleviste (Olaf's) Church and round the corner is a suite of houses called the three sisters. Coming back along Pikk we pass the Brotherhood of Blackheads. Times getting on, now, so we begin our way back passing through the Town Hall Square again slipped down Catherine's Passage (that's the name of a street) then down the bit of Viru we missed coming up.

The bus then drives round the old city walls and ends up by the Castle Courtyard in the upper part of the Old Town. We disembark for a walking tour.

The walking tour is actually a bit poor, and we are VERY glad that we spent the time we did last night in the Old Town. The local guide, as usual, is giving us information overload about the various places which we all try and listen to - you can tell how intensely interested some members of the group are when the guide is interrupted mid-sentence with the question "Today is Thursday, isn't it".

The tour continues throught the upper town to the Dome Cathedral, then on to the panoramic view point (in our opinion the lesser one. After this is coffee time. As the weather is quite good we opt to nip round to panoramic view number two - claimed by the guide to be the same as this one.

We try and encourage others to join us, but coffee and souvenirs are calling them instead.

Back to the castle and down to the Old Town via Luhike Jalg (short leg) and to the Town Hall Square. A brief word from the guide about the location of the restaurants for lunch and that was it - so many interesting bits of the old town not covered.

Our first target is the Town Hall Tower - if there is a tower to climb, we'll climb it. Views are pretty good

It is actually the bell tower that we seem to be in - there is a bell there. I decide to see if it works and tug at the dangly bit and get a rich sounding "DONG" out of it. We wonder if anyone in the square looked at their watch and wondered why the bell struck one at 12.25.

We wander a bit more around the town hall square, there are a number of people in medieval costume wandering around adding a bit of atmosphere to the place.

We have lunch (coffee and cake) in a nice little coffee shop (Cafe Wechen Gang) down one of the streets. Quaint and with a toilet, which seems to be used by tour guides when one of their party "needs to go". On a couple of occasions folk slipped in to go to the loo - some obviously desperate as they bob up and down outside until the previous occupant comes out!

The afternoon is an optional excursion to Kadriorg Palace (http://www.ekm.ee/english/kadriorg/), which, despite driving round a few back streets it was impossible to disguise the fact that it was only a couple of kilometres down the road.

The guide around the place was one of the museum staff and the tour took about an hour. There were some interesting rooms, paintings, statues and silverware
Rooms: Lavish decorations
Paintings: A couple particularly took my eye particularly - one of the dancer Anna Petrova (see below) and another of the Port of Tallinn by Aleksei Bogoljubov (1824-96)
Statues: A miniature of a girly with, it was said, perfect buttocks. I was embarrassed enough just looking without taking a picture, too. Shame, with hindsight.
Silverware: Some pieces from the Faberge workshops.

Anna Petrova, c.1840.
Painted by:
Vassili Tropinin
(1776-1857)

This painting greatly appealed to me as the backdrop to the painting is stitched fabric, which the artist has taken the time to paint the light and shade associated with the tension.
Click on the picture for bigger image

After the tour there was a little time to wander round the small gardens, newly laid out, before heading back through the park to where the bus was waiting. En route, Val stood in something (a "dog's calling card" as my mother used to say). Her attempts to wipe her shoe clean on the grass did not go un-noticed by the bus driver. Not wishing to clean unspeakable material ingrained in his carpet, apparently still remembering the last tourist with a foot load of crap he had to clean up after ("it got everywhere", he said), he produced a plastic carrier bag and insisted that Val wore it over her shoe. Val being the kind sympathetic person she is obliged without complaint.

Back on the bus and back to the hotel for 4.00pm. and disposed of the bag outside the hotel.

We settled down for a bit of a rest and a cup of coffee. The room was warm, no visible temperature control on the A/C, so we opened the window as far as it would go which was only about a 4 inch gap. We soon found out why - the seagulls outside like to have a look inside the rooms and before long there was a huge seagull with his head peeping round the opening - we said hello and told him he couldn't stay, but he ignored us, probably didn't understand English, being and Estonian Seagull.

Time for a hot time in the old town tonight - well OK we're off out for a final walk about (there must be some streets we haven't walked down yet), and something to eat.

Tonight's walk takes us down Viru (again - tried to avoid it but couldn't), round the back of the theatre and Niguliste Church with Gothic doorway. Had a look at a couple of restaurants on the upper town before coming back down and eating in a place in the Town Hall Square overlooking (or should that be underlooking) the Town Hall. I was given the wrong meal, which neither of us realised until we got the bill. We still got charged for the wrong meal though - not worth arguing, but probably couldn't anyway as my Estonian is a bit rusty.

We take the long way back to the hotel, round by the NW walls, past three sisters and Fat Margaret (that's a big tower), back along the NE wall, down Catherine's Passage again then on to the hotel, tired with a capital K.

It's a long way to St Petersburg (318 km and a Russian border), so it's an early morning call of 6.15 for a 7.45 departure.

I have a shower, like most mornings. The growing trend with hotels is to have liquid soap dispensers in the bathrooms and also in the showers. For the second time on this holiday the dispenser has run empty on me. I decide that the supplier of these dispensers is the same one that supplies those special boxes of paper tissues you get in hotels that have only two tissues in them.
Another problem is these mixer taps where you wiggle the lever to vary temperature. This one is located at arms height, so as you struggle with the soap dispenser (with both hands crossing the handle) you invariable knock it and receive a gush of hot or cold water depending which way its caught - give me a bar of soap any day.

By way of a change we have an early lunch, at Narva, in a castle. What more can I say.

Reach the border (Latvian) at 12.15
Reach the border (Russian) at 1.50
Get away and into Russia at 2.45 - usual problem with visas.

St Petersburg, here we come.....
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Estonia - Tallinn