The Ireland trip - with some detours.

[OZDUCK]

After some bellyaching it is nice to report on a thoroughly enjoyable day trip to Tallinn. We had an early start but that was our choice as there are 3 ferry companies that run on the route and a number of trips are available. We chose to use The Viking Line. (When I queried the Hotel receptionist about which tram to catch to the Ferry Terminal for the Viking Line she didn't know what I was talking about till she said "oh you mean the Wiking Line" - I had forgotten about their pronunciation of V.)

The trip cost 77 Euros for two - including 20 euro for breakfasts on board. We booked a couple of days in advance and got a discount for doing so. When you get to the terminal you have to book in by using machines like the airport ones. These are simple to use and you get 2 cardboard slips which are used to open the barrier gates at both ends. The ferries range from a small fast catamaran up to those like the Spirit of Tasmania - all for a 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 hour trip. We chose a bigger fast catamaran which did the trip in about 1hr 45 min. It was actually built in Tasmania by INCAT and also carries cars & trucks The advantage of The Viking Line is that they go right through the islands off Helsinki and within few 100 metres of Suomenlinna.

Our ferry - arriving in Tallinn to take us back to Helsinki.




Our breakfast - 21 Euro for 2. You got a choice of very nice sandwiches or rolls, a tub of various yogurts, a small carton of fruit juice, a cup or tea or coffee and a piece of fruit. This is pretty good value for Finland.





The ferry even had duty free shop on board

My wife is a terrible sailor so I was worried about rough weather. The Gulf of Finland was actually as calm as a swimming pool and we had a sea fog envelop the ferry for mot of the trip over and back - down to about 50 metres visibility at some stages and with the Fog Horn sounding.

As calm as the proverbial millpond



A ferry passes us going the other way - shrouded in fog

 

[OzEire]

Im also planning a similar trip to Ireland (Eire) but not keen on the usual direect options... so subscribed and following with interest. Thanks OP!

 

[Major]

A bit late to the action but now following

 

[OZDUCK]

Tallinn

The ferry berths only a easy 10 - 15 min. walk to the gates of the old town. Or else there is a bus stop at the ferry terminal which will get you to the old town for 2 Euros. Tallinn is the northern-most of the former Hanseatic League cities - think Bremen, Hamburg, Lubeck, Wismar etc. The older buildings in side the walls certainly had a familiar look to those we had seen before. It was a very pleasant place and we are determined to return there - in a warmer time of the year.

It was a very well ordered town and all the "interesting" buildings had plaques on them giving details about its history.

The city walls on the way up from the ferry. While it was warmer than Helsinki there was still a chill in the air.



The back streets inside the wall had a similar feel to those we have seen in Northern Germany




Some of the "newer" buildings (around 1910) were designed with an "Egyptian Revival" look - I had to Google the correct term.



The main square was fenced off as they were shooting what was obviously a film set in the Soviet era - probably in the mid 1950's. Over about 4 - 5 hours as we occasionally moved past the film set little seemed to happen.



A view of the upper city walls

 

[Captain Halliday]

Departing for Ireland in a little under three weeks. No deadline pressure ozduck!

 

[OZDUCK]

Departing for Ireland in a little under three weeks. No deadline pressure ozduck!

First Ireland reports will be coming up in a day or two

 

[OZDUCK]

More of Tallinn

Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox Cathedral at the "top" of the old town



View from the Kohtuotsa viewing platform



SOPRUS - a grand movie theatre built in 1955. With good socialist reliefs on the facade.



Estonian Parliament House Tallinn - the security or lack of it was noticeable in these days.



The gate we used to enter the old town

 

[OZDUCK]

Last of Tallinn/Helsinki

The fog hung around all day. Ships in the harbour at about 13:30 with their sterns obscured by a fog bank.



Looking back towards Tallinn at about 16:00 - still fog and calm seas




That night in Helsinki we couldn't be bothered hunting for a restaurant so we just settled for Kebabs. The decor certainly was a change after the grey streets outside.

 

[OZDUCK]

The next morning we caught the 0545 train to the airport. We were amazed at how busy it was. By the time we reached the airport it was completely packed. When we had arrived in Tallinn the airport was really quiet, what a contrast to our departure. There is a huge bank of Intra-European flights between about 0730 to 0900. The departures area was submerged in people and we were really grateful to be in J as it only took a couple of minutes to check in and grab our Security Priority pass. But my wife got stuck behind someone who seemed to have never flown before. He had water in his bag, a pocketknife in his pocket and didn't remove any electronic goods from his pack.

We eventually got through security and had breakfast in Finnair's Schengen Lounge. It was also very busy but there was room and a nice selection of food. After a while we moved to their Non-Schengen lounge as it was a lot closer to our gate and was quieter. Australian passport holders can apparently use the E-Gates on departure but it was not worth the effort as you still have to get your passport stamped and there was no queue at the normal desks anyway.

We had been scheduled to fly on an A319 but boarded an A321 which seems to have been subbed in because of the pax load, as the pilot announced that it was a full flight.

