Estonia - December 2018

In the middle of a month long visit to the UK at the end of 2018, I decided to take another excursion to the Baltic States.  In the summer I had visited Latvia and Lithuania, this time it was to be Estonia.  The most convenient way for me to get there is from East Midlands Airport to Riga, Latvia followed by a second flight to Tallinn, Estonia.  Ryan Air and Baltic Air respectively are quite economical for this sort of trip.

Riga with Christmas Decorations

I left early morning Wednesday, 12 December from East Midlands airport and landed in Riga around lunchtime.  I then had 3 or 4 hours to kill before my flight to Tallinn so I decided to go into the center of Riga and visit one of the museums that I did not get chance to visit on my previous visit - the Latvian Holocaust Museum.  It was an easy bus ride into the city center and then a short walk through the Central Market to the Holocaust Museum.  It turned out to be not a very impressive museum - there was a replica of a railway car that transported Jews to the Camps, a renovated house that showed what living conditions were like in the Jewish Ghetto in Riga, some artsy exhibits and that was about it.  Just beyond the museum there was a memorial to a fire that took place in a synagogue.  Some 300 Jews were chased into the synagogue by Latvians (not Nazis) in 1941, the doors were then boarded up and the synagogue set ablaze.  There were no survivors.  The foundations of the synagogue are still preserved on the site.  

Riga Latvian Ghetto and Holocaust Museum

While the short visit to Riga wasn't that rewarding it did pass the time before my Baltic Air flight to Tallinn.  I arrived in Tallinn around 5 pm where it was dark already (sunset is just after 3:00 pm) and it was very cold (0 deg C).  There is a very good tram service from the airport into the center of town - modern trams, very cheap, and quite well used by the locals. 

Tallinn Old City Gate

In Tallinn, I guessed at which tram stop to get off at and luckily I guessed right and alighted just a couple of blocks from my hotel, the Barens Hotel.  It isn't a bad hotel; it is in an old building near the Town Hall Square so the location is great but it is showing some signs of wear.

That evening I took a stroll around town.  The old part of town is quite compact and I did manage to get around a good part of it - the Town Hall Square with its Christmas Market, the more modern Freedom Square with its lights, the Orthodox Cathedral on the hill, the parliament building, etc.  Despite the cold weather, there was no snow on the ground in the town center just the occasional heaps of snow piled up in the parks.  

Town Hall Square Tallinn 

The Tallinn Town Hall Square has the dubious reputation of being the first place to display a decorated Christmas Tree in a public square.  They have lot to answer for if that is the case, though the Lithuanians also claim that distinction over in Riga.

For my evening meal I took the guide book's recommendation and had a great meal of meat (pork, the local staple) and potatoes at the Restaurant Vanaeema Jures.  The desert was this wonderful stuff called Kamavaht which was a kind of cold porridge made from rye, oats, barley and peas mixed with cream and slightly sweetened.  It was so good I bought a couple of bags of the raw material to bring back to the US.

Next morning it didn't get light until around 9:00 am.  That makes for a very short day as there is only about 6 hours of daylight this time of year. I set off to follow the Walking Tour in the Lonely Planet Guide Book.  It covers most of the highlights in the old town, many of which I had already seen the previous evening.

Freedom Square, Tallinn

Alexander Nevsky Orthodox Cathedral

I started in Freedom Square with its Cathedral and large open space.  The location for the many rallies and protests prior to independence from the Soviet Union.  Then up to Toompea - which is the name of the hill, the name of the castle situated on it and also to the parliament building which is located in a palace on the hill.  Next to the parliament building is the very fine Alexander Nevsky Orthodox Cathedral.  It is a wonderful structure from the Tsarist Russian period before WWI.  While it is perhaps the most impressive structure in Tallinn, it is apparently not well liked as it is a symbol of Russian oppression and occupation.  

St Mary's Lutheran Cathedral

Just down the street from the Orthodox Cathedral is St Mary's Lutheran Cathedral.  A beautiful old spired church with a very nice interior.  

View of Old Town Tallinn

The two cathedrals are on the Toompea hilll and a short walk along the street provides an overlook of the city below.  You can look out over the old town to the harbour and the sea beyond.  A spectacular view even on a grey cold day like it was that day.

