retiredmartin

May 2023.

We only had one full day in Tallinn, so best get our skates on in the morning and get aimlessly lost early.

Our apartment “Sauna”, in a little alley in the heart of the Old Town,

was a quaint little place,

with some artwork straight from the ’70s.

and everything worked perfectly.

Except the door handle, which refused to open. Using Booking.com gives you some assurance the property owner will deal with your cry for help, and within 5 minutes I was sending a little video to explain the problem (Press PLAY).

Luckily, there was a nice Scando cafe (RUKIS) 20 seconds away.

All I have to do is convince you that the mixed berries counteract the calories in the fluffy pancakes.

Tallinn as wasn’t cheap as predicted (apart from that bargain apartment, oddly), probably Sheffield prices, but then it was one of the smartest cities in Europe, fuelled by an IT based economy and cruise line tourists.

But it was clean, efficient and packed with great parks and art.

We walked the two miles out to the Palace of Catherine the Great,

and then back along the promenade towards the port,

where what looked like an oversized game of jacks (ask your dad) shot steam at us.

Half the population seem to travel on those electric scooters, half on tram.

Several large ships were heading to port, one from Helsinki packed with folk buying cheap bottle of Doom Bar from the poetically named SuPer Alko.

And behind SuPer Alko, an authentic looking beer hall called Kochi Aidad (“Cruise passengers, get p****d here”.

We wanted to save ourselves from something more authentic, but it wasn’t on Duncan’s craft beer list;

and for that very reason we had to go in.

Well, for all I know it was built in 1987,

but who cares.

It was clean, and quirky,

and we were allowed to have a beer flight without looking on Untappd first.

In truth, the beers were a bit “Firkin”, or Les 3 Brasseurs or whatever, and the big plate of food was, well,

a big plate of food, but having been locked in our room for 15 minutes without any sustenance we weren’t going hungry.

I’m afraid there was no singing, impromptu or otherwise.