Tallinn

Myself and Jed at the Joey Dunlop Memorial, Tallinn

Believe it or not, today is my birthday and after a nice breakfast on the Baltic Queen we docked in Tallinn at 10am. First on the agenda for the day was to drive the short distance from the docks to the Joey Dunlop Memorial which is in the forest at the spot where he lost his life racing on a street circuit on the outskirts of the city. As you can see the memorial is rather plain, just giving his name and his dates, however, it is rather fitting. Jed left as small Isle of Man flag as his dedication and it joins the larger one that can be seen in the picture, that one was apparently left there last year on the 10th anniversary of his deathe. There were also 2 Joey Dunlop shirts as well as several plaques that had been left by supporters.
Whilst we were standing below the trees that claimed his life a fir cone fell at our feet, this was collected up and Jed now has a special memory of the visit.

I then rode into Tallinn itself and parked up at the bus station, in true Manx way, up on the pavement, refusing to pay a parking fee. My secure stash bag was locked to the bike underneath the pannier which, together with the steering lock and disc lock would make it awkward for the Police to move the bike should they so desire. A parking ticket I can ignore.
I must say, Sandra Smith was right (for a change..Ha) Tallinn in a beautiful place, cobbled streets everywhere, defence walls and towers and lovely old buildings. Visited a couple of churches and visited the market square where, yes, there was a market. The store holders were all dressed in costune so it gave a nice atmosphere.
Jed, once again, wanted to visit the highspots and forced me to climb to the top of St Olives tower, I was on my knees by the time I had climbed the spiral stairs, and dizzy. I always prided myself on being reasonable fit for a bloke of my age (did I mention my birthday by the way?) but climbing all those steps really put a strain on the old lungs. I was panting and sweating I can tell you, thats what sitting in an office does for you, be warned.
I am stopping at the Tahetorni Hotel tonight and tomorrow, its great to get a bed! The place is very nice and for the small price of 5 euros I am allowed to park behind the automatic gates in the walled courtyard so at least I am happy that my blackie is all secure, peace of mind helps a lot.
It is pouring with rain here now, came on as I arrived at the hotel so I will have my evening meal here and hopefully go back to Tallinn tomorrow.


View of the Old Town from the top of St Olives (thanks to Jed)

Birthday......Just to let everyone know

2 beautiful Grey Owls

Bear doing his early morning stretches.

Today, 17th June is my birthday.....there, said it, now I will try not mention it again.

Yesterday (the day before my birthday) I was still in Stockholm with a day to fill as the boat did not leave until 6pm, so I had a few hours left in which to entertain myself.

For starters I went to Skansen, which is a site on one of the many islands of Stockholm where they have re-erected a load of old buildings from Swedish history. I got there at about 11am by the time I had broke camp, and even though the place had been open since 10am, it had that just about too open feel about it. Most of the buildings were still shut and no staff appeared to be about. Also there was a certain unkept appearance about the place with the grass around the buildings being very long and weed infested. It certainly is not a Cregneash or Black Country Museum.

Anyhow I made my way up the hill following a sign to Scandinavian Animals to find 5 bears, 1 fox, 2 grey owls and some European Bison (looked like American Bison to me, but what do I know. There were also a number of wmpty pens under renovation, very run down.

However, by the time I had watched the bears for a bit I had decided to cut and run and make my way to the Science Museum where the NASA exhibition was taking place, but as I started to walk to the exit I noticed that a few of the buildings were now open so decided to take a closer look. On the whole it was not too bad, it was interesting talking to the people playing the parts of the peasants and some of the building interiors were intersting...would I reccomend it to visitors....No, sorry.

Next stop then was the science museum which was far better, the Nasa exhibition is on a world tour at the moment and is due in London some time next year, now this is worth a visit.

I took an audio tour of the exhibition and it was very informative.

By now I was once again starving but only had enough Swedish currency for a cup of tea...all together now, I know. I had noted that Swedes use debit cards for everything, I was even in a queue behind a girl who paid for a single ice cream with a debit card, so, as they say, When in Rome!!!! sorry, wrong country. In the end I was able to eat and left Sweden with the fine sum of 6 kroner, or about 60 pence in proper money...no wastage there then.

My next step was to make the port for my 14 hour crossing to Estonia on the Baltic Queen, one of the Baltic state cruise ships. I have been on P and O ships a few time and they thought that these were great, but it was no contest with the Baltic Queen, even my cabin was superb with great shower, radio, TV (including BBC news 24 and MTV) writing desk and computer points. The ship had numerous shops and a supermarket (you should see how many crates of the beer and liquor they shift!!) 5 bars, 3 restraunts qnd 3 seperate disco's and entertainment areas. Impressive.

