Tallinn travelogue

It is 19.55 in Sunday evening, and I’m typing this in dark hotelroom, as Sanna is trying to get Aapo to sleep. That wasn’t easy yesterday and it won’t be today, either. There has been so many new things to Aapo that falling asleep is very, very hard.

Our trip has been quite a success so far. We left Espoo yesterday morning, took a commuter train to Helsinki city centre and continued with tram to the ferry terminal. I bought something to eat from the old market hall nearby before we joined to the passport check queue and finally were on our way to the ship.

We took a fast ship that travels one and half hours between the cities, so the travelling time would not be that bad distraction for Aapo. He first charmed everyone on board by showing his fresh walking skills and then dutily felt asleep after lunch.

The passport check was swift in Tallinn and we managed to get a taxi nearby the terminal. The hotel, SAS Radisson, is nice and the room is just perfect for us. Stay tuned for a complete review later.

Saturday was spent on shopping, we toured the most shopping attractions in the city centre and in the old town. Sanna visited a day spa and I spent almost couple of hours with Aapo in rainy Tallinn old town. We found an excellent chocolate café in a courtyard (I’ve got the name in a business card, I’ll write a review later) and spend most of the time there. Once again, Aapo stole the show by being really joyful and babbling aloud. The older people were charmed by the performance.

I had spot a Tallinn restaurant review page in Kauppalehti Optio (a Finnish business/lifestyle magazine) that helped me to book a good restaurant, Pegasus, for the evening. When we arrived at six, there were only four other people in the restaurant, and after they left for their ship, we were alone there.

The food was excellent, service a bit slow — but still, it was an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours. Back in hotel, we had to struggle so hard with Aapo to get him to sleep that we decided to hit the bunk, too.

Today, we tried to visit Kumu art museum that is located a couple kilometers east from the city centre. Unfortunately the museum was closed, as today is a public holiday. We and a whole lot of other people were not aware of that. The main gate of the museum didn’t have any notice, so we wasted twenty minutes waiting there to see the museum open.

Fortunately you can go around the gate… Everyone went inside just to see a notice in the entrance doors that the museum is closed for the day. The museum café, on the other hand, was open and we had excellent filled croissants there. We need to come again for the museum.

The trip to the museum was not worthless after all: there is an old summer palace built by Peter the Great, and it has lovely gardens including a swan pond. This is really different Tallinn compared to the usual stuff people see while visiting a day here.

We strolled around the old town, visited shops and churches (the main attractions besides museums) and ate really, really good chocolate cake in a café (wait for a review). Then we went to see Fat Margareta, one of the towers of the city wall and at the end of our tour, I climbed to the tallest church tower in Tallinn.

The views were grand. I’ll try to post a few photos later. I accidentally dropped my lens cap from the tower, but fortunately found it on the street — without any visible damages.

Today’s restaurant was Ö, which pampered us with really good food and divine desserts accompanied with good service. The restaurant is my best dining experience in Tallinn, highly recommendable.

After dinner, we walked back to the hotel, checked a couple of shops, and in general rested. Today is the last day of our trip, and we’ll go to Kristiine shopping center before leaving to Helsinki. Stay tuned for the second part.