Europe 2017: Day #14 Tunnels and Shopping

Wednesday, 16 August 2017

After all the walking of the previous couple of days we decided to take it relatively easy on our last day in Tallinn. A bit of final souvenir shopping and a tour of the tunnels under the bastion, were all we had planned.

First up we needed to ensure all of our future bookings were n place.  We hadn't received a final notification that our payment had gone through for our next stop Riga, so we fired off an email requesting confirmation of that one. A couple of other emails to set up a taxi and let people know when we would be arriving and we were done.

The one hour tour under the walls of the Tallinn was pretty impressive, seeing where various generations of the the local population sheltered from wars and authorities in the twentieth century, including escaping Soviet bombings in 1944, and punks fleeing Soviet police in the 1980s.

Then a stroll back to the town square where we found the weekend market (well, the tourist-oriented one anyway) in full swing. This seems to be about the only way the city of Tallinn can get any expenditure out of the great number of cruise ship tourists that flood the town.  These tourists use their own guides, eat and drink on the ships and don't spend much at all in each city.  Yet they clog the place in mass numbers, annoying the locals and the independent travellers, like us, who are happy to spend our cash in the town. I can foresee restrictions coming in the future. We have read and heard that other cities are contemplating it already.

Town Hall Square

Lunch, more souvenir shopping - we seem to spend a lot of time not buying very much, but, the decisions to be made! - more walking, then a final drink in the square, where I tried the local Estonian liqueur, which was very good and tasted a bit like Drambuie.

Then it was home, a light dinner of bits and pieces, and packing for the trip the next day.