One Nighters
We are categorically opposed to one-nighters, speaking in
the travel sense. When you stay in a
place for one night you spend a too-high percentage of your time dealing with
moving around. It’s frustrating and
draining. So here’s the deal--we have
six one-nighters in a row. We have a couple more towards the end of the trip
when we have difficult connections but this is the worst stretch.
Our schedule calls for 3 nights in this part of the
itinerary but we wanted to spend a night in Tallinn, Estonia. We could have done it last night but since we
were meeting Pat, who would be tiring rapidly, it didn’t seem prudent. We could have done it Thursday night but we
have a firm travel date on Friday afternoon so if there were weather or labor
disruptions we might miss the boat, so to speak. The result is that we have
Helsinki-Tallinn-Helsinki in this stretch.
We let Pat sleep for a while and John goes to “Roberts
Coffee” for a couple cups to get us rolling. There is allegedly coffee in our
lobby but the office doesn’t open until 8:00 and the coffee appears sometime
after that. Eventually Pat pops up and
she and John go next door for the discounted breakfast buffet while Mary mills
around in Stockmans.
It is raining once again (the headline of the trip so far)
which means Pat goes back for a nap and John and Mary hang out again at
Stockman’s. This is the flagship of a
monster retail operation and this store rivals Macy’s in New York and Harrods
in London. Not much of a foreign experience
but we have time to explore Helsinki over the next couple days.
We have a 1:30 ferry to Tallinn and we need to board by
1:00. It is a two hour ride each way and
about $70 round-trip so the time and cash investment is about the same as a
good seat at a Twins game. The Finns
consider this ferry to be a party barge, at least on weekends, and make the
easy 50-mile run for cheap beer and food in Estonia.
Being good walkers we decide to walk the mile+ to the ferry
terminal. We have left our big suitcases
with the Helsinki Hotel and just carry overnight bags. We have already
purchased tickets on-line and use the automated check-in service. The boarding is easy after zig-zagging for
ten minutes down chutes and hallways and ramps. We were concerned about the
style of seating but we find a table for three in a lounge at the window in the
front of the ship. We share some
sandwiches, chips and beer and the whole experience is very civilized.
We’re in a Radisson Park Inn in Tallinn that is walkable,
even in the drizzle, from the ferry terminal.
Our room here is about the same size as our combined rooms in Helsinki
but 25% less in price than either. Mary
is pleased.
We do the Rick Steves walking tour through the old town of
Tallinn. Tallinn was a power during the
middle centuries of the second millennium AD rivalling Stockholm and
Copenhagen. The old town is wonderfully
maintained from the town walls to the main square and city government
buildings. There is an upper town, the
historical seat of Estonian national government, and a lower town where the
traders and city government held sway.
The heads of the respective governments would meet on the steep path
between the towns when there were matters to discuss.
The big deal in addition to the town hall is the Russian
Orthodox Cathedral. The Russians have
had their toes in Tallinn for more than a hundred years with true domination
between the end of WWII and 1991. During
the occupation Russians flooded in by the tens of thousands in an effort to
create an ethnic presence as well as a political one. The Cathedral is a very visual representation
of that presence as it sits across a plaza from the Estonian Parliament
Building.
There is a service in a side chapel when we visit with the
Priest popping in and out of altar doors which represent the separation of the
physical from the spiritual. There are 4
ladies singing and it sounds like a full choir—the voices of angels. It is really moving.
Our next move is back down the hill for beer and
dinner. Our pick is the “Hell Hunt” or
Wolfhound. The beers are good, Mary has
a Herring platter with potatoes and vegetables, Pat the yellow curry and John
the Salmon pasta. Beers and dinners
total $36 Euros. We could like it here.
It’s a nice evening stroll back through town to our
hotel. There are plenty of people moving
around and it seems very vibrant. We
grab a bag of ice at the bar and finish the day with a nightcap in our room.
No comments:
Post a Comment