Helsinki, Estonia

Day 2: Monday (8/11/25) … After what seemed a long night of sleep, I awoke and checked my watch – 11:15pm!! What!! Clearly, jet lag was messin’ with me. I woke again at 1:00am to find Sharon also awake. Curses! We were exhausted, and yet we hopscotched in and out of sleep all night. After breakfast, I lay down to rest my eyes for a moment and woke up two hours later. You may now officially revise your image of us (me) as rugged adventurers.

Eventually we went exploring. Helsinki, and Finland in general, have some interesting history.  For 500 years Finland was under Sweden’s thumb. In the early 1800’s Russia won some war, so their thumb replaced Sweden’s.  By 1917, Finland was ready to move on and broke up with Russia. They changed the locks and unfriended them. In 1939 Russia said, “I want you back! You belong to me.” (a la Ukraine). Finland said, “Nuh uh!”  and fought a bloody war to keep Russia at arm’s length. They succeeded but decided to date Nazi Germany just to make sure Russia left them alone. In 1944, Finland had enough again broke up with Germany. “Really, it’s not me – it’s you! And no, let’s not be friends.” Since then, Finland has been happily single.  That is until Russia got stupid in Ukraine. Then Finland said, “We’ve seen this before!” In 2023 they swiped right on NATO and has happily been in a relationship since then. 

YAWN! I get it. Unless you’re a history nerd (like me) all this old timey stuff is pretty boring. Here’s the thing though. History tells you something about the character and priorities of Finland. When you know what they did to fight off the Russians in 1939, you learn something about the toughness of these people. You understand why it’s no big deal to jump from a steamy sauna into freezing water through a hole in the ice. You perhaps understand why, after having been bullied by others for so many centuries, they make such a big deal about protecting people’s human rights today.

There is much we admire, and some aspects of Helsinki that we love. Overall though, Helsinki is a big city. We hold no special love for big cities. Tomorrow, we move on. 

Day 3: Tuesday (8/12/25). The plan: Get up early. Bike a 10 mile loop on a bike path around the downtown area. Have breakfast. Take a leisurely ride to catch the ferry to Tallinn, Estonia. The reality? Have another weird night of interrupted sleep. Rise to pouring rain. Punt the bike ride. Eat breakfast. Check the ferry schedule and (oops!) realize we have to scramble madly to pack and race across town with just barely enough time catch the ferry. (It was technically closed, but they took pity on two elderly and clearly confused senior citizens).

Surreal scene: On the two–three hour ferry between Finland and Estonia – live music by a Romanian band singing Elvis Presley covers and “Take Me Home Country Road”. In another room, hundreds of people intently playing Bingo.

As we whiled away the hours on the crossing, we talked. Neither of us feels that we’ve started our trip yet. We feel like tourists. We’ve walked around with other tourists doing the usual touristy things in touristy places. I guess that makes us tourists. We don’t like being tourists! Moving to Tallinn did little to change our status.

Old town Tallinn is lovely. It is a beautifully preserved medieval walled city filled with cobble streets winding between picturesque old buildings. Like so many historic sites though, the buildings are filled with shops designed to separate boat loads of cash from a sea of tourists. These places feel hollowed out…more like a Disney recreation of a historic city than a real historical place. 

Day 4: Wednesday (8/13/2025). We are beginning to think that my lack of energy is more than just jet lag…a virus perhaps?? After breakfast, while Sharon wandered the streets, I slept the morning away. Unheard of in my world! I did manage to get my act together in time to take an excellent walking tour. Our guide dressed in period clothes and shared the history of the region through an engaging series of stories. I won’t bore you with the details. Suffice to say that the details of how Tallinn became one of the most important trade cities in Europe was fascinating to me. And for a time, it even had the honor of having the tallest building – in the world!

In more recent times, Estonia is beyond thrilled to have gotten out from under the Soviet boot. They gained their independence in 1991. Talk to anyone here – there is no love for their former malevolent overlord. Nor is there any love or respect for a modern world leader who panders to Russia’s dictator.

After an evening stroll to see unseen parts of the city, we retired to our room to organize and pack. After yet another day of “touristy” stuff, we are very ready to hit the road tomorrow.

Day 5: Thursday (8/14/2025). It is amazing to me that we could exit a city of almost half a million people and almost completely avoid city streets. In fact, most of the day we rode on dedicated bike paths…through cities and towns, as well as for mile after mile along rural highways. How civilized! Sharon grows weary of my exasperated questioning of why we can’t come up with anything close in the richest country in the world. I shall henceforth endeavor simply to enjoy, rather than compare. 

Speaking of our ride, it was simply…lovely. Not spectacular. Not take your breath away beautiful. As our grandson used to say, it was “just very good.” No worries about traffic (see rant above).  Sunshine. Forests and farmfields. Neat, clean and orderly towns and villages.  And perhaps most appreciated, pool table flat. A perfect first day of actual biking. Topped off by a snug little wild camp in a mystical grove where Estonian chieftains held meetings 800+ years ago. I arrived with little knowledge and no expectations. A few days on I am liking Estonia very much.

Day 6: Friday (8/15/2025).  The curse of civilization – information overload. The weather forecast warned us that we would face bloody awful headwinds all day long. (We did).  Our map app told us we’d be gritting our teeth into said headwind for exactly fifty miles (it was) to the city of Parnu. We rode through the same lovely landscape as the day before, but had to work very hard to remain positive (we did). Incessant headwinds have the capacity to suck the joy out of life. 

In a triumph of technology, however, we also knew that a strong weather system would reach Parnu around 8pm. Long before it arrived, Sharon had worked her online magic and found a cheap, very adequate hostel where we could weather the storm. We found some good eats, local beer, and were back in our room, showered, snug, and smug before the storm raged.

Day 7: Saturday (8/16/2025). It sounds strange to say this in the middle of August, but this morning felt like a crisp, fall day. Not surprising I guess, for a city at the same line of latitude as the Canadian village of Inukjuak on Hudson Bay (look it up).

We were too tired to enjoy Parnu when we arrived, and then the storms arrived. By the light of a new day, it revealed itself to be a beautiful city. An especially fetching portion of it nestled between the Parnu river and the Baltic sea. We took breakfast in one of the many parks, and were surrounded by all kinds of busy-ness. We had stumbled onto a celebration of Estonian Literature Day. The woman who appeared to be in charge bustled around handing out hugs, smiles, laughter – and directions. The energy was infectious. We briefly pondered staying for the festivities, but realized that most would be lost on non-Estonian speakers. Breakfast complete, we headed down along the Baltic coast.       

With another storm on the way, the wind was strong and fickle. It couldn’t decide if it meant to be friend or foe. A slightly shorter day through the same pleasant countryside brought us to camp a short walk from the beach. It is slightly embarrassing to be writing this wearing pants, three layers on top, my down jacket and rain shell – while locals are out frolicing in the surf.  I guess anyone who can endure a harsh northern winter (as evidenced by the massive woodpiles surrounding every home) relishes whatever passes for a balmy summer day.

Tomorrow morning we will say “huvasti” and  and “suur aitah” to Estonia (“good bye” and “thank you very much“). It been nice getting to know you.  We wish you all the best! The end of this portion of our trip is also a good time to end this week’s blog. Hope you enjoyed it. Until next week – STC!