Day 263 Thurs 5 Jul 2007 Riga, Latvia to Tallin, Estonia

Since breakfast isn’t provided in our B&B, we take a trolleybus into the old town (world heritage listed of course) and find the main cathedral square where croissants and coffee are the order of the day. The town centre, separated from the new town by a ring of parks is very pleasant and we stroll around for a couple of hours, inspecting the cathedral which is suffering badly from structural decay and several other monuments. Returning to the ‘new’ town which comprises an array of art deco and wooden buildings we collect the car and drive north to the “ethnographic museum” which turns out to be a fascinating collection of dwellings from different parts of the country erected in a forest park, with peasant women performing various handicrafts. There are few vistors so we spend a very pleasant afternoon wandering around before setting out for Tallin in Estonia 300kms north.

Tallin is in the midst of a four day beer festival, obviously an essential precursor to its JLL ‘winning city’ status but we find a bed at the Romeo family hotel, which also turns out to be an large comfortable apartment in an otherwise decrepit block in the heart of the old town (on the world heritage list of course). Dinner is in the Pepper Sack restaurant where the staff are all in medieval costume. Afterwards, wandering back through the town square at 11.30 its still light with plenty of people about, going to bars,cinemas and coffee shops.