Another rainy day in beautiful Tallinn

After only a few hours here in Tallinn on Monday, Steven said he wished we could stay here for a few weeks to give you an idea of how favorable our first impressions were of the town and of our airbnb apartment.  The latter is by far the most spacious and gorgeous one we've stayed in yet and, considering we'll only have a room in our last airbnb place in Saint Petersburg (from now on to be known as SPB), it will remain the most spacious one too.  To give you an idea of airbnb prices, we paid $204 for our 3 nights here which includes service and cleaning fees.  As I may have already mentioned, our apt here is right in the middle of Old Town but hidden away in a courtyard so noise is not an issue.  The location could not be any better - we've walked everywhere so far and have had no need for any of the buses, trams and trolleys we've seen in the city itself.  The Old Town is by and large for pedestrians only - even our taxi driver had to drop us off on Sunday when we were coming from the ferry terminal a few hundred meters away. 

Samsonite or any other luggage manufacturer should definitely road test their wheeled luggage on any of the cobblestone streets here or in R. or in H.!  Some of the cobblestones are relatively easy and smooth to navigate but others are not cobblestones at all but rather fair sized rocks with just enough large spaces in between so that you can easily twist an ankle or wrench your back.  I spend pretty well all my time looking down and carefully figuring out which stone to move onto next rather than always looking up and taking in the breathtakingly beautiful architecture around me - a factor of age and being predisposed to weak ankles, I guess!

I keep thinking of how all the $12-15 strollers we had over the years would have been absolutely useless here as the wheels would have fallen off immediately.  The only time we recall a stroller wheel falling off was decades ago when we were hiking on pretty steep terrain at Bryce or Zion national parks in Utah and Natalie, I think, was in the stroller and the wheel came off and went tumbling down off the cliff.  We did make sure YOU were safe though, Natalie!  The strollers we've seen here have mega wheels to withstand the various grades of terrain luckily.

• I should have mentioned WELL before this how much I love my Kindle - mea culpa Alexander especially!  Steven and I are both huge readers and our plan was to take 4 books each and then swap them.  Alexander pushed me reluctantly initially into the brave new world (to me only, I know!) of paperless books and I can only say thank you again to him, Natalie and Zachary who gave me the Kindle for my birthday to use for the trip.  I'd be the 1st to admit I would be lost without it now and can't imagine lugging books with me, clothes yes but not books!
• Went on another Free Walking Tour y'day - I can see this will be our trip of free walking tours as we've got them reserved in SPB and Moscow too plus did one in Reykjavik.
• Estonia was est. as a separate nation in 1918 but that lasted for ONE day before the Germans and then the Russians occupied the country til August of 1991.
• Population is 1,3 million; they adopted the euro 2 years ago and their big claim to fame and deservedly so is three Estonians developed Skype.
• 2nd most atheist nation in the world - Denmark "beats" them by .1%.  Saw lots of beautiful churches y'day but one was turned into a Museum of Atheism!
• Visited the Occupation Museum after the tour - first of its kind for me!
• For all you scrabble fans (Suellen et al) out there, I meant to tell you a new word for me and perhaps for you is "querne" - we saw it on an English plaque on one of the buildings at the Open Air Museum in Helsinki.   A querne is a type of stone - did you know!
• The title of this post gives you an idea of the weather here now - it's lovely and sunny for all of three minutes, then drizzle, then pouring cats and dogs for quite a while.  Has been the latter only all night long so I'm thinking we actually have to use public transportation today instead of walking.
• Brought very comfy shoes which is the good thing but my black sneakers (I read on TA not to wear white ones as that immediately ID's you as an American; our speech would not?!) are mesh so would get soaked in 2 minutes and my Kohl's sandals/trek shoes I discovered y'day take forever to dry after getting a good soaking.
• Last part of our day was spent at the Russian flea market - it was getting late and the weather was lousy so most of the stalls were closed down but still fun wandering around; got a tomato for Steven's nightly omelet for 4 euro cents, all of 5 cents US!  On to mother Russia tomorrow so an easy way to get out feet wet, we thought.
• Steven's already thinking of our next long trip put of the US and wanting to get a long LL Bean raincoat like mine to protect his pants.  I'm thinking of another pair of shoes that will are equally comfy but will dry quickly.  Your input is appreciated!
• We do have a washer here but it's pint sized - all of 3.5 kg so can't get a lot in there obviously.  It's been almost funny having 2 fairly smart people trying to figure out the workings of the washers in each of the airbnbs so far.  We haven't mastered them yet - yes the clothes are clean but what temps and cycles we've used remain a mystery!
• Hope you all stay warm and dry as you go about your day.
  

Estonian flags flying from Freedom Sq.

The Russian flea market in Tallinn