Day 9

Travelling from Tallinn to Riga was most interesting.

Although again the scenery of arable farming and forests where similar to those in Scandinavia the buildings and machinery were quite different. We can tell that we are in former soviet countries by the Unitarian outlook to some of the buildings especially blocks of flats and some factories; however both Estonia and Latvia are changing and making their own mark and establishing their own identity.

We stopped at coffee time in a tiny village off the main road linking Tallinn and Riga. Colin went into the cafe expecting to have difficulty ordering his coffee but the young waitress once again had the most perfect English. We noticed that inside the cafe many places had been set for lunch and a lady dressed in country clothes complete with mop cap and shawl was busy pouring out juice and ladling out bowls of soup. We decided that perhaps a coach load was expected so we began to get ready to leave and I spotted a group of children across the road pairing up into a crocodile, they duly made their way across and into the cafe for their lunch- they were all girls aged 4-11 ish presumably a summer school; we beat a hasty retreat!

Along the road we experienced some very considerate drivers and others very reckless! One transporter lorry overtakook another lorry hurtling towards us on our side of the carriage way at great speed, luckily at the side of each carriageway is another lane of Tarmac half the width of the main lane which we could move into! Later on we discovered, when in Latvia that it is the norm for vehicles when being overtaken to move into this extra lane.

We stopped for lunch and an Australian couple we had passed at the obsolete border control pulled in behind us. We had a great time swapping stories of travels; they store their motorbike on the outskirts of London and then in May each year they fly over from Sidney and spend 5-6 months travelling through UK and Europe. They were a very gregarious and charming couple who had many experiences to relay. I decided they I couldn't complain about packing for 5 weeks into 1 pannier when Kim had to pack for 5 months into the same space!

We headed off again towards Riga and were only less than 10 miles away from the hotel when the heavens opened! Not only did we get soaked to the skin but we also had to negotiate the city centre traffic, tram lines (we ended up at one point travelling down the tramway, with one tram in front and another behind!) and wet slippery cobbles- such fun! Colin has always bemoaned the covering of cobbled by tarmac everywhere but after today is in full agreement with the practice!

We arrived at our hotel after a few illegal manoeuvres to be met by a waving and smiling Phil and Sandy.

Our hotel is right in the middle of the old town so is surrounded by old buildings with intriguing cobbled alleyways that entice the passerby to come and explore.

To be honest we did very little sightseeing, knowing that we had a full day ahead tomorrow; so we visited St. Peter's Cathedral tower to get a birds eye view of the city (Colin took my blog photo from here; as I was stood clinging to the inner rail!). Riga is much prettier than Tallinn. We partook of 1 or 2 beers and enjoyed spending time with Phil and Sandy. Sandy has been following this blog so knew what we had been up to; it was quite strang to be asked questions and for more details about our experiences rather than telling them what we'd been up to!

Lots of the restaurants and cafes have live music so we frequented 1 for our evening meal and then moved back to our earlier beer stop where Phil and Sandy delighted the audience with a dancing display.

The waiter at our second stop had such an excellent grasp of not only English but also our humour. At one point Colin made a comment which resulted in Sandy slapping him and telling him that it was a good job she didn't have a fork handy to stab him; the next moment the waiter appeared with a fork wrapped in a serviette "to capture the blood" he said, as he placed it in front of Sandy!

We returned to the hotel past lively bars which we'll endeavour to visit tomorrow night!