The Cave

We took the bus from St Petersburg to Tallinn, in Estonia. It seemed like a good way to enjoy the countryside inbetween…and it would have been…only I fell asleep for the full 7 hours (with the exception of the border stop, for which I managed to stagger about a bit and waft my passport in the right direction).

I’m afraid, therefore, I can’t really tell you much about the journey. The border crossing was equally uneventful (thankfully), and getting out of Russia proved a damn sight easier than getting in. It didn’t take 13 and a half hours, at least!

We were only in Tallinn for one night and we arrived in the late afternoon, but we were very impressed with what we saw. We spent the evening walking around the old town - which really was very beautiful. The atmosphere was lovely, and in a way we wished we’d had more time here. We’ve already decided to take a weekend break here…as soon as we’re settled somewhere…when- and where- ever that may be!

As our final stop in Russia, and the terminus of our rail travel, St Petersburg was always going to be a more leisurely stop than the other cities en-route. We will almost certainly be returning to do justice to the Hermitage museum and the cultural wonders that this city is famous for.

As it was, we arrived on a pretty swanky overnight train from Moscow and spent the next four days at our ease. We trundled the length of Nevsky Prospekt (the main shopping and architecturally interesting street); ambled around the St Peter and Paul fortress complete with buried Tsars, lovely buildings, mighty walls and a rocket museum; pottered around the canals in the evening and had a sleep in the park near the Smolensk Cathederal after enjoying our 50p a double Armenian cognac a little too much in a nearby cafe!

It really is a beautiful city to look at, and you don’t need to head to any specific place to see the life of the city and some funky architecture.

We headed off aboard the Eurolines coach to Tallinn feeling ready to head home (albeit a little sad to leave the cognac behind)