Thursday 16th January 2020 Although you can get a coach between the Estonian and the Latvian capitals, there is currently no direct train link between Tallinn and Riga: services go via Valga on the border. We had to rise early [we were first down to breakfast in our hotel] to catch a train from Tallinn to Valga for the first leg of the journey. Although the man at the ticket counter had suggested we might struggle to get a seat, once we were on board, we began to wonder whether he was being ironic. The scenery was predominantly trees and woodland. At the end of WWI, Valga was the only place that was disputed between Estonia and Latvia and a British mediator was called in to settle the dispute which he did by dividing the town in two. On the Latvian side, the town is called Valka. We arrived in Valga/Valka with three hours to wait before our onwards connection to Riga so we deposited our luggage in the lockers in the spacious railway station hall and went to stroll round the town. Valga promotes itself with the slogan, “One city, two states” and this is written prominently around the […]
Estonia
Wednesday 15th January 2020 We had agreed to meet for coffee at Café Maiasmokk, the oldest cafe in Estonia, which opened in the same premises in 1864: the ground floor has remained unchanged for almost a century. Maiasmokk translates as “Sweet Tooth” and is famous for the marzipan figures and sculptures which adorn its window displays. Apparently both Reval [now known as Tallinn] and Lübeck claim to be the town where marzipan was invented. You can watch the artists at work in the Marzipan Room [below right]. Prompted by a request to ask our hotel to print our flight tickets, coffee was accompanied by Robert giving an IT lesson on how to make best use of the features on an iPhone, including the Wallet. When Liz and Martin started giggling over some photo effects like two teenagers at the back of a classroom, we knew it was time to move on. From Café Maiasmokk we walked to the Niguliste Museum, a part of the Art Museum of Estonia which is housed in the thirteenth century St Nicholas Church. The exhibits are predominantly ecclesiastic art celebrating the Virgin Mary. The most famous exhibit in the museum is the Danse Macabre painted […]
Tuesday 14 January 2020 Kadriorg Palace was founded by Peter the Great in 1718 and the name means Catherine’s Valley in honour of his wife Catherine I of Russia. Designed by an Italian architect, it was drastically renovated by Tsar Nicholas I in 1827 and it is now an art museum. Although not at all on the scale of The Hermitage, you get a better flavour of the rooms as they are not overwhelmed by the art on display. The Great Hall which features Catherine’s initials and ornate stucco decoration is said to be the most intact original room to survive from Peter I’s time. We saw several school groups making use of the small oval pads which are provided so that you can lie on the (clean and highly polished) floor to appreciate the fresco on the ceiling. From the Kadriorg Palace you look down the avenue towards the seafront and the Russalka Monument, which was erected in 1902 to mark the ninth anniversary of the sinking of the Russian warship of the same name in a storm in 1893 with the loss of all on board. Walking along the seafront, we returned to town, where there was a […]
Monday 13th January 2020 We had an early start for our train journey to Tallinn. As you walk down the platform, the provodnitsa [or provodnik for male] carriage attendants] stand smartly by the entrance to the carriage under their care. Ours was a formidable looking woman who proved, unsurprisingly, to be kind and helpful. Although we were boarding the train at 06:25 it was the sleeper train from Moscow and we found we had a room with two berths, rather than seats. As we had woken early, we did find we were sleepy enough to take a power nap but were woken by our provodnitsa in time for breakfast. There is an hour’s time difference between the two countries so although theoretically we were gaining an hour in our day, the combined border controls and customs checks on each side of the border took around two hours. First, Russian passport control took our passports away then a selection of Russian Customs and Excise staff visited the compartment. One asked us to open our ruck sacks and gave these a cursory glance. Another appeared with a sniffer dog who ignored Matilda’s supply of St Petersburg and Earl Grey tea [you are […]