Tallinn & Helsinki - September 2007

Samantha and I had read some travel reviews and books about Tallinn and it sounded similar to Prague, a city that we had visited, and enjoyed, a little while earlier.

So, we booked some tickets with our air partner, EasyJet and we headed off for a few days.

A little history to start...Tallinn, the capital of Estonia is a seaside port town on the Gulf of Finland, bordered by Russia and Latvia. Finland is about 80 kilometres across the bay to the north. Tallinn has been occupied by various nations throughout its history including the nazis in the second world war and from 1944 to 1991, the Soviet Union controlled Estonia.

The Soviet control is evident but interestingly for me, the relics of this control, for instance a concert hall and monument (both INCREDIBLY ugly) along with various housing blocks, are all unkempt and looking shabby. (Probably deliberately so, or maybe i'm reading too much into this). By contrast, the newer parts of town and the Old City, are beautifully maintained and the city is really coming along in leaps and bounds with Estonia one of the most innovative and computer literate places in the world.

So, enough of the history, Tallinn is a fabulous place and is one of our most favourite places we have visited. Four days was a reasonable time to get a feel for the city and we walked around and visited loads of places but there is still so much to see and do.

Tallinn is a compact city, easy to walk and the public transport, particularly with the brilliant value Tallinn Card, is great.

Indeed, as much as we normally don't travel on hop on, hop off buses (never used one till Tallinn), as they were part of the Tallinn Card, we decided to get on and relax whilst listening to some city history and check out the views.

There are actually three separate buses, each with largely different routes traversing different parts of the city. There are plenty of high rise apartments, left over from the Soviet occupation and despite these, there are also loads of great areas that we went past on the buses.

One area that was particularly interesting was Kadriorg Palace, lived in by Peter the Great's wife. The palace is beautiful and is also used now as an art gallery. The gardens also, were very pleasant to wander.

The main section we wandered through though, was the medieval old town which featured several churches, wonderful buildings, a town hall and main square and classic views from the higher areas of the town, across the rooftops.

The restaurants were also great, it has to be said.

On the second day we were in Tallinn, we decided to head across the water, by SuperSeaCat, to Helsinki, Finland.

We hadn't done much research on Finland so we decided to simply wander around town, checking out the various sights.

It's fair to say that Helsinki isn't the most exciting place in terms of architecture, but it still had a very pleasant feel, with some amazing churches, including one that was built into the rock. Amazing. There was an orchestra, complete with conducter, practicing on the day we visited and this was quite interesting, especially to watch the conducter in action.

Helsinki also has some quality markets that we ventured through as well as some interesting art deco styled buildings.

So, we only spent a day there, but it was worthwhile and interesting.

Overall though, Tallinn was certainly worth the trip across there and we'd like to head back there at some stage.

Cardiff, Hereford & The Cotswolds - September 2007

We didn't have tickets to the Rugby World Cup until our friend Shaun rang and said he had a spare ticket to the Wales v Australia match. We're there, we said and we made plans to head to Cardiff.

Unfortunately we were a bit late to book a hotel in Cardiff so we all arranged to stay in Hereford and drive to Cardiff, about an hour away. Samantha and I had plans to return to Hereford after the game between Australia and Wales and explore The Cotswolds the following day.

So, on the Friday, Shaun, Rebecca, Samantha and I ventured down south with the intention to stop off at Stratford Upon Avon....the birthplace of William Shakespeare.

We were advised Stratford Upon Avon was a tad touristy but all in all, it actually wasn't too bad. We wandered around and we were all very disappointed that Shakespearience wasn't open, but yeah, not the worst place in the world, with some amazingly old buildings that are still in pretty good nick.

The following day we headed down to Cardiff and had a bit of a wander around. Australia were playing but man, so many Australians. The match was great and the Welsh rugby fans really support their team brilliantly and we all had a great day at the rugby with Shaun's friend Michael, whilst Rebecca, her friend Leonie and Samantha watched the game in a local pub.

Shaun, Rebecca, Michael and Leone headed off to France and we ventured back to Hereford that day and we did take some pics of the cathedral in Hereford whilst having a late afternoon wander.

So, to the next day...

First stop...Ross on Wye....this town is situated on the Wye River and as it was Sunday morning, there was no one around, save for church folk. The Market building was quite interesting and we had a bit of a wander before then heading off to Bourton-on-the-Water.

Bourton-on-the-Water is a small town with beautiful houses, generally situated on the small river that flows through the town. Yes, it is touristy, but it's also a beautiful place...but again, would you really want THAT many tourists near you every day of the year? Not me, but still pretty.

Then, an interestingly named village....Lower Slaughter.....not sure why it is called this name and there is also an Upper Slaughter, but what a beautiful small village.

Again, this village was on a small river and with some fabulous houses. Ah, to be rich....but we enjoyed ourselves wandering around The Cotswolds with some deviations through Cheltenham and other small villages along the track.

A great long weekend!