Tuesday 13 September: Tallinn

Tallinn is the capital of Estonia, one of three tiny Baltic nations which declared independence from the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. It is a city of about 400,000 people, spread along the shores of Tallinn Bay. The town dates back to the middle ages, and the old walled city is on the world heritage list.

This is a lovely little city - clean, quiet, with wide streets, polite traffic and elegantly dressed people. The old town is typical of medieval towns, with narrow winding cobblestone streets and buildings dating back hundreds of years. Although cars are allowed in the old city, there is very little traffic, and tour buses have to stop outside the walls. The city authorities have wisely segregated the modern high-rise offices and hotels away from the old town, but close enough that everything is in easy walking distance.

We're staying at the Sokos Viru hotel, on the 21st floor overlooking the port and old town. Our room is enormous, and even includes its own sauna. This is one of the more expensive places we're staying at, but compensates for the more ordinary hotels and B&Bs we've had so far.

We went on a bus trip to see the "sights" of suburban Tallinn - there aren't any. Well, that's probably unfair, but there's not a lot to see outside the old city. However the weather couldn't have been better - we think it was probably one of very few sunny days in this part of the world.

Clipped but not fleeced. Paul decided he needed a haircut, so we went into a likely looking salon. The lady went at her task with the grim determination of a shearer trying to make his quota, leaving Paul's scalp bruised but not quite bleeding. When she finished, Paul asked how much.

"Four hundred krooni." (About AU$40).
"How much??!"
"One hundred krooni".

Wednesday 14 September: Tallinn

The weather has turned cold and grey, and Paul woke up with neck pains and a blinding headache. He dosed up on painkillers, and we set out in search of a laundromat, we was located not far from the hotel. Unfortunately, the lady in charge didn't speak English, and we don't know any Estonian. But with a lot of gestures and smiling, we got the message across, she got her money, and we got our washing done.

Back at the hotel, Paul took some more pills and hit the sack for a couple of hours while Sue went shopping for some supplies. After that, we went back to the old city, toured the maritime museum, climbed to the top of Fat Margaret's tower, and had a walk along the city walls. Unfortunately, there is very little in the way on interpretative information at these sites. So we don't know who Fat Margaret was, and we didn't learn much about the walls.

By this time the weather was getting really threatening, so we headed back to our luxury suite for a coffee and a sauna.