Trip to Estonia and Finland

We decided to break up the kids’ three-week Christmas break by having Bri take off the week between Christmas and New Year’s and travel to Tallinn, Estonia and to Helsinki, Finland.  Estonia is part of the Baltics but probably considers itself more Scandinavia; and Helsinki is a two-hour ferry ride from Tallinn, and the ferry schedule would allow us ten hours in Helsinki if we did a same-day trip.  So we found an AirBNB in Tallinn, loaded up the van the day after Christmas, and headed out for another adventure. 

Latvia is a quiet, secluded place, and while Riga is the largest of the Balt capitals, it still has only about 700,000 people and feels pretty intimate and small.  Estonia felt even quieter and smaller and more intimate, and we practically had the road to ourselves trekking North along the sea and then jutting inland through pine forests.  The countryside was decidedly boggy, with water pooling in fens right up to the freeway; but we also passed through some of the first small hills we’ve seen in a while (Riga is pretty flat).  After 4 hours, we arrived in Tallinn, a clean and peaceful city.  The Estonians think of themselves as more Scandinavian than Baltic, and the atmosphere felt more Nordic.  We checked into our AirBNB in a four-story apartment building and headed out on foot to look for food.  We’ve missed Chinese food in Latvia (living behind the Eden Center in Virginia for nine months has its consequences), and found a great Chinese place.  The owner was a Chinese immigrant who didn’t speak English but did speak Russian, and so we found ourselves in the situation of sitting in a Chinese restaurant in Estonia ordering dinner in Russian – what a life!  After dinner and stopping by a Rimi on the way home for some light groceries, we headed home and to bed.  And what beds!  We loved them, and slept great (after Bri downloaded a noise machine app to fill in for my fan).

The next day, Bri made us breakfast, the kids got some tv time in watching Trollhunters, we got ready, and headed out to Tallinn’s Old Town.

Tallinn (formerly called Reval until 1918) is one of the best preserved medieval cities in the world, built on a hill and divided in two parts by a set of stairs and a (formerly defensible) passage through the wall.  It didn’t disappoint.  Tallinn looks a lot like the historic Gamla stan in Stockholm (although Tallinn’s old town felt bigger), and was beautiful and romantic and charming. We walked through the tower turrets that marked the old gate and along a large portion of the ancient wall that defended this former Hanseatic League member (with Riga in Latvia and with Turku in Finland, among others – Helsinki is a relatively new city).

We headed into the Old Town up a picturesque road called St. Catherine’s Passage that leads to St. Catherine’s Church, an old and unpretentious church.  We then headed to Town Hall Square in the shadow of the old Town Hall, a 500 year-old church-like structure with the tall turret tower.  Tallinn’s Christmas market was set up and going in the old square that has been a center of trade for more than 800 years.  The kids quickly identified the merry-go-round, begged a euro, and jumped on.
We tried unsuccessfully to figure out how to get up on top of the city wall for a better view (a friend’s advice), but we got a closer look at the walls features and loved its Medieval-ness!
After wandering around town a bit more and feeling very cold, we went into an Estonian cuisine restaurant, ordered some food, all got some tasty desserts, and warmed up.

Fortified, we headed back out for more.  We kept trying to get up on top of the old wall, asked for and tried to follow directions, and ended up walking most of the way around Tallinn, and then up the road that leads to the upper part of town and some beautiful Russian cathedrals and architecture on top.  After hours of wandering around, we hit some souvenir shops we saw on the way in and headed to McDonalds for dinner on our way to a trampoline fun center that we found online.  

It was definitely not as nice as the one we recently went to in Riga but it had everything including foosball, air hockey, and little bikes and things.  The kids had fun jumping around and even tried on one of the sumo suits!  After we had had enough, we headed home, grabbed some more groceries, and hit the hay.  I would like to say that I think it was an absolute miracle that none of the kids got sick from the interaction with all of those germs! ;)

We woke up hours before the crack of dawn (this is the Baltics after all), ate and got ready, and walked out to catch our 7:30am Tallink ferry to Helsinki.  The ferry is the same type of ship we were on during our overnight to Stockholm, and we felt almost at home on the 2-hour journey.

We landed in Helsinki and headed out on foot towards Old Market Square, about a 45 minute walk through the city and ending in a park above the wharf.

It was about 10:00am when we arrived at the long park, but morning was just starting to break, and we enjoyed the Christmas lights and the festive atmosphere in Helsinki.

 It was bitterly cold and windy, but we made it in one piece to the old wharf, where we went through the market square and into the Old Market Hall to escape the wind and cold.
 We again found a Chinese place (I guess we’re going through one of those phases?  Maybe it’s a sign for third-tour bidding?), where the kids and Bri loaded up on spring rolls and Rhea and I had a chicken salad.
  The Old Market Hall is a miniature version of Riga’s Central Market, and we enjoyed looking at the different food and handcrafts for sale there (including canned reindeer and elk meat!).

From Old Market Hall, we headed around the wharf to Flytour Helsinki, a “4-D” tour experience that had us flying over and into different places in Helsinki with moving seats, 3-D glasses, and smells/water sprays to make it feel real.  I survived with my motion sickness, but it was touch and go.  : )  From Flytour, we headed to Uspenski Cathedral, a lovely 200-year-old Russian orthodox cathedral built into the side of a hill.

 We walked from the cathedral to Senate Square and Helsinki Cathedral, a Lutheran cathedral set on the hill 100 steps above Senate Square.  Inside, the cathedral was lively but more simple in the Scandinavian style, and we enjoyed some music while there.

At this point, we had checked the box on everything the adults wanted to do, and we walked over to the Helsinki Central Rail Station and a large outdoor ice skating rink that was set up there, rented the kids some skates, and let them have at it for a few hours.  It was cold!  The kids had a ball, and kept shedding layers as they heated up, all the while I kept sneaking indoors into the coffee shop to stay warm.  I should have just skated, but I was too cold!

 I may have actually stood by a nearby electric sign to get warm from its heat. ;)After the kids had had enough and Bri bought us some hot chocolate, we headed back through the Old Market Square and towards the ferry.  En route, we found this large underground flea market that looked like a DI/Goodwill to hunt for fun trinkets for a bit.

Afterwards, we continued to walk towards the wharf, looking for pizza for dinner before settling for Subway.  50 euros + for dinner for our family!  Glad we’re not paying Scandinavian prices on a regular basis!On the walk back to the ferry, we passed by this fine piece of art. ;)

 We loaded back up on the ferry and let the kids roam feral for most of the ride back, got back into Tallinn late, walked home, and hit the hay.

We took our time getting going in the morning before packing up and heading out.  We enjoyed our little trip to Tallinn and Helsinki, and are definitely coming back to Tallinn in the spring/summer!