We returned from our trip to Tallinn and Riga yesterday afternoon. Everything went according to plan and we had a marvelous, relaxing, and fun-filled five days of adventure. The train and flights were all on time and we arrived in Tallinn at mid-afternoon, plenty of time to unpack and get our bearings in the compact city. Our hotel was great and only steps from the Old Town, which is where all the action takes place. The Old Town is very lovely but ever so touristy, with lots of young kids dressed in medieval garb luring the tourists into the various restaurants and cafes that are packed around the central square. Personally, I’ve never been attracted to Medieval Fairs or banquets or themed events. From what I’ve read about medieval times, there wasn’t much that was cute or appealing and I have never been a big fan of Hildegard von Bingen.
We had a quick flight on Friday to Riga and our experience there didn’t get off on the right foot. We had a taxi driver that was Russian and didn’t even speak Latvian, which should have been our first tip off. He charged us twenty-two Lats for the trip and I had thought that it was only about ten, but he insisted that was the fare. Of course when we checked into the hotel and asked about the fare, they told us that yes it was only ten Lats and asked if it was a black “Mercedes from Riga” Taxi. We told them it was and they said that everyone who works in the travel industry knows that they are Russian cheats and yet no one in the government does anything about it since they are all paid off. Riga is very Russian; fifty per cent of the people that live in Riga are Russian. While Latvian is the official language, children can still go to Russian schools and be taught in Russian.
Riga doesn’t have the charm of Tallinn but it is a very interesting city filled with lovely parks, a magnificent river, and tons of Art Nouveau buildings from the late 1890s to 1910. The Old Town isn’t as old as Tallinn but it is filled with charm and churches. In both cities Cindy got me on Hop On / Hop Off buses that took us on tours of the cities. Both times it rained so hard that it was hard to see anything but the narration was good and very informative and it gave us a sense of where we might want to visit in the future, if there is a future visit for us in either Tallinn or Riga.
One of the highlights of Riga was our visit to the Occupation Museum. This is a marvelous exhibit that really shows you how difficult it was to have lived under the German Occupation for six years and the Russians for another fifty. Cruel and unusual take on a whole different meaning when you see these exhibits.
Today was supposed to be a relaxing day but it appears we had a lot more to do before we were ready to depart. We worked like crazy this morning doing last minute laundry, defrosting and cleaning the freezer, packing up things we want and tossing things we don’t want and giving away everything else. Finally at one this afternoon we felt like we had done enough to head out on our last excursion in Moscow. Our first stop was at the Moscow Monument to Space Flight. It is truly a grand monument, as are all the monuments in Moscow.
From there we walked over to the All-Russia Exhibition Centre, which was first opened in 1939, four years late, and was to be a monument to all of the countries that were a part of the USSR. This place is really filled with monuments and has one of the largest and most beautiful fountains in all of Moscow. It was very hot today and there was precious little shade so our walk was more of a forced march, which provoked a great deal of perspiration. We decided to take an alternative way home, one that would take us though the botanical gardens directly to another Metro stop. That was the plan and it didn’t work at all! We ended up walking and walking and walking through this forest with lakes, all of which was very pretty but for the first time in Moscow I really wanted to hear the sound of traffic instead of birds. We finally got out of the forest and had no idea where we were. Cindy found a woman who spoke English and she told us we needed to take a bus to the Metro, which is what we did, but we didn’t see any Metro. Turns out you have to walk though a neighborhood to get to the Metro and we finally got back here about four thirty and stopped for a much needed ice cold beer. (From CC: actually I first found a very nice woman who explained all about the bus and Metro to me in Russian, and while I got the general gist - gestures were helpful - I couldn’t quite believe my ears. It just doesn’t seem fair that the Metro stop called Botanical Garden is nowhere near the actual botanical gardens, which is what I’d been banking during that long walk through the forest!)
So now the house is immaculate, we are pretty much packed, we’ll go out to dinner tonight, and tomorrow a driver will deliver us to a hotel near the airport in advance of our flight on Wednesday. Until tomorrow, best wishes, Cindy and Wm.
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