A Day of Exploring

September 16th 2017

Surprisingly we are both reasonably fresh; so its a quick shower, breakfast and a tour round the city.

Breakfast is pretty substantial and one of the best on the trip; its weird, I'm starting to prefer a continental breakfast rather than a fry up...I doubt that will last!

We head out to find the start of the hop-on hop-off; there are 3 routes but we start with the red one as it takes us around the old town. It appears Estonians are crazy drivers, especially when we nearly fly off the end of the pier beside the maritime museum! We transfer straight to the blue line but it feels like a lot of the tour is repeated so we give the green line a miss.

We walk to Freedom Square, before heading up to Toompea Castle. There is a glass cross in the square which commemorates the people who died during their war of independence. As we walk up the hill, we walk past "Kiek in de Kök Museum;" I was killing myself laughing, Iain didn't agree, ha ha! We will try to go to the museum tomorrow if we have time. 


Memorial


Kiek in de Kök Museum

At the top of the hill, we visit the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral; its a bit like St Basils, but on a much smaller scale. All the Russian Orthodox Cathedrals are very beautiful, so it is definitely worth a visit. Unfortunately no pictures are allowed inside.



We wander around the the Toompea area; there are several viewing platforms over the city and out to the harbour. I have some toasted almonds in cinnamon and we decide to walk back down to the old town and for a drink. We are due to do an "Alcohol Tour" at 4pm so we think its wise to have some food beforehand.


Viewing Platform


Toasted Almonds

One of the restaurants we passed last night looks pretty decent so we head in there; it's called Clayhills Gastropub and is named after a powerful Scottish merchant family. We had a Clayhills beer each and I had chicken pasta to put a lining on my stomach. The food was delicious and very reasonably priced considering the restaurant is just off the main square.

At 3.55pm, we leave to meet our guide for the alcohol tour; we are both really looking forward to it as it takes in a few of Estonias speciality drinks. CANCELLED! I'm totally fuming! We call the guy and he just hangs up; guess who is getting a bad review on tripadvisor!

We decide to drown our sorrows at a pub on the square; its 7.50euros for a wine though...eek! We were about to leave to go elsewhere, but it started bucketing down, so we just stay. As we are speculating on our cancelled tour, I decide to email the company, Discover Estonia, for an explanation so lets see what they come back with. All was not lost, we had the best entertainment in a drunken Romanian. He was with his girlfriend and was getting incredibly animated, something to do with the number of vodka shots he had! 

There is a mini train which goes around the old town and costs 6 euros; it only takes 20 minutes, so we opt to do that after our wine. There are 3 families with kids......and us! It was really fun but a bit bumpy.




After the train ride, we go to a cafe called Maiasmokk Kohvik which claims to be the oldest cafe in Tallinn. I have a latte and an Estonian cake called Śokolaaditort Vana Tallinnaga; its chocolate with alcohol. I feel sick by the end of it but it was lovely!



Iain wants a beer so we head back towards our hotel and come across a place called Olde Hansa Medieval Restaurant . I have seen honey beer advertised everywhere so its about time I try it. Apparently a 0.5 litre is a woman's beer and 1litre is for men here; we happily oblige! The honey beer is lovely to start with but gets a bit sickly after half a litre. The place is set to look like it wold be hundreds of years ago so old costumes and crockery. They have decent banter as a couple asked (oddly) "How do we pay?" and the waitress said in Gold Coins or Beaver Skins. Eejits, lol.



We go back to the hotel for a 20 minute rest before heading back out....hopefully see you tomorrow!







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