City Walls Tallinn

Tallinn is a walled city and much of the old wall and its defensive towers are still intact.  I walked along the northern edge of the wall towards the harbour and the modern port area.  Alas the modern port can now accommodate cruise ships so that explains the proliferation of souvenir shops all over the old town.  I imagine when the cruise ships visit the old town is quite overflowing with tourists. 

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Paterei Prison

Paterei Prison

From a gate in the old city wall, I made a diversion to the Kalamaja district of town where there is an old barracks from the Tsarist period.  The barracks were converted to a prison at the end of WWI and all manner of nasty things took place inside its confines.  It is known as Paterei and I was hoping for a look inside but alas it is now closed to the public.  I did walk around the area and it is indeed a sinister and disquieting place.  The guide book says the lower floor windows were bricked up so that the locals wouldn't hear what was going on inside the prison.

Beyond the prison is a fine old steamship moored at a dock and a sea plane museum.  I decided not to partake of the seaplane exhibit.

Linnahall

Back east towards the current port, there is a Soviet era building called the Linnahall.  Originally the V. I. Lenin Palace of Culture and Sports, it was built in 1980 for the Olympics (the sailing events were held in Tallinn).  It is now very much derelict and decrepit - graffitied walls, broken glass, rubbish and decaying concrete.  There are apparently plans to renovate the building at some point.  Is it worth it you may ask.

Linnahall

Returning to the old town there is a memorial to the MS Estonia tragedy of 1994 when 852 people died when the ship sank on its way from Tallinn to Stockholm.

KGB Prison Cells

Inside the old town again I visited the KGB Museum.  This is in the basement of a beautiful old building where in the Soviet era the KGB got up to nasty things in the basement cells.  Now the rest of the building has been renovated into a beautiful apartment building.

KGB Headquarters

Along the same street there are a series of beautiful buildings belonging to various Guilds - the Blackhead's Guild, St Olaf's Guild, St Canute's Guild.  All very ornate and wonderful.

Guild Hall Tallinn

Guild Hall Tallinn

From the old town I then went out to the more modern area of town through the Varnu Gate and on to the Opera House, Tammasaare Park (Tammasaare is Estonia's most famous author) and coffee and cake at the very excellent Cafe Lyon.  The Opera House has the absolute best parking barriers to their parking lot - conductor's batons.

Entry to the Opera House Parking Lot

After warming up with coffee I headed out towards the Central Market.  Along the way the modern shops and malls gave way to more dreary and unimaginative Soviet era blocks of apartments.  The market was not at all impressive but then the day was cold and damp and not at all conducive to an open air market.

Interior of St Mary's Cathedral

I returned to the Lutheran Cathedral on the Toompea hill where there was a choral concert that afternoon.  I wasn't sure what to expect but it was a marvelous concert in a wonderful setting.  I was quite moved.  A lot of J.S. Bach (Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring and the Magnificat) but some really nice pieces by Estonian composers too.

Leaving the church it was dark already and it was snowing.  The city looked beautiful with all the Christmas lights and the snow coming down.

I walked over to the train station where there was another market - this one a lot better.  Most of it was indoors in a renovated industrial building with all sorts of foodstuffs and lots eateries.  There was even an extensive antique section with all manner of junk that surely no one would ever want to buy.  There was also a great collection of graffiti on the associated walls and I had lots of fun taking pictures.

Station Market Area Tallinn

Station Market Area Tallinn

After dinner (same restaurant, I'm a creature of habit), I went to a jazz club called Philly Joe's (after Philly Joe Jones).  Playing that night were Lauri Kadalipp Social Jazz.  A four piece Estonian band who were just terrific.  Quite an unexpected pleasure.

Philly Joe's jazz Club

The next morning, Friday, was much brighter with even glimpses of blue sky, so I walked around the old town again, catching all the same sights again in a better light.  It really is a beautiful little city.  I did pay a visit to the Tallinn City Museum for a quick visit.  It wasn't particularly interesting except on the top floor they had an exhibit and film about the events that lead up to the break from the Soviet Union and achieving Independence.  An interesting period that was not that long ago - 1990.

