Baltics - 9 June 2012 (1)

Getting there

A very early morning flight to Helsinki meant that I had to stay in a hotel near to Heathrow.  I chose Hotel Arora because it offered a good deal and was very impressed.

Even staying close to Heathrow, I had to get up very early and caught the second bus of the day into the airport.  Some of the airport hotels have shuttle buses, but Hotel Arora was one of the hotels which had a deal in place with the public transport providers, so I was able to catch the no75 to the airport for free.  It was full of very sleepy looking airport employees who would have to do this every day – not fun, especially as few of them would see daylight once they were in the terminals.

I met my first fellow “Explorers”, David and Dulcie, in the queue for check-in and sat next to Ann and Bob on the flight to Helsinki.

As we took off, I was very impressed by the screen, which showed the view from underneath the plane – a new perspective on London.  As we approached Helsinki airport, the screen showed the pilot’s eye view, so we could see the approach and landing.  I had never seen that before and think all planes should do the same.

My favourable opinion of the flight continued with the vegetarian tomato and cucumber roll, which was very nice.  The coffee was passable too.

There was a very long walk in Helsinki airport from gate 38 to gate 21, which covered almost three sides of a square and required us to pass through passport control at the “Shengen” border halfway round.  Fortunately, we had sufficient time and I finished my first book while waiting for the next plane and looking at my fellow passengers in case they were on the same tour.

The flight to Tallinn was on a small propeller driven plane – and even then it wasn’t very full.  I wondered whether it would be a small group or whether lots of people would be booked on the land only tour.

As we came into Tallinn, I could see allotments with summer houses and garden sheds and some very drab old Soviet style apartment blocks.  It didn’t look very pretty.

We were met by our tour leader – Aija Tamsone, who came from Riga.  Aija had just dropped off the previous group, so no time for her to rest.

As it happened, there were 19 in our group – my largest Explore tour group to date.  We came from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA.

We were staying in the Park Inn, Narva Road and I was sharing with May, an architect from the Orkneys.  I had sat near to her in Helsinki airport, but we hadn’t spoken.  She is very tall and had a distinctive, stylish haircut.

I put my suitcase down on the floor, but then May found the folding baggage table and suggested that I move it.  It was then that a minor miracle happened.  May said that there was something on the floor where my suitcase had been.  I was stunned – it was the earring I had lost on the last day of my holiday with my mum in Barcelona!  (See http://poppletonpenguin.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/barcelona-23-september-2011.html).  Some would say that it had been hiding in the lining of the suitcase, but I prefer to think that it had fallen through a hole in the space-time continuum and re-materialised in Tallinn.  Luckily, I hadn’t thrown the other one away and I am pleased to report that the pair is now happily reunited.