Some cinnamon beer to go with your wild boar sir?
Trip Start
Aug 20, 2010
1
9
24
Trip End
Sep 25, 2010
Tallinn, Estonia
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Opened the curtains this morning to sunny skies. Perfect. It was a pretty long day today - nine hours - and the old town of Tallinn was only about a 20 minute walk from the ship so we had oodles of time.
Bought some Estonian krone just off the ship to buy food etc and then decided to take a hop on hop off so that we get to see a bit more of the town - 13 euros each.
Sat up on top and both of us just had two short sleeve shirts on and it was bloody freezing. Heaps to see and a good commentary. Lots of crumbling but still beautiful huge old houses through one of the areas we drove through. I hope they all get renovated like some have been.
Kind did a big loop around town and then ended up at the top of the old town. Bumped into Sharon and Russ again. Wandered up and down cobblestone streets lined with amazing old buildings. Lots of churches to go into but we are trying to have a church free holiday so went inside nothing. We just didn't need to as the outsides were good enough.
Contrary to the captain's advice that it would be fine all day it actually chucked it down around lunchtime. Luckily we were looking to eat so when I saw Old Hansa and suggested we go there, Al then told me it was the one thing he'd wanted to do in Tallinn.
Old Hansa was bloody brilliant!!! It's an old Hansa merchant's building that has been converted into this amazing themed restaurant/feasting hall. Some Lonely Planet recommendations are a bit dodgy but this one is spot on - the staff are welcoming, ask what language you speak, and are all of course great looking. The tights the guys wear are particularly becoming ;)
It's all based around food and drink that would have been served back in medieval Tallinn so we had cinnamon beer and honey beer, wild boar, berries, juniper cheese, pork leg with beer sauce. Yum, yum, yum. Suppose it wasn't cheap at EEK1120 (72 euro) but it wasn't just a good meal, it was a whole lot more.
And that was pretty much it. Wandered back to the dock, bought a couple of bibs and bobs and back on board by 4.30. Wanted to get some posts uploaded so I was inside and using the internet but still looking outside as Tallinn and Estonia disappeared into the distance. Hope AL got some nice photos.
