Monday, 14 August 2017
An early start, packing nearly finished and we were at the breakfast buffet by 7:45am. Simon Litten was already in attendance and after I had checked the Australian twitter feeds to be informed that our wonderful Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce had been declared an New Zealand citizen we laughed ourselves stupid each time a new breakfast companion joined us and we told the story all over again. Our breakfast co-incided with Parliamentary Question Time in Australia so each new wave of tweets brought another batch of BJ jokes. A good breakfast was had by all which made it easier to leave.
 |
| Bags packed and we're ready to roll |
After a brief taxi ride we arrived at our ferry terminal for the 2-hour "cruise" to Tallinn. Everything went so smoothly I didn't even notice we had cast off till I looked out the window and saw the water slowly sliding past.
 |
| Our ferry approaches |
Robyn had booked us into comfort class", which basically ensured us a better seat and access to nibbles and coffee. So two hours later we docked in Tallinn, Estonia, out second new country of the trip.
Our AirBnB host was waiting outside the apartment when we pulled up in a taxi. It's an excellent little place (with a few quirks, which we'll get to) set just on the west side of the old town.
We were in a bit of a rush as we needed to get to the other side of Tallinn Old Town to start a walking tour. As is often the case in such times we took the wrong turn, going left inside of right once we got close to the wall. Maps are good and I can read them, but they only show everything in two dimensions, so a short distance looks like a short walking time until you realise that the place you think you need to get to is up by that tree.
We made it, just. Two weeks earlier and they would have needed an ambulance for us but our holiday walking has done us good. If only we had kept going around the wall anti-clockwise we would have made our destination in 10 minutes. As it was, another 30 frustrating minutes later we got to the Viru Gate in time and made our connection.
The next two hours walking gave us a fantastic overview of the city, how it was organised and a lot of its history. I had thought we would be in a large group but there was only the two of us and the guide. That meant we were able to go at our own pace - a good thing since our mountain goat impression from earlier in the day - and ask questions whenever we wanted. It also gave us enough time to take pictures of whatever we wanted.
 |
| View over the lower part of Old Town with harbour in distance |
|
 |
| Small streets |
 |
| Steep streets |
 |
| And Russian Orthodox churches |
It's a beautiful city, which we were lucky enough to see on a perfect day (blue skies, no wind, 22C). The cruise boats were in so we had a lot of other tourists to work around but it all seemed to figure itself out. We stopped at a Beer House for a beer, and then headed home the flat way. An early dinner at home and early to bed exhausted.
No comments:
Post a Comment