Riga, Tallinn and Helsinki‏

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On the way to Riga we visited the Hill of Crosses and stopped at Rundale Palace, similar to the design of Versailles. We wandered around Riga in the dark, visiting the Town Hall and various cobbled streets. For dinner, Ann had the "Key to Riga", a key-skewer of meat and veggies that filled us both up. The next day we did a free walking tour which took us to see the "real" Riga. This included areas such as the Central Market, Little Moscow and Stalin's Birthday Cake. We went out for drinks and dinner with some new backpacker friends and ended up at the ballet to see Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty. We caught the train out to Sigulda and spent the day visiting castles, Good Man's Cave and learning about the legend of the Rose of Turaida.

We dipped out feet in the Baltic Sea at the beach town of Parnü on our way to Tallinn, Estonia. Tallinn has a fabulous old town with many remaining city walls and fortification. The viewing platforms in Toopea (High Town) gave us fantastic views of the fading sunlight. We followed the city walls and rounded Fat Margaret's Tower, headed up Katerina's Kalk to see the medieval gravestones and ended up for dinner in the Town Square where we saw a sword fight and medieval dancing. The next day we found our best meal in Tallinn at the III Dakons, a small meat pie shop below the Town Hall. We caught the tram out to Kadriorg Palace which was unfortunately closed for renovations but we enjoyed the walk through Kadriorg Park and the beach east of the city. It was a rainy day for our ferry ride from Tallinn to Helsinki, but the day brightened up by the time we reached the Finnish Coast so we could see the many islands that create the harbour of Helsinki. Our highlights of Helsinki included Upenski Orthodox Church, the University Botanical Gardens, the bridge to Seurasaari Open Air Museum and joining up with the president's cavalcade from the president's residence surrounded by police motorbikes. We particularly enjoyed the Dome in the Rock Church which had been carefully carved out of the bedrock. The afternoon was spent out at the Suomenlinna Fortress. It has survived relatively intact through the Swedish and Russian wars. We had our fanciest meal at the Savoy Restaurant on a rooftop where we could see out to the skyline of Helsinki.

I'm a little behind in the blogs but will catch you up on our Russian adventures soon. We are currently in Florence and leaving for Rome tomorrow. I will add more photos soon.

Cheers, Richard and Ann

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