Tallinn
The train journey from St. Petersburg to Helsinki took 5 hours. We then got our bikes and stuff and cycled off to the ferry to Tallinn. Thanks again to our Katya and Teemu at Bike Tours Finland for storing them for us. Two hours later we were in Tallinn. We cycled off to the beautiful old centre of Tallinn and booked into the City Bike Hostel. City Bikes Estonia is a great outfit who run two excellent hostels in the beautiful mediaeval old town.
Estonia is a fascinating little country - it is very tech savvy - here in a 500-year-old house we have broadband, the city is bathed in free wi-fi and in the countryside you can use your mobile phone to listen to details about all the historic sites. Skype was invented in Estonia and the country seems to really be going places. Three cheers for the EU for admitting all our Baltic friends.
The next day we went on a City Bike cycling tour of Tallinn, seeing a summer palace of Peter the Great, the President's palace, German war graves, a monument to the 1980 Olympics of which the sailing took place in Tallinn, the stadium for the Estonia Singing Festival which takes place every 5 years, and a monument to the 800 or so people who died in the 1994 Estonia ferry disaster.
In 1990, 300,000 people sang in the singing arena for independence and they got it! Well, it wasn't that simple but they made a nice film about it (watch the trailer).
In the afternoon, we walked about the old town and Isla did some busking in the town hall square, just outside the very old town hall.
Busking earnings:- 177 Estonian Krone & 2.70 Euros (in 30 minutes - it was raining.)
Kilometres cycled: - 0 (haven't started yet)
BUT.......we start in 20 minutes - yipee!!!!
Estonia is a fascinating little country - it is very tech savvy - here in a 500-year-old house we have broadband, the city is bathed in free wi-fi and in the countryside you can use your mobile phone to listen to details about all the historic sites. Skype was invented in Estonia and the country seems to really be going places. Three cheers for the EU for admitting all our Baltic friends.
The next day we went on a City Bike cycling tour of Tallinn, seeing a summer palace of Peter the Great, the President's palace, German war graves, a monument to the 1980 Olympics of which the sailing took place in Tallinn, the stadium for the Estonia Singing Festival which takes place every 5 years, and a monument to the 800 or so people who died in the 1994 Estonia ferry disaster.
In 1990, 300,000 people sang in the singing arena for independence and they got it! Well, it wasn't that simple but they made a nice film about it (watch the trailer).
In the afternoon, we walked about the old town and Isla did some busking in the town hall square, just outside the very old town hall.
Busking earnings:- 177 Estonian Krone & 2.70 Euros (in 30 minutes - it was raining.)
Kilometres cycled: - 0 (haven't started yet)
BUT.......we start in 20 minutes - yipee!!!!
posted by Andy Wightman at 5:00 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home