Waking to a rainy day is never good if you travel by motorbike. Luckily today we only had less than 20km to ride - yes, for the whole day.

The first 17km was from our hotel to the ferry terminal in Helsinki. Once we found the right road, after the GPS had taken us 3km up the road in the wrong direction, the rest was easy. We arrived at the ferry check in just as they started processing passengers and were soon lined up with 4 other bikes ready to board. This time however, the bikes were loaded last. We parked on the vehicle deck and were supplied with two rubber wheel chocks - no tie downs! Just as well it was a smooth crossing. The Viking Mariella was not as big as our last ferry but there was still plenty going on - dance competitions for the kids and bingo for the adults. The Duty Free shop was the busiest spot on the ship.

Arriving three hours later there was no sign of rain as we rode the 2.3 km to our hotel. We unpacked and set off walking to spend the afternoon exploring the Old Town of Tallinn.

Tallinn is Estonia's capital city and is located on the Baltic Sea. It is a walled city and most of the streets are cobblestoned - very hard to walk on! The main square has a Gothic Town Hall built in the 13th century. Close by is St. Nicholas Church which houses an exhibition of ecclesiastical art. Tallinn has a whopping total of six "skyscrapers" as by law no building can be higher than St Olaf's Church - today St Olaf's had a halo of fog. We wandered the streets and finally stopped for a beer overlooking Town Hall Square. Kerrie would have been happy to have dinner right then and there but as it was only 4:30pm she was out voted. The decision was made to walk back towards our hotel and eat in a huge shopping center across the road from our hotel. The dinner was delicious but the view of the shops below was a bit ordinary.

We only had one night in Estonia but our visit was not really to see Tallinn old city. Anyone reading this will know of our passion for motorcycle racing both on the track and on the road. Before leaving Tallinn we rode out to the Joey Dunlop Memorial, the site of his fatal crash in July 2000 aged 47. Joey was one of the most successful and influential motorcycle racers of the 20th century and still holds the record of 26 Isle of Man TT victories. There are also memorial statues of Joey at the Bungalow on the IOM TT Mountain Course and at his hometown of Ballymoney, Northern Ireland. There were fresh flowers at the memorial site as the anniversary of his death was 2nd July only 2 days ago. RIP Joey.