Timdar Travel Blog

After Tartu, we had a short hop to Viljandi for a night, and then on to Haapsalu via Parnu for the last few days.

Driving is a dream – long straight roads with virtually no traffic so very unstressful travelling.

Viljandi

A nice little town on a lake.

And a big shout out for a cafe/restaurant – found it by chance for a morning coffee which was the best so far, saw the lunch menu which looked great so went back, and then thought might as well do dinner there which was a great choice!

Parnu

Estonia’s main holiday town, so decided to have a look. Nice old town and beach

Thought it was quiet, but apparently 8,000 Estonians were there on holiday, so according to them it was buzzing.

Haapsalu

Last few days in a fantastic apartment

It’s Estonia’s second biggest city, and if the guide was being serious, where we tried to watch the eclipse is Estonia’s 10th highest hill. It’s a big and very old university, and with students being replaced by tourists at the moment is pretty quiet.

The walking tour with Stanislav (Ukrainian living in Estonia) was great, with a mixture of history and fun facts.

Oh cheer up ….

And enjoyed the rest of the day meandering, eating and drinking.

A little diversion, to enjoy the green green grass of Estonia (as Tom Jones didn’t sing)

Apparently it was 38 degrees back at home, so enjoying the relief.

So much so that I tried some aerial acrobatics

And then

In the upside down house

It’s time to leave the wonderful apartment in Tallinn

and head off to Tartu for a couple of days. Note the proximity to the Russian border …

Roads are extremely good and very little traffic so unstressful.

Acclimatisation in the afternoon, including Georgian cuisine for dinner – interesting and surprisingly delicious.

Bit of an eclipse anti-climax – too many trees.

But we did see the old cathedral in the late evening sun

A short trip back to the airport today to hire the car, and explore the surrounds before we move on. And so to the Lahemaa National Park along the northern coast.

Bit of a mixture of things to see and do, and probably best to start with the low, and forever memorable, point – lunch. Best described as “rustic Russian”. We decided against “salt lard sandwich” and I opted for “groat potato porridge” – essentially mashed potato mixed with (probably) lard and some small pork pieces. Very filling! Suffice to say not Eileen’s favourite meal of the holiday!

Waterfall

Not exactly overwhelming but it does have water – unlike the UK at the moment. Can’t help noticing the grass is green here.

A Bog

One of the strap lines on the visit Estonia website is that you’re never more than 10km from a bog. So let’s visit a well-known one. They’re very proud of it.

And actually lovely. Note the macs – we did dodge a couple of heavy showers during the day.

Palmse House

Well worth a visit – apart from its lunch offerings. We’re pretty sure the National Trust could do a lot with it as well.

Kamsu

Beautiful little holiday village

Is it even a word? Anyway, we got what we came for!

Actually it was a lovely morning in the old town again

And the afternoon on the beach was very comfortable. Even the service in the same hotel was significantly improved.

Still getting to know, and enjoy, the old town.

Took a short taxi ride to the coast again – stunning beach and hotel, and then probably the worst service we have ever encountered anywhere. Rude, unhelpful, surly, and then overcharged us. And all we had was 2 beers -actually would have had another couple if we could have managed to get served! Not sure if it’s the Russian influence – it was definitely a much more Russian area – and on reading the reviews afterwards it sounds fairly typical of this hotel.

Much more friendly back in the old town.

Favourable first impressions of Tallinn are confirmed as we get to know it better.

The weather is just about perfect – sunny but low 20s (compared to the 30+ back home). Tallinn is very walkable, with lots to see and very friendly locals.

The usual walking tour started us off, leaving us to then explore leisurely.

In the photo above, the white tower block in the centre was the only hotel in the So jet era, built and bugged by the KGB. Apparently it’s still a hotel.

And Tallin is also right on the coast.

We changed our usual criteria for travel:

1. It’s the summer holidays when everyone else is on holiday
2. We deliberately chose somewhere that might be cooler after 6 weeks of heatwave

If I say that we arrived in Tallinn at 08.30 UK time, that indicates that we had a very early start – which we did.

It meant we were in our apartment with almost a day to explore, albeit gently because, surprise surprise, we were a bit tired.

But first impressions are extremely good. A beautiful city to wander around.