Baltics - 22 June 2012 (2)

Shopping in Tallinn

It was only just after 12.00 when we got into the hotel and we were told that our rooms wouldn’t be free until 15.00.  So we put our bags and cases into the luggage room and set off for the old town.

May and I wanted some coffee and cake and then go and do some shopping for souvenirs and presents.  Almost as soon as we hit the old town, we left the others and did our own thing.  It was almost as if we hadn’t left and we soon found Kohvik Matilda café, where we had a very nice chocolate cake.  I had kakao and May had cappuccino.  It came to €4.60 each.

Then the shopping started.  I bought a nice linen cardigan with some applique work.  May looked for tablecloths, but, after looking at lots, didn’t buy one after all.  We both bought some of the wonderful 1920s style felt hats though.

Talinn old town was quite different from when we had been there before.  The sky was solid blue with no clouds and the shops were all open.  It had been a Sunday when we had done our city tour and it had rained some of the time.

We stopped for a drink at Dominic’s Wine restaurant near Katarina käik.  We were not impressed when the waiter told us to move from a table for four to a table for two, despite there being no one else sitting outside the whole time we were there.  The freshly squeezed orange juices cost €4 each and were quite small.  We didn’t leave a tip.

Having browsed and shopped for hours, we headed back to the hotel.  On the way, we called into the large Viru Keskus shopping mall and found a chemists, where I bought some cocoa butter for my legs.

Back at the hotel, we retrieved our luggage and got our room cards.  We were in room 227 – next door to the one we had before.  Sarah was at reception, complaining because, once again, she was right next to the lift.  This is one of the problems of having a single room.