Eliel Saarinen Building

It was then time to head back to the airport for my flight home.  While waiting for my tram, I did examine a fine building by Saarinen (Eliel Saarinen that is, not his son Eero who is more famous in the USA).  A fine building with lovely art deco ornamentation.  All these Baltic cities seem to have great art deco buildings, especially Riga.

Riga at Christmas Time

It was a short flight back to Riga where, with 3 hours to kill before my flight  back to East Midlands, I went into town again.  Riga was quite splendid with all its lights and Christmas Markets.  That is four separate visits to Riga for me, I feel like quite an expert on the town now.  

There are more photos here.

The Pinnacles National Park - October 2018

In early October we paid a short visit to Pinnacles National Park for a couple of nights camping.  Pinnacles are in the middle of California, on the eastern edge of the Coastal Range. They are a series of tuff and breccia volcanic peaks sitting adjacent to the San Andreas Fault Line.  

Early Morning Sun on the Pinnacles High Peaks

There are two entrances to the park, an east and a west but no road through connecting them.  We stayed on the eastern side where there is the only campsite at Bear Gulch. I picked a nice quiet site just the right distance away from the toilets with no close neighbors.  After our site was set up along come a family with a baby who make an incredible amount of noise erecting their tent - hammering stakes in the ground so it would withstand a hurricane.  What was worse was the baby - crying incessantly. I know babies cry but this went on for a long long time. There were lots of other campsites why did they park themselves there.

The baby did eventually get settled and we all slept well at last.  There was a fair bit of rain in the night and for the first time in many a year the tent’s flysheet got tested.  All was well and dry inside.

The park is not very big and it can be hiked across in a morning.  We took something called the Bear Gulch Trail to a series of “caves” which we scrambled through.  They are not really caves in the classic sense merely tunnels formed by boulders falling into narrow gorges creating space to crawl through.

The Reservoir 

After the caves we climbed up to the reservoir area, a beautiful reservoir built to supply water to who knows who or where.  The water level was quite low in this late fall season.

After the reservoir we took the High Peaks Trail which climbs through the higher peaks of the Pinnacles complex.  There are some beautiful rock faces, much loved by the climbing community, and some interesting narrow pieces of the trail where steps have been cut into the rock.  The section known as the Narrows are quite steep and of course, narrow and are well protected by metal fencing.

We made our way back to Bear Gulch via the Condor Gulch trail.  Unfortunately today the Condors were not cooperating in showing themselves.  There is a breeding colony here that after the captive breeding program has successfully established itself in the wild.  Possibly later on back in camp there was a sighting of one soaring high over the peaks way in the distance.

There were other wild life sightings though - lots of Pileated Woodpeckers, Phoebes, California Quail and even a rare red-legged frog and a bobcat.  I don’t think I have seen a bobcat before and this one was a beauty.

In the evening due to a lack of acceptable wine we made a 60 minute run to fetch wine from the nearest town which is Paicines.  Not that it is a big town, blink and you miss it, but it has a store that sells wine, albeit cheap wine.

Balconies Trail

That night we moved campsites to avoid the crying baby but as far as we know the baby was quiet.  In the morning we broke camp early and I went for a run (training for the half-marathon at the weekend).  A gorgeous 5 miler along the Chacone Creek on the Balconies Trail. As the sun came up the early morning light was catching the peaks and the light was just wonderful.

There are more photos here.

Chesterfield Canal - September 2018

Near where I grew up in Derbyshire there is a canal, the Chesterfield Canal.  In its original form it ran some 46 miles from Chesterfield to West Stockwith on the River Trent which then allowed water access to the North Sea.  It was designed by James Brindley and was completed in 1777. It allowed goods and materials from the Peak District to be transported out to the Trent and thereby the North Sea and the world outside.  Among other things cannonballs were produced in Chesterfield for use in the Napoleonic Wars and stone for the building of Westminster Abbey were transported on the canal.

I have a very hazy memory from my childhood of seeing an old canal barge being pulled along by a horse but that must have been when I was very young as by the end of the 1950’s there was no commercial trade on the canal and it fell into disrepair and much of it was filled in.  

Railway Bridges near Chesterfield

Since the late 1970’s there has been an effort to rebuild the canal for leisure purposes and and there is now a 5 mile section from Chesterfield to Staveley that is restored and is navigable by canal boats.  This new section has become one of my favorite places to run - it is a great

surface and being a canal it is flat except for the odd lock.  There are some quite beautiful sections along the route and all the reconstruction work on locks and bridges has been done to a very high standard.

I ran with my phone the other day and took some photos along the way.  It is truly a treasure of the area. One day it is hoped that it will be completed all the way out to the River Trent again but the completion date keeps getting pushed back.  There is a new housing estate to be bypassed and a now collapsed tunnel to be rebored. That being said there is only 9 more miles of the original 46 miles to restore, but it is a difficult 9 miles.

There has been a resurgence of wildlife too.  In my youth everything was so polluted you rarely saw much wildlife, but now there are geese, swans, kingfishers, deer along the banks, and even fish in the canal.  

Chesterfield Church - the Crooked Spire, not too crooked from this perspective

The restoration work continues in Hartington, Staveley.

One of the interesting historical notes along the way is at Newbridge Lane between Brimington and Whittington.  Apparently in 1603, well before the canal was built, there was an outbreak of the plague in Brimington and there was a bridge at this site over the River Rother that runs alongside the current canal.  The bridge was pulled down to stop the spread of the plague.  The replacement bridge built after the plague was therefore called New Bridge.

There are more photos here.

Latvia and Lithuania - September 2018

In September I had a few days off from caring for mum in Derbyshire and I flew to Riga, Latvia for the weekend.  It was a ridiculously cheap outward flight on Friday morning for around $35 with a more expensive $100 return on the Monday.  That is a great deal for what is over a 2 hour flight each way despite it being on the bare bones carrier RyanAir - no luxuries there.

Landing in Riga, it was a simple and easy bus trip into the center of town. It dropped me off at the main bus/train station and since it was only lunchtime and too early to check into the hotel I set off to explore.  

The National Academy of Science, Riga

The Academy of Sciences Building, Riga

Nearby the bus station was the Latvian Academy of Sciences Building. It is a fine Stalinist piece of architecture affectionately referred to as Stalin’s Birthday Cake by the locals.  It was built after WWII and seems a bit disheveled now. I believe the Latvians don’t appreciate the Soviet period so it is not being cared for. I took the lift up to the 17th floor viewing platform where there was a nice view over the city below - the old town with its cathedral and many churches, the Daugava River and its bridges and the TV tower which is the largest tower in the EU.  It is a picturesque city.

Riga View from Academy of Sciences Building

Riga View from Academy of Sciences Building

Not far from the Academy of Sciences Building is the Public Market. Quite a large market accommodated in five old German Zeppelin hangars. These were brought over from Germany after WWI and reassembled here to provide a home for the previously open air market. It’s always interesting to browse the markets and there was some interesting fare - flowers, fruits and vegetables, meats and a lot of fish - weird fish, smoked fish, smelly fish.  There were several stalls just selling what looked like red currants. They looked delicious.

Red Currants, Riga Market

I then crossed over into the old part of town and checked into my hotel, the very fine Neiburgs Hotel located in a renovated old Art Deco building with some beautiful decorations on its exterior.  

The Neibergs Hotel, Riga

After check in I set off again to explore the old part of town.  First stop was the Cathedral, a magnificent large church, once Catholic, but now Evangelical (how does that work?).  It has a most wonderful organ that according to the guide book has some 6,768 pipes. That number of discrete pipes is hard to comprehend.  It also a majestic tower and for a fee you can ride the lift to the viewing platform where there is another great view of the city below.

Riga Cathedral

Pipe Organ, Riga Cathedral

There are a group of old houses in an adjacent street dubbed the Three Brothers (Tallinn has something similar called the Three Sisters).  They are some of the oldest in town and they are somewhat photogenic. I walked on through the old town following a walking tour route in the guide book.  I passed the Castle, which really doesn’t look too much like a castle from the perspective I had, the Tsarist Imperial Arsenal, the Jacob’s Barracks - a restored row of barracks now hosting restaurants and cafes, a tower called the Powder Tower from Swedish occupation times, and then out to the Freedom Monument on the edge of the old town.

The Three Brothers

The Freedom Monument, Riga

The Freedom Monument was built in the independence years in between the two world wars and it was quite the symbol for the Latvian independence movement during the Soviet Occupation.  In Soviet times there was a Lenin statue nearby and that was one of the first things to come down after the Soviets left. Now there is no sign of it.

One of many Art Deco Buildings, Albert Iela, Riga

Ornamentation, Albert Iela, Riga

There are several nice parks in Riga and a particularly nice one runs adjacent to the canal that flows through the town.  I had a pleasant walk through the park area over to the Art Deco area of town. I wasn’t aware of this but Riga is the city with the largest number of Art Deco buildings in Europe.  Most of these were built in the early 1900’s and there are some spectacular examples. Many are located on Albert Iela (iela means street) and just off this street is the Stockholm School of Economics which is a true work of art.  Apparently the architect responsible for many of these gems is a Mikhail Eisenstein, who was the father of film director Sergei Eisenstein.

The Stockholm School of Economics, Riga

I continued walking north to St Gertrude’s Church and then south past the spectacular Nativity of Christ Orthodox Cathedral, back into the old town. I stopped for a beer at a cafe in the main Cathedral Square. There was some surprisingly good music being performed by a young woman singer accompanied by a guitarist - a nice finish to the afternoon.

After the refreshment I went to a concert in the cathedral.  It was an organ and violin concert and while the organ is not my favorite instrument when the organist let loose on those 6000 odd pipes it was quite something. The music was all Latvian and I didn’t recognize any of it.

The Blackhead's House, Riga

The Blackhead's House, Riga

Next morning I got up early to take a walk around while the streets were still empty.  Past the Blackhead’s House, which is perhaps the most spectacular old building in Riga, and out to the bridge over the Daugava River.  The view from the center of the bridge is very nice in the early morning light - the new and impressive National Library glistening in the sunlight, the river stretching out towards the TV Tower, the many towers and spires of the churches in old town.

The Latvian National Library and Daugava River

Back along the river bank to the statue of Big Chris, someone associated with the mythology of how Riga came to be located in that spot (he carried a small infant across the river at nighttime and for this act of kindness he was rewarded with gold enough to start building the city or something like that).

After breakfast I did more old town wandering and then made a visit to the Photography Museum.  A collection of old photos of Riga and of old camera equipment. One exhibit focused on Valters Kapps or Walter Zapp as we know him in the west who invented the Minox Cameras, a range of miniature cameras much loved by 60’s spies.  He was born in Riga and he made his cameras in Latvia. I owned a Minox 35mm miniature camera in the 70’s, it took great photos and it was really, really small. It was not a very big museum, nor was it very popular, they went around ahead of me turning on the lights and then turning them off after I left each room.

Next stop was the Mentzendorff’s House, a museum showing how life was lived by a prosperous trader in the early 1700’s.  Again I was the only person in this very small museum, and again they turned on the lights for me as I moved through.

George Armitstead Statue, Riga

To the park by the canal again and the very fine Opera House.  In the park near the Opera House there is a statue to an interesting character - George Armitstead.  He was a Yorkshireman and he ended up being the Mayor of Riga during its belle epoch (early 1900’s). He is commemorated with a statue of he and his wife along with their dog and in recognition of his significance to Yorkshire and Latvia none other than Queen Elizabeth came to Riga’s to unveil the statue.

One final museum for the day as I visit the Riga Historical and Navigation Museum.  The Riga History is the main bit with lots of artifacts from various phases of Riga’s history and the Navigation bit is just a couple of rooms with a lot of models of ships.

At around 4:00 I head over to the bus station to catch my bus to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.  It was an international bus, traveling from Tallinn, Estonia through Latvia, Lithuania and on to Warsaw in Poland.  For the vast sum of 17 euros I was transported in comfort on the 4 hour journey to Vilnius. The landscape along the way was not very dramatic - very flat, agricultural.  I didn’t even notice when we passed from Latvia into Lithuania - both Schengen countries.

Tallinn to Warsaw Bus

Arriving in Vilnius I had a 20 minute walk in light rain, to my hotel in the center of the old town.  I don’t know what I would do without Google Maps on an iPhone - I had an offline map guiding me through the streets to the hotel front door.  

Vilnius on a slightly wet Saturday night was quite busy.  There is a main pedestrian street through the old town called Pilies Gatve and it is full of restaurants and bars and they were doing good business.  As the rain eased later in the evening I took a walk around the old town.

Vilnius

The next morning I took another early morning walk around town - the University, many many churches, a 17th century fortress on the old city wall known as the Bastion, and then over to the Uzupis neighborhood.  Uzupis is a bohemian neighborhood that declared itself a tongue-in-cheek republic. It has its own constitution displayed in many languages on plaques along one of the streets. It apparently celebrates its independence on April 1 every year.  It’s nice enough but nothing outstanding. At the far eastern end of the neighborhood there is the Bernadine Cemetery - a lovely picturesque cemetery with beautiful old gravestones.

Vilnius view from Gedimas Hill

After breakfast in the hotel, it was off for a more serious exploration of Vilnius.  The Cathedral, the Palace of the Grand Dukes, a climb to the fortress on top of Gediminas Hill, a walk down the other Main Street, Gedimina Prospekt.  On this last street there was a street market - lots of stalls selling meats, cheeses, honey, jewelry, beer, just about everything. At the top end of the street is the Museum of Genocide Victims housed in the old KGB Building.  An interesting museum detailing the horrors that were subjugated on the Lithuanians first by the Nazis and then by the Soviets. The KGB cells in the basement were quite chilling. I remember one young girl walking through and crying - these horrors of the Soviet era are not long gone.

The KGB Cells, Vilnius

I then visited the Jewish Holocaust Museum.  A small museum housed in an old wooden cottage.  I was the only visitor. Small and unpretentious but no less moving.

Frank Zappa Memorial

Not far from the Holocaust Museum, in the parking lot of an apartment building is a bust of Frank Zappa sitting on top of a pole.  Frank wasn’t of Lithuanian descent and he never visited Lithuania but someone here admired him and thought he should have a memorial and why not, he was a great musician.

Romanov Church - Vilnius

A lot more walking around to look at a couple of Romanov style onion domed Orthodox churches and then another cemetery, the Antakalnis Cemetery.  Vilnius is not a large city but I certainly did a lot of walking. My iPhone Health app told me I did 18 miles during the day. Since most of the streets are cobbled the going was quite hard and my feet really ached by the end of the day.

Vilnius is a nice city and it looks quite prosperous.  They have done well since splitting from the Soviet empire, and it looks like the EU has done them good too.  However, Vilnius does not have the charm of Riga. There are some nice buildings there but nothing quite to compare with the attractiveness of Riga.

The Very Modern Airport Train in Vilnius

At the end of my day in Vilnius, I walked over to the Railway Station and caught the train out to the airport.  In the hall of the station there was an upright piano for anyone to play and this young lady was doing a fine job filling the hall with some beautiful piano music.  The modern train to the airport was 0.65 euros for the 15 minute trip - there’s a lesson there for Heathrow Express in London. It was a nice smooth 30 minute flight on Air Baltic back to Riga.

Piano for anyone in Vilnius Station

I was back in the same hotel for the night in Riga, the Neubergs, and then I had a couple of hours in Riga before going out to the airport for my flight to East Midlands on Monday morning.  I had pretty much covered the city on Friday and Saturday so I just walked around a few of my favorite spots - the Cathedral, the Blackheads House, etc.

A Soviet Hind Helicopter

I got to the airport a little early and I had noticed a lot of old aircraft adjacent to the terminal.  I walked over to find it was a sort of museum. There were a lot of Soviet era aircraft, helicopters, and missiles all arranged in a junkyard format.  Some wonderful old stuff but it was sadly all decaying out in the open air and rain. The most impressive thing was this huge Hind transport helicopter - what a beast!

Arriving back in East Midlands airport I was in the longest immigration queue you could ever imagine.  East Midlands is no longer the small airport it once was, there is a lot of traffic going through there.  

There are more photographs here.

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