View from a church tower in Tallin, Estonia
London gets about 600,000 tourists and visitors on an average day. That’s about how many we encountered on Sunday. You hear every language in the world, even a little bit of English. Crowded only begins to describe it. Nonetheless we enjoyed popping into the National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery sans portraits. We had lovely dinner at a seafood restaurant not far from Trafalgar Square.
Monday it was on the road again as we flew Finnair to Helsinki. It’s not only national pride that prompts me to say that Finnair is the best airline I’ve ever flow. The planes are immaculate and the flight crew exhibit the quiet charm and patience typical of my people. After settling into our digs we strolled around the town a bit eventually returning to our hotel and eating very good pizza at a restaurant downstairs.
We got up early yesterday for we had a big day ahead: a ferry trip to Tallin, Estonia. Not surprisingly neither the missus nor I had ever set phone in Estonia before — a new adventure!
The ferry was huge and needed to be because there were — okay, I’ve know idea how many people on this huge vessel but close to a thousand doesn’t seem too far off. There was entertainment on board including slot machines — we passed — and at least two places that featured live entertainment. There were also bars, cafe, and eateries of all description, some of which we availed ourselves of. The view on the top deck were amazing but it was a bit on the chilly side and when I say a bit I mean it was frickin’ cold up there. Peering out from windows would suffice. It was a fun, comfortable ride.
It turned out many Finns were going into Tallin to shop, something they do frequently as goods are much cheaper there especially booze which is heavily taxed in Finland. On our return leg we would see many oof our fellow passengers hauling all manner of groceries back, but especially liquor, often in the form of cases of beer.
Alighting the ship we were found by a curious seeming locale who started chattering away to us and eventually convinced us to let him take us to Old Town (which was our destination). There was everything shady about this but in the end he took us where we wanted to go and only charged us a tenner. The experience gave our day a bit more character.
Old Town was as advertised. It had practically theme park vibe to it as cars were not allowed on most of the cobblestoned roads. Many of the buildings and structures seemed to have been there since the middle ages and indeed were. Everything was clean and well-preserved. The only blight was the ubiquity of souvenir shops. Yes, they get a lot of tourists but surely not enough so support shops on every corner.
We went to a church from the 13th century that had been converted to a museum and it was one of the best we’d ever been in. The highlight was going to the top where one had spectacular views in all directions. I hate so much of what churches stand for but at least in a lot of places in Europe they provide incredible works of art from many centuries ago.
Our wanderings continued. There was a stop in an English language bookstore where we separately had lovely chats with the proprietor and I bought a book on Finnish history. There was lunch in — of all things — an Irish pub that served an excellent plate of fish and chips. There was a cafe that served the wife a good coffee and me a nice cup of herbal tea. We shared a delicious eclair. There were more buildings to gawk at and a lot of walking for us to do. I imagine the city is quite jammed with tourists in the Summer. We were lucky to be there on a weekday in early May and especially lucky that the weather was cooperative: chilly but sunny.
Making our way back to the ferry on foot was a simple matter. Tired from wanderings we didn’t explore the ship this time instead settling in for a bit to eat and two hours of staring at the ocean. For my part I take comfort in hearing so much Finnish spoken as it recalls my childhood and being constantly surrounded by Finns chattering away. We are shy people around strangers but amongst each other love a good conversation.
We returned to our room and I settled in to listen (couldn’t get it on the TV) to Arsenal’s semi-final second leg champions league. Their 1-0 victory sent them to the final on the last day of the month and I literally wept with joy. The match would have started at noon were I back home in Berkeley but being in Finland it ended around midnight.
I slept long and happily waking up refreshed and ready for the next adventure.
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