STOCKHOLM TO TALLINN February 1, 2007

Difficult to believe that one twelfth of the year has gone already – it is likely to land up as a very short year this year, I think.

We woke to a less than sunny day yesterday but the predicted rain/sleet held off and there was a sprinkling of light snow on the evening. It is too dark now to see if it continued falling after we went to bed. There is not much snow predicted for Tallinn, our next stop, but there seems to still be plenty of it on the ground from the webcam shots.

Lars had to go to hospital yesterday to review his latest PSA results, so after a walk around the neighbourhood with Gerd we all caught the train into town. Lars and  I left Gerd and Rab there while we pressed on by train and bus to the hospital. The womenfolk had a great old time by all accounts, including a very large lunch of pasta. Lars and I didn’t lunch as well – a cheese and ham roll in the hospital canteen.

Later: Evening In Tallinn

Well! Tallinn is where we are now and it is terrific. Just what we wanted. The hotel Rab chose on the Internet (Imperial Hotel) is very nice indeed and right on the cusp of the Old Town.

We arrived here at about 16h00 after a short flight from Stockholm. There was a lot of snow around, although the taxi driver said it hadn’t snowed for five days. As ever the drive from the airport was pretty ordinary – traffic and industrial sites but as we got closer to the hotel, spires and minarets and towers and walls started to dominate the skyline.

We checked in and were off as evening fell for our first look at the Old Town. It really is terrific – lovely old buildings, lit by floodlights and garlanded with bud lights with soaring spires on some – just like a fairy tale. We wandered around for about one and a half hours quite entranced and it was only cold feet that finally decided us on heading for food (even though it was only about 5 o’clock Swedish time!)

 

We had read some of the write ups for the restaurants and decided that one with an almost unfortunate name of Turg sounded what we wanted – good plain food. We each had an enormous shepherd’s pie and a half litre of beer for A$25! Not bad at all!!