The food was also pretty good and would say that P and O was of similar standard on that score. Anyway a pleasent 14 hours spent and a very nice bed to boot!

Myself and Jed at the top of the City Hall yesterday. The only picture of us both together so far.

My treat for today, nice large hot chocolate and a chocolate mouse cake - how many calories? Who cares, its my birthday soon!!

Changing of the guard

Went to the Royal Palace on the island of Gamlastan, which is the old town today. Cost £14.00 to tour the royal rooms, together with the treasury for the crown jewels and also 2 museums within the palace. Not very expensive at all.
I was also able to see the changing of the guard within the grounds of the palace, this takes place at 12.15 each day. As you can see from above the guards wear bright blue uniforms and the ceremony is NOTHING like you would see at Buckingham Palace, in fact it was all I could do at times to stop laughing. The guards appear very lax in that when they are standing on post they can talk to visitors, unlike those in London. They also carry old rifles that are single shot bolt action with bayonets fitted - well I suppose Sweden is a neutral country, but the rifles appear so, so old.
The parade started with the band riding in on horses as the current guard is a mounted regiment, they were followed by the guard riding in behind them with swords out and held up. The mounted soldiers, men and women then rode around and stopped in what could loosely be described as 2 lines, foot soldiers then made their way between the lines to hold the horses whilst the mounted soldiers dismounted, whereupon the soldiers changed helmets and the foot soldiers led the horses back to the barracks. The new guard then formed up and did a little bit of marching, doing a right foot stamp every so many paces. They then lined up again and amd a semi run forward, looks so funny. After changing the guard the mounted band rode around playing music which was the highlight.
At the end of the parade a soldier carrying the swedish flag lowered it and started to twist the flag pole he was carrying in order to roll up the flag, however, as he did this he did a sort of skipping dance, again I had to stifle my laughs, Buckingham Palaice it aint.
Following that and the tour of the palace I had a wander around the old town before I was defeated by a heavy rain shower. Reverse logic told me to buy a brolly, which I did for the silly sum of £4.00. I put the brolly up for all of 5 minutes and it stopped raining - it works every time.
I will be breaking camp tomorrow morning and riding into Stockholm to visit Skansen which is an area covered in old houses bought from all over Sweden, the people in the village dress in old fashion clothing so this may be interesting, will also try the science museum if I have time as there is a NASA exhibition on.
I then have to cathch the overnight boat to Tallin, so possible no blog entry tomorrow as I don't think I will have internet.

Vibes

Must admit I do not get the same vibes on this trip as I did to the States. People are very reluctant to speak even when they take a look at the registration plate on Blackie and realise that we are not local. People were far freindlier in the States and people spoke to me every single day.
Perhaps its a language thing, I don't know, we will see how it develops.

Jed looking serious with the Palace Guard.

Woke to a nice warm sunny day so did a little washing and rigged line between tent and bike in order to dry washing whilst out siteseeing in Stockholm.

Met a dutch lady last night who had cycled up from Holland and was carrying on to north Sweden and Norway, unbelievable, however, the point is she gave me a rail ticket that will allow me to travel the 30 mins into and out of Stockhom. In view of this I was on the train to central station at 9am.

Picked up a central map and visited a tourist information office and I was pointed in the direction of the best things to see on a short stay.

My first stop was for a guided tour of City Hall which was most informative, it was then a trip up the 106mt towere that is part of the City Hall, the only problem is that it has 365 steps to the top plus sloping passageways, however I was promised fantastic views.

One member of the team made a gallant effort, managing 1 step before crying foul and saying he needed carrying. He said his legs were far too short.

At the top he also demanded a photo be taken to show everyone at home, so he stood on the ledge as you can see, he also had a chat to a little Swedish girl, telling her where he came from and that he was riding his motorbike!!

After the tower we caught a tourist boat for the 1 hour trip over the water to the Royal Summer Palace, another place well worth a trip. It was here that Jed blagged having his photo taken with one of the female palace guard, looks good eh!

upon the return to Stockholm I was pretty much worn out so had a hot chocolate and a chill in the shops, same as UK really, before catching the train back to the campsite........you guessed it, it started raining just before my stop, so when the train stopped it was a rush to get my washing in before it got wet again...made it.

Tomorrow we will go again into the city and take a look at the old town which is built on one of the many small islands that make up the capital.

Jeds new chapter

Jed saw this sticker on a petrol pump in Malmo and decided this is what he will now join.

I give up with him.

Also a picture of the little mermaid, just to prove we went there,