Saturday 14th June

Met Wayne, Jane's travelling companion from Adelaide, as we waited for the bus to Talinn. The ride was similar to our previous ones in the Baltic except that we were much closer to the sea itself & passed a couple of small ports on the way. Talinn, the capital of Estonia is the most northerly of the 3 states & the people here speak a language related to Finnish which is completely unrelated to that of the Latvians & Lithuanians & also Russian. As in Latvia there is s large Russian speaking minority, particularly in the cities.
We were met at the bus station & taken in a very smart Mercedes minibus to our hotel which is just outside the old town. It was about 15C & windy & was the coldest we have been since leaving home.
After a short rest we walked up into the citadel which defended the old town & the port & this has quite spectacular mediaeval stone walls & a couple of round towers. We were after a coffee & some food but all we could find were souvenir shops selling amber & dead end alleys. After some time we found a nice warm bar in the basement of an old building & managed to warm up. We descended into the old town below the citadel & joined masses of tourists being herded around by guides in many languages. It was quite a shock as we hadn’t seen too many until then. The market place was full of craft stalls run by people in traditional costumes. The place was surrounded by restaurants & had an old town hall in the square. As it was still quite cool we returned around the base of the citadel beside a lake system which must have been the moat at one stage & made it back to our hotel. We watched a bizarre film subtitled in Estonian & went for dinner in the restaurant. The TV has been interesting in other places as we have seen several dubbed Uk TV sitcoms but here they subtitle them, presumably as the population of Estonian speakers is so small.
And so to bed.

Sunday 15th June

Set out at 10 with Ethel, our tall, blonde, 23 year old, Estonian guide, who marched us up the hill to the citadel area whilst explaining that her surname was the most common in the country & thus her parents had given her an English name. She realises now that it is a somewhat unfashionable, dated name but at least she can be distinguished from all the others with her surname.
During the next 3 hours she walked us through the upper & the lower parts of the town & told us of Estonia’s unfortunate history, as it has been controlled by, Danes, Germans, Swedes & Russians since the early middle ages & has only been free between the 2 World Wars & then since 1991. The population still has a fair percentage of Russian speakers but she feels that most prefer to be considered as Estonians rather than Russians. The number of churches of all faiths is quite surprising as Estonia is classified as one of the least religious places in the world but they illustrate the presence of the various ruling powers.
Walking the streets was far more pleasant than yesterday as the skies were clear although the wind was sharp & it only reached about 15 C. Ethel pointed out her old school in the city & the various guild halls & explained how things have changed since the Russian occupation. The ex KGB HQ has been redeveloped as apartments but the locals still believe it is a Russian listening post with microphones in all the walls so most of the owners are foreigners. Much of the tourism is from Finland with them conducting buying sprees & also taking advantage of cheaper medical & dental care costs in Estonia.
It was good to hear about life in Estonia & the attitudes & practises. They are very self contained people & value their personal space apparently very direct & are quite forthright in their criticism which some people see as being rude. Friendships & physical displays of affection are discouraged & it sounded very much like the behaviour in some Scandinavian TV series such as "The Bridge".
Edith took us to the oldest cafe in Talinn with its decor from 1861 & after some more time leaving us with a to-do list for a week’s stay, parted with us on (we hope) good terms.
One suggestion was to visit the Seaplane museum about 2km to the west of the old town. Off we set only to get lost at the marina before correcting our navigation & finding the place. This is a quite magnificent maritime museum inside the 3 domed seaplane hangars built in the early 1920s, a wonderful example of early reinforced concrete technology with spans of 30 m in 3 domed areas each with a 10m diameter lantern in the centre of each dome. The museum houses planes, guns, boats & a submarine & is a fine example of museum design. We just had lunch sitting in a gallery looking down on the exhibits & marvelling.
After walking around the yard outside we watched an80ft, 2 masted trading ship pull away & admired an old icebreaker which is being renovated before returning to the hotel, weary but pleased.
After a rest we returned to the old city for dinner at a recommended restaurant where Jane had boiled cabbage & d*** had Elk sausages both of which we enjoyed.