Sunday 14th September
My misgivings about the Tallinn
Marathon today are confirmed when I find that the road outside the hotel is
closed to all traffic until at least 4 pm and the tram service is suspended for
the whole day. Even if I wanted a taxi they can't get to the hotel. I have
plenty of time so I can walk it. Check out at 1145 and it only takes me 30
minutes to reach the station through the old town. When I get there the ticket
office is closed but it opens at 1235 and I get my €14 ticket, which looks like
a supermarket receipt, for the 1316 "Express" to Tartu with onward connection to Valga.
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| Scruffy looking Tallinn Station |
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| Looks a bit better from inside |
The
train is quite full when I find it on Track 4, which is at the end of the
station; the tracks don't seem to be sequential! The new looking, bright orange
train has a strange configuration of 4 articulated units with a diesel power unit in the centre. The carriages have
a low floor in the centre which makes them wheel chair accessible but
necessitates four steps at the end to a raised platform over the bogies.
Definitely precludes a coffee trolley!
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| The Train Now Departing from Platform 4 |
The railways are operated by an
organisation called Elron and all the signs are in Estonian only. Lots of young
families and people with bikes. There is a bike rack in the centre of the
carriage and "Express" seems
to refer only to the fact that it doesn't stop at many stations on the way.
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| Inside the Train |
After leaving the outskirts of Tallinn, we pass through flat agricultural land with lots of hay bales before entering the forest which is obviously managed.
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| Estonian Countryside |
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| More Estonian Countryside |
The train is marked Tartu/
Valga so not sure if it goes all the way. Turns out it does which makes life
easy.There is a speed indicator which
show us getting up to a max of 120
km/hour.
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| Rather Quaint Tartu Station |
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| Timber |
On schedule at 1632 precisely we arrive at
Valga. We all get off as a crowd of people rush to get on for the return
journey to Tartu and Tallinn.
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| Valga Station. Looks better than Tallinn |
Find the hotel which is about 20
minutes from the station. Somewhere in the description I am sure it said it was
close to the town centre but I don't see any sign of one. The hotel claims to
have been built in 1912 and it looks
like there have not been many changes since then. Stuffed heads of hunted
animals look down from the walls.
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| Stuffed Animals in the Hallway |
Do the dead animals creep around in the dead of night?
ReplyDeleteI usually refer to the numbering of tracks out of sequence as being the "Spanish System" and you will quickly find out why when you get closer to Spain. I recommend the triple-gauge border station at Latour de Carol as a good place to start. I arrived at Track 17 but the other side was Track ½. The other block was Tracks 6 and A, and I found Track 19 there too, but not many others.
Were there lots of other departing travellers scurrying around the centre of Tallinn pulling their suitcases to the station? I remember in Florence taking part in the daily "Formula Samsonite" on my arrival and departure days.
Hmm. Think the stuffed animals might give me nightmares. Somehow they look vermin ridden even from a distance. looks like weather still holding up. Either that or you are really very good with the camera!
ReplyDeleteIf the dead, possibly vermin ridden, animals did creep around, they didn't wake me up or give me nightmares. Not so many travellers pulling their suitcases to the station in Tallinn, not as many as Nanning.
ReplyDeleteYes the weather is still absolutely fantastic!