Our crossing over to Tallinn was uneventful and the duty free shop was 'expensive' compared to our trip over to Russia. It was obvious that the Fin's onboard were taking advantage of the food and drink on offer starting their cheap weekend in Tallinn, it was a Friday sailing after all.
After we disembarked we set about refilling our twin 22L gas tanks as we hadn't filled up for over a month at this point. The three LPG stations we had listed for Tallinn no longer existed and by pure chance while navigating some road works we saw a sign for 'GAAS' which turned out to be LPG. Disappointingly we only managed 32L meaning we still had 12L spare but at least it was one thing off our mind.
We then set about finding somewhere to park. ** Please note and read the comments at the bottom of this post, more recent visitors suggest that this location is no longer safe for parking or overnight ** It is evident that Tallinn has been earmarked as up and coming and Europe's land speculators (Euro Carparks amung others) have been busy buying strips of land and turning them into carparks meaning a great deal of choice. Around the ports you can park for as little as €1 a day but the area is just wasteland with a healthy traffic of people leaving to depart on ship it's not an ideal location for the van. We settled on an unmarked Car Park suitable for all vans just a stones throw from the Old Town and €6/day (GPS: 59.44208, 24.74280) and have been Wild Camping here for two days without issue, you might be able to find cheaper but to be honest we've not paid for parking in over a month so a few euro's to park in a capital seems small change.
The Old Town has lived up to our expectations with it's cobbled streets and views from the spires accessible by narrow steps. Prices are modest, although no doubt increased since the take up of the Euro. Once again Cruise Ships unload hundreds of passengers on the city by day so if you're looking to eat look to do so one an evening when most of them have gone back. There is a wide selection of reasonably priced food on offer, but quality varies greatly and we're not fond of having an usher a-la holiday resort hell pushing us in. In the end we settled for Kaerajaan offering 'Modern Estonian Cuisine' - great value and excellent food.
I was worried when I saw the amount of Duty Free the Estonian's had loaded up, but I shouldn't have worried - 500ml bottle of Larger is 90c in a shop so bound to be a bit cheaper at a Supermarket and diesel is now down to £1.10 a litre.
Tomorrow we have a mammoth launderette session lined up - I think nearly everything we own needs washing and we have a months worth of clothes packed up!
After we disembarked we set about refilling our twin 22L gas tanks as we hadn't filled up for over a month at this point. The three LPG stations we had listed for Tallinn no longer existed and by pure chance while navigating some road works we saw a sign for 'GAAS' which turned out to be LPG. Disappointingly we only managed 32L meaning we still had 12L spare but at least it was one thing off our mind.
The Old Town has lived up to our expectations with it's cobbled streets and views from the spires accessible by narrow steps. Prices are modest, although no doubt increased since the take up of the Euro. Once again Cruise Ships unload hundreds of passengers on the city by day so if you're looking to eat look to do so one an evening when most of them have gone back. There is a wide selection of reasonably priced food on offer, but quality varies greatly and we're not fond of having an usher a-la holiday resort hell pushing us in. In the end we settled for Kaerajaan offering 'Modern Estonian Cuisine' - great value and excellent food.
I was worried when I saw the amount of Duty Free the Estonian's had loaded up, but I shouldn't have worried - 500ml bottle of Larger is 90c in a shop so bound to be a bit cheaper at a Supermarket and diesel is now down to £1.10 a litre.
Tomorrow we have a mammoth launderette session lined up - I think nearly everything we own needs washing and we have a months worth of clothes packed up!
We stopped in the car park in your blog straight off the ferry from Helsinki. In teh morning we were lucky to be spoken o by a policeman, who implored us not to leave our 'van unattended, even during the day,as it would surely be broken into. We had noticed quite a lot of broken glass when we arrived the night before, and apparently they target foreign vehicles - brick througfh the window - take your stuff and gone. The only safe place, he said, was outside the central police station [2hrs parking , but may grt away with longer if you ask nicely, as we did, or stay in the campsite. He said that the rest of Estonia is OK, just be sensible, but Tallin at he moment is rife with vehicle burglary
ReplyDeleteHi Guys
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately i can by first hand experience back this up. We used this carpark (didn't see the warning above or the glass until too late), was okay overnight while in the van but even in broad daylight in direct line of the CCTV we got done over, also spoke to a French motorhomer they had been done in a Port car park. Basically as above according to the police the only safe place is in front of the police station. Real shame it is a great town especially when the cruise boat tourists aren't there.
Thank you both for your feedback - I have added a warning and reference to your comments.
ReplyDelete