Sunrise: 4;38am Sunset: 10:14pm
Weather: Sunny and about 25c
After a late breakfast, for me, we all met in the lobby for our 9am departure for our included city visit. Anna didn’t come with us, for whatever reason and Kristina was the local guide this morning.
First up we drove through a neighbourhood of very old but well preserved timber houses. It would have been nice if the bus had slowed right down so we could take some photos. We also went out to theTallinn Song Festival Grounds, where we could get off the bus and take photos. A few of us chose to stay on the bus. Not sure why that was thought to be a highlight or perhaps I'm just feeling a little 'jaded'. We also drove over an 8 lane highway that gets closed to traffic 2 days a week and then one way on a couple of other days and then the other way on the rest of the days. Or something like that, for a film that is being shot. I think Kristina said that the film company paid the government 15 million USD for the privilege of closing the road.
We eventually arrived in the Old Town of Tallinn and it is a pretty town.
The crowds were large and got worse as we continued through the upper part of the town but not as bad as I imagined, considering there are 3 cruise ships in port.
That is how many I can see from my hotel room window. Though, looking at one of my photos, perhaps there were 4 in port.
Kristina has a quirky sense of humour but for me, spent far to much time telling people where they could buy souvenirs and where to buy coffee, instead of continuing to walk through the town. We had a break of half an hour, so people could have a loo break and buy drinks etc. She was very good at pointing out camera shots though, so it was a bit of a mixed bag morning
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| Is that 4 ships is port? |
We continued through the old town and eventually ended up near the part of the old town walls that you can walk along. I didn’t walk along them though.
By then it was noon and that was the end of the included tour. I opted to take the bus back to the hotel.
The Stockman department store is about a block away from the hotel and I wanted to go to their supermarket to buy some food for lunch tomorrow, as there is no lunch stop as such tomorrow.
9 people are finishing this section of the tour tonight, so I’m hoping that there will be some spare seats, so the singles can have a seat to themselves as we drive to Saint Petersburg.
9 new people will join the tour tomorrow evening, for the Russian part of the tour.
I’m hoping to get a couple of stamps in my passport tomorrow.
We all met downstairs at 5pm, to hand our VOX whispers sets back to Anna. Apparently she isn’t allowed to taked them out of the European Union and we will pick up new ones in Saint Petersburg.
We departed for the farewell dinner at 5:20pm and arrive there before 6pm, as it was in the Old Town. A glass of sparkling wine on arrival and then 2 drinks during the meal. A tomato and lettuce starter. I had pre-ordered salmon for the main. The plate was hotter than the salmon and even though it was just warm, it was still tasty, That came with mashed potato. They love their potatoes in this part of the world. J Dessert was 3 scoops of ice cream with some berry sauce drizzled over it. None of us were too sure what the berry sauce was, as it was ever so slightly tartish. Very refreshing.
Dinner was over and we were back at the hotel, sometime after 8pm, after saying our farewells to the 9 people who weren’t continuing on into Russia.
We have a new 9 joining the tour tomorrow in Saint Petersburg, so another welcome dinner tomorrow night. J
Of the 39 people on this Baltics part of the tour, there were about 15 people who’s name I never knew and about 9 that I never got to speak to. A really odd situation. It will be interesting to see how the Russian part of the tour pans out.
Early start tomorrow.
Steps Walked 8,450
Hotel: Radisson Blu Sky Hotel, Tallinn
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