Tallinn, Estonia to Riga, Latvia

Today was a travel day. We took a bus almost 5 hours to Riga, Latvia.

On the bus to Riga
The European countries no longer have border guards. There is grass growing at the old border crossing station

In Riga we walked to our hotel.

Duke walking to the hotel
Me taking video of something in front of the opera house in Riga.

When we went out for dinner it was fun to see all the activity in the streets.

Lots of open air restaurants

Tallinn, Estonia day 2

Today we walked all over the old town of Tallinn. It is such an interesting and photogenic place that I just kept taking pictures! And there weren’t very many people, I suppose because we are into September. And the weather was lovely with a high of 72.

We started out with coffee and pastries at a small coffee shop.
The town hall was being renovated. See the down spout sticking out?
Here is a close up
We walked a long way along the wall reading about the various towers. Many were first built in the 1400’s.
The cathedral
This building was originally built by the Tallinn brotherhood of Blackheads in 1517. Below is a closeup of the door.
Door of the building above

For dinner we went to another wonderful restaurant near our hotel, Restaurant Härg.

Duke had the paella
I had the pork with a chimichuri
Duke really needed to study the gin menu!
The view from the bar at the top of our hotel

Helsinki, Finland to Tallinn, Estonia

This morning we walked and then took a tram to the Helsinki ferry terminal. From there we caught a ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn, Estonia.

It is interesting to look at a map. Tallinn and Helsinki are on opposite sides of the entrance to the gulf of Finland. At the eastern end of the Gulf is St. Petersburg. As you can imagine there is a large fortress at the entrance to Helsinki Harbor.

Our tram
On the tram to the ferry
Helsinki Fortress

In Tallinn we walked to our hotel the Radisson Collection.

The view from the window of our room

For dinner we had an excellent meal at Kolm Sibulat near our hotel. We started with olives and shrimp ceviche. Then Duke had calves liver and I had duck. It was all delicious.

Our starter
My duck
Duke’s calves liver

Turku day 2

Friday Mikko and Ritva took us a a wonderful tour of the Turku region. First we stopped at the Medieval church of St Bridget’s Convent

The convent is no longer there but the church has survived.

Then we went to the harbor area of Naantali. As you can tell from the pictures the weather was absolutely perfect. The high temperature yesterday was 82 degrees.

The harbor area

From Naantali we went to Ruissalo Folk Park. The entire island is a natural area set aside for hiking, biking and recreation.

Map of Ruissalo Folk Park
Hiking on Ruissalo

We stopped for a delicious pea soup lunch at Ruissalon Honkapirni

Menu. We had the first item on the list.
Eating lunch

On our way back to the house we stopped at Turku Cathedral.

Inside Turku Cathedral

Our final stop was to see the Caravelle FinAir jet that Mikko is helping to restore. The jet was the very first jet owned and operated by Finnair.

The Caravelle Finnair Jet
Duke in the pilot’s seat