Tuesday, June 12th

Having not visited the port for over 12 hours, we were suffering from withdrawal symptoms, so decided we had better do the final red tour bus route to see the port again and the bits of town not covered by the other routes.

Having completed the bus tour and after a quick stop for coffee, we made our way to the small square outside the Tourist Information Office to join a walking tour of the city. This was run on the same basis as the one we had done in Berlin, where there is no fixed charge, the guides just rely on tips.

Our guide was Ann Vaida (no relation to Darth Vada) who was a very bouncy character and a good guide. Click “here” to see a profile. As is usually the case, we find, a guide will take you to places you would otherwise not see. (No....not that sort of place!!)

Following a tip from our guide, we headed for the medieval Third Dragon Inn situated on the ground floor of the town hall. At 2 euros for a drink (like elk soup) and 1 euro for an elk or boar pie it looked to be good value, until we were asked if we could sing before we were given a spoon! Interestingly, the toilets followed the medieval theme. But it was a fun establishment and a good place to visit.

After our vittals, we could not keep the ladies away from the marzipan shop where we stopped for a coffee and an ice cream.

At this stage we decided to split up as the ladies wanted to browse the shops. Brian and Chris decided to wander back taking in Linda’s park on the way where they spotted something small and furry.

Alan, Pete and Jerry decided to tackle St. Olav’s church and its many steps.The steeple of St. Olav has been hit by lightning at least eight times, and the whole church has burned down three times throughout its known existence. Following several rebuildings, its overall height is now 123.7 metres. So we were puffing and panting a bit by the time we got up the top, but what a view.

Our trip out for an evening meal had all the hall marks of a classic Dungroamin event – total confusion, no co–ordinated planning and little communication. We decided to walk to the Balti Jam (the train station) and then get a tram to the Port area to find a restaurant. The main driver for this plan seemed to be that so far we had not tried the trams in Tallinn and that it was an experience not to be missed. Sadly, where the trams went did not seem to feature anywhere in the equation.

So having arrived at the station we got on a tram. The only problem was that not only did we not know what station we were aiming for, we were not sure which way we were going. Were we going towards the port or away from it? In our panic we got off the tram at the next stop to regroup and concluded that the tram did not go to the part of the port we were aiming for. Fortunately we recognised roughly where we were and decided to walk into the main town where we ate in the nautically themed bar we had visited earlier.