I hadn't realised that Finland has the worlds largest archipelago. We flew over it on the way to Dublin



We booked window seats for both of us - but as usual when we do that 90% of the flight is over cloud banks. Over Norway I noticed a gentle bank to the left and we ended up doing a full circle - ATC I presume. These drop down screens are the only "entertainment" on the plane, they showed a nice camera view of the takeoff and then ran ads interspersed with the airshow.


Breakfast in Euro J. Potato cake, scrambled eggs, tomato and mystery sausage - chicken, pork or iguana who knows? I was in seat 1A and you can see that there is not much legroom. By the end of the flight my legs were sore - on the return flight I swapped with my wife in 2A and was much happier - unlike her.



One of our first views of Ireland - the bright skies flattered to deceive. The town is Howth I believe.




Guess where we are?



For those waiting impatiently for the Ireland portions of this TR I will start writing them tomorrow.

 

[Pushka]

Departing for Ireland in a little under three weeks. No deadline pressure ozduck!

Timing works for me. In Tallin next week

 

[love_the_life]

.......
For those waiting impatiently for the Ireland portions of this TR I will start writing them tomorrow.

A friend has just returned from a short trip that included a week or so in Ireland. She loved it. As my brother lives in Co Offaly we've been a few times and the thing that I remember most in the countryside is the smell of the peat, like wet wool socks only worse!

 

[OZDUCK]

Timing works for me. In Tallin next week

Lucky you, it really is a pleasant place. We are determined to visit the 3 Baltic states now - by car or rail.

 

[OZDUCK]

Ireland

Walking into Dublin Airport was a shock after the sleek "Nordic" look of Helsinki Vantaa. It was like going back to Gatwick in the 1970's. The corridors were dark & the paint faded and worn. The poor immigration guys were in glass and wooden boxes like something out of spy film set in the USSR in 1965. Even worse, there were only 2 lanes for all non- Schengen passports. And even worserer, a Turkish Airlines plane had landed just before us and every passenger seemed to require phone calls, supervisor consults and copious pieces of paper being pulled out of bags. My wife and I had a bet about which line would be faster and chose separate ones - to my chagrin hers was quicker, but it still took about 40 minutes for 8 or 10 pax to be processed. Looking on-line it appears that waits of an hour to get through Immigration Terminal 1 are common. When she got to the counter they asked questions about her itinerary. I had the travel folder in my bag so I was called over - jumping past about 4 people. Once again they were amused/impressed by my folder. And, as with most of the Irish people we met, they were very friendly and wanted to have a chat and a laugh while processing us.

We had pre-booked a ticket on the Aircoach Airport Express bus - 6 Euro one way & 11E return. The first stop for this bus was in O'Connell Street Central Dublin, about 50 metres from our hotel. It is a "tourist bus" with a baggage hold and not a "normal" bus with no baggage facilities. It was very quick trip into town - only seemed to be about 25 minutes.

We stopped at the Holiday Express on O'Connell Street. It is only about 1 year old, and for those who know Dublin it is just downhill from the Parnell Monument. The rooms are compact but well equipped and the breakfast was very good - guests were encouraged to "take away" the breakfast if they were on the move and had no time to spare. A very good choice for a few nights in Dublin.

Once again, as with Helsinki, a number of photos of Dublin seem to have disappeared - I think when I tried to download some by wifi to my tablet. "Thank goodness" some of you are probably saying.

View over the River Liffey with the old Customs House in the background and the Ha'penny Bridge second along.




Our first move was to go to Dublin Castle - not much of the older parts of the castle are left but it was more of an administration centre. The main purpose of our visit there was to buy our Heritage Ireland Pass (link: Heritage Ireland: Heritage Cards.) As we were Seniors, it cost Euro 30 each and is valid for 12 months. If you intend on visiting historical sites around Ireland it is well worth the cost. In Dublin alone we used it for Dublin Castle & Kilmainham Goal. And then, for various other sites around Ireland. We got our monies worth in about 5 days and probably saved 30 or 40 euro by having it plus the convenience of not having to fool around with payments at each site.. The pass also let you skip big queues as well - very worthwhile.

One of the few "old" parts of Dublin Castle



The Dining Room





The Memorial to the Potato Famine - on Customs House Quay



The Samuel Beckett Bridge

 

[OZDUCK]

The next morning we walked the 4 km from our hotel to Kilmainham Goal. The route was mostly along the riverside and it was surprising to see the number of derelict buildings along the riverbank.

Kilmainham Goal itself operated as goal from 1796 to 1924. It is famous being the execution place of the leaders of the Easter Uprising in 1916. After being decommissioned in 1924 it was allowed to fall into disrepair. Surprisingly it was some of the former inmates of the goal, who recognised its historical importance, that began the fundraising and work to repair the buildings in the 1950's

Armed with our new Heritage Passes we got free entry to the goal and a guided tour.

The main hall - under a glass roof. For those of you who fondly remember the good "The Italian Job" film - the one with Michael Caine - this goal was used for the prison scenes. This is the staircase Noel Coward triumphantly
walked down after the gold was stolen.




The cell of one of the more famous leaders of the uprising who "was subsequently elected prime minister (taoiseach) three times and then president of the republic, a position he held until 1973." He had been sentenced to death by the British Military Tribunal but the sentenced had not been carried out when the civilian government in London finally realised what a disaster the Army commanders in Dublin were causing and stