Robert Hampton

Another visitor! Stay a while… stay forever!

11th May 2011

Ta-ta for now, Tallinn
Posted by at 7.17pm | 2 responses | Out and About

Go Hotel ShnelliThis is the seventh and final part of my Tallinn blog. If you haven’t already, please enjoy part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5 and part 6

For my final blog, I present a few bits that I left out of the previous blog entries, and my final thoughts on Tallinn.

So what did I think of the hotel? It was probably equivalent in comfort terms to a decent Travelodge — not the height of opulent luxury, but clean and perfectly comfortable. I have absolutely no complaints and would recommend it for travellers on a budget. Here’s the hotel’s web site if you want to investigate further.

It sounds like a cliché, but in this case I think it really is true to say that Tallinn is a city of contrasts. There’s the medieval old town, the stark concrete buildings of the Soviet years and the gleaming 21st century tower blocks, all within walking distance of each other.

It’ll be interesting to see how Tallinn develops in the future. On Wednesday afternoon Andrew and I passed the Rotterman Building, an old 19th century warehouse which has been redeveloped. All around are new shops, bars and apartments — this is Tallinn One. It looked wonderful, but felt a little bit soulless.

Photo of the Rotermann Building in Tallinn Rotermann Shopping Centre

Tallinn’s challenge is to continue its development as a modern city while maintaining the links to the past that make it so special. I have a feeling it’ll do just fine, but it needs to watch the new developments to make sure they don’t dominate and spoil the city.

Anyway, I’ve finally run out of things to talk about, so here are a few more pictures from my trip to round off this epic blog. First, here’s me at Tallinn harbour. Look how relaxed and natural I am in front of the camera!

Me at Tallinn Harbour

This steam loco, number L-2317, was on display just outside the hotel. I’ve done a bit of searching and haven’t been able to find out much about it, save that a similar loco (named Kaspar) runs occasional steam-hauled tours on the Estonian railway.

Steam loco L-2317 on display in Tallinn
Finally, we stopped in the newsagent’s in Tallinn airport just before heading for our flight, and this is one of the books that stared out at me from the shelves:-

Jeremy Clarkson: Mootorite maailm

There is simply no escaping the man.

So, in summary: Tallinn was amazing and I would love to go back some day. Before that, though, there are other countries, other cities, waiting to be explored. Bring it on, world!

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2 Responses
  1. Comment by Jamie
    11th May 2011 at 7:51 pm

    Well, at least we know what the Estonian for “Petrol-obsessed cunt” is.

  2. Comment by Andrew
    12th May 2011 at 12:06 am

    A Tallinn-tastic write up of our trip (Although you should have used that Tallinn-tastic suggestion of mine as one of your blog titles!)

    Unfortunately I didn’t win the lottery tonight as if I had done I would have employed you to come to Florida with me as my personal travel writer!