Saturday 6th December 2025

Riga to Tallinn

The Balsam didn’t quite act as a sleep tonic,  though we did make it through until 530.

Like our first day train cancellation we were advised late yesterday that our hotel booking  in Tallinn had been duplicated and despite it being booked for many months we lost the ballot and were offered alternative accommodation a bit  further out of the city. No time to search for another so it will be hoofing it a little further.

Up and packed then out to our now favourite French patisserie for breakfast. Just as good a fare as yesterday and fed and watered we returned to hotel to checkout after another great experience with hotel staff.

Parked out front was a food delivery bike all set up for wintry nights with handlebar mittens.

No tipping here,  but most of the other hospitality places ask for a tip. I find it tacky and as mean as it sounds only tip those with no expectation.

We clattered our way over to the bus terminal, found or bus along side an icing over river, passed passport check by driver (which was as thorough as seeing the front cover ) – so much for security of borders.

We were sat adjacent to a woman from Adelaide in front seats and chatting until Jane’s dream from last night materialised- ‘excuse me you are sitting in our seats’ came from a German couple. 

Our mistake about how seats were numbered saw us pushed back into the next row. 

Off we went for a 5 hour journey initially through a myriad of post war Communist unit blocks and then forests. Tragically,  the story about the forest murder of Jews was evident with many roadside forest graves. 

Two hours in we crossed the border into Estonia where we were greeted by the rain which was predicted for the entire afternoon.

Whilst road flowed through forests dotted with tiny wooden houses the map showed we were tracing the coastline along the Gulf of Riga.

Lots of chalet styled brightly coloured wooden houses lined the streets of the main road heading into our halfway stop,  which was pretty eventful. 

Five drunk Russian guys started harassing an Estonian guy, 3 left and returned to restart the bout. None could fight and single Estonian guy held his own.

Thankfully someone called the police and the gutless Russians must have got wind of it and staggered off before they arrived.

We sought the safety of the bus to avoid the cold and fracas. Oh the joys of transport terminals.

Sitting up front of the bus can be quite angstful when you see the driver distracted, fiddling with equipment and often popping onto the verge. I had to keep up with the cricket scores to distract myself.

Continued to see more forest than Robin Hood as we moved further  into Estonia with minimal farming and absolutely no animals. Logging seemed to reign supreme.

Five hours ticked by pretty quickly and we arrived in a surprisingly modern Tallinn. Booked an Uber and paid the princely sum of €4.50 for the 10 minute drive to our modern alternate accommodation,  right next door to a different alternative – the Hare Krishna temple.

Spent little time settling in and headed off in the rain bound for the Old Town. Immediately came across a beautiful church where the choir was practicing. It was pretty haunting in this place with its high vaulted ceiling.

Back into the rain and soon in the modern town square overlooked by the liberation monument and another  gorgeous church.

Further along we were entertained by a couple of figure skaters before finding the famous Xmas market. A couple of pretty handy skaters were doing all the pirouette stuff whilst the others shuffled around at various paces

To my surprise I am not tiring of them. Maybe it’s the wonderful spirit of Xmas that exudes from them.

Had a nice dinner of red deer sausage and sauerkraut which probably reduced the size of Santa’s sleigh-pullers  seriously, given the size of the sausages.

Took a more circumspect approach with our two mulled wines by only sipping on the 15% alcohol version. I had a black currant and lemoncello version whilst Jane deferred to a Red Cherry one after the initial one.

Given we missed all of the little kids Christmas Extravaganza’s back home we thought it only fair to stand in the rain and listen to an equally ‘entertaining’ rendition from the local primary school.

A bit rain soaked we headed home ignoring a ride in the Xmas  train instead opting to be serenaded by the Hare Krishna guys heading back to their shrine.

Home around 7 and embarrassed to say hit the sack.