Estonia and Latvia

Up the stairs in the tower in a castle near Sigulda, Latvia.

Our hotel room was in the upstairs of this place in Sigulda

The Castle outside Sigulda.

In Riga

What appears to be a movie set in Hollywood is actually a street in Riga.

Wonderful architecture in Riga, Latvia

Close up of one part of a building in Riga

A park in Riga

A pigeon in Riga

The entrance to a wine cellar/restaurant we spent our anniversary.

Tallin.

Tallinn

Tallinn

ESTONIA--

After arriving in Tallinn, Estonia by ferry from Finland we enjoyed 3 days wandering around the medieval city. Again, it seemed as if we had the city to ourselves, there were people sure but there just seemed to be so much unused space on the sidewalks and parks. We have had several meals in restaurants where we were the only people in the room if not the entire restaurant.

Tallinn is a beautiful city full of cobbled streets and really old buildings from the 13th and 14th century. While reading about them it was funny to read signs that told us the last "renovation was completed in 1802..." And we thought our house was old in Hinesburg.

Due to the width of the streets and the height of the buildings it seemed that nearly every picture I took was with the camera positioned vertically instead of horizontally.

There were several beautiful parks, some modern buildings too that looked like an architect had some fun. Lots of people feeding the ducks or pigeons in the parks and wonderful public transportation on narrow electrified trams that run on rails in the cobble stoned streets.

LATVIA--

The most common form of intercountry transportation between the Baltics is bus we have discovered. The bus stations are easy to use, buses are frequent and comfortable and relatively cheap. We boarded a bus from Tallinn to Riga, the capital of Latvia, a trip of only a couple of hours. Riga has several beautiful Art Nouveau areas full of striking architecture. More empty parks, with green grass, hardly any people and no litter.

There is a small town of only 10,000 people called Sigulda an hour outside of Riga, we spent two nights there in a small hotel/bed and breakfast place at the edge of the woods. We had our own room in a separate building with a think reed roof. It was wonderfully quiet and we spent one day hiking in the woods and another walking to a castle and climbing its tall tower in narrow brick passages that spiral around the perimeter inside the walls.

We have been walking a lot! Many of the places we go, like Sigulda, are usually visited by people visiting by car. Since we don't have a car we just walk.

Returning to Riga, we boarded a bus for Lithuania and made it to a college town where we spent the night in a college dorm that fuctions as a hostel during the summer. The following day we bused out to the Curonian Spit along the Baltic Sea. The scenery on the way was similar to parts of Vermont, with people cutting hay and tractors on the road.