Good nights sleep, woke well rested. Suppose one should rise early and get stuck into being a tourist. Stuff that. We're here for 8 - 10 days, no hurry. This is a holiday after all. Rolled back over and slept for another hour - Tallinn will still be there later. 

First order of the day - find a good cup of coffee (coffee is still a hit and miss affair in Europe). Cafe on the corner looks warm and inviting. Bonus - coffee is very good. Caffeine needs met, time to do a bit of exploring. The first thing you notice about Tallinn is that it is picturebook perfect. Previously Prague and Dresden were our most favourite cities, now we will have to add Tallinn. 

The first thing we notice is how quiet it is. Maybe mid-week is normally quiet? Anyway, it was quite pleasant wandering the deserted streets. Being a UNESCO listed site there is no shortage of things to see. Museums, churches (stop looking at me like that dear), historical landmarks. More than enough to spend a week or so.

Sunday night, we headed out for our first proper meal in Tallinn. Went to a bar/restaurant called the Hell Hunt. Sounds grim, bit it wasn't. Warm and cosy, filled with people having a good time. We opted for a selection of snack dishes - Russian dumplings, spicy meatballs, sausages in spicy sauce. Washed down with a l;ocal Estonian beer. Excellent.

So much to see and do. Do we try and do it all? Or do we just relax and enjoy the city? Relax and enjoy. There are a few things we have singled out to do. A visit to the KGB Museum would seem necessary. This is in fact a hotel. The Viru Hotel was built by the Soviets in the 1970's to cash in on the western tourist market. Considered to be 5 star, the Viru was built to provide western guests with the best of everything. Including state of the art spying devices. Hotel has 23 floors, officially only 22 existed. The 23rd was used by the KGB to house their communications equipment.  . Our guide provided interesting anecdotal stories of how it was working here, how western guests were treated (and surveilled), the part the hotel played in Soviet propaganda - most informative and interesting.

After seeing the KGB museum it seemed a visit to the KGB prison cells seemed appropriate. Going from an environment providing the very best to the privileged, to one which embodied the very depths of misery and despair. This was a place where people disappeared and died. Not very cheerful. I don't know if it was fate or a warning, but on the way in Julie slipped on the metal step tread and sprained her ankle. Could hardly walk on it. Sat down for a while to see if she could continue. The museum attendant had a can of cold spray in his med kit which helped. After a few minutes we continued on in. Quite an interesting display. Film footage showing the conditions, letters from inmates describing their hopeless situation. Walk back to the apartment proved to be slow and painful for Julie. Thankfully it was only about 10 minutes. The stairs up to the apartment proved to be a bit of an ordeal, but we made it intact - breakout the Panadol, Voltaren Gel and Ibuprofen.

The Estonia History Museum is interesting and well worth a visit. Lays out the history of Estonia from earliest times to present day, who invaded, who ruled. It wasn't until 1920 that the Republic of Estonia was finally established when they evicted the Russians. Only to be subjugated by the Germans in 1941 and then the Russians at the end of WWII, who stayed until 1991, when Estonia finally gained its independence again. Despite all that, the people of Tallinn seem to be of good cheer.

A short walk around Toompeah park is Balti Jaam, a large market place nestled against the main railway station of Tallinn. Here you can find everything from fresh produce (seafood, fruit & veg, meats, wines, groceries) to a flea market selling second hand goods of all types, eateries, as well as upmarket goods. Easily spent an hour or two wandering the aisles.

We intended to do a day trip across to Helsinki (2 hour ferry ride). Decided which day to go (Monday), got online, bought the tickets, done. The next day was the day that Julie hurt her ankle. Even though she was still mobile, we decided that a day walking around Helsinki might not be a good idea. So, back online to the ferry site. Brought up the booking, amended it to the following day, done. Not done. Got an email the next day to inform us that our booking had been marked as a "No Show". Which meant we were being charged for it anyway. Rather than fork out money twice, decided to forego the Helsinki trip.

We decided that instead of Helsinki we would take a short train trip (45 minutes) to a small town called Keila. According to Google it is the oldest settlement in Estonia and is on many lists of the most attractive small towns in Estonia. Sounds good. Didn't turn out good. Don't know if we made a wrong turn somewhere, but we didn't find any evidence of an old settlement or attractiveness. What we did see is a whole heap tenement blocks (remnants of the Soviet era perhaps?) and a couple of unattractive shopping malls. Oh well, at least the train ride was warm and comfortable.

Speaking of warm and comfortable, have we mentioned how cold it is here in Tallinn. Really cold. When we got back to town, on the way back to the apartment it started to snow. At first it was hard to tell if it was snow or just specks of sleet. But then it got a bit heavier until large fluffy snowflakes were covering us. What a perfect way to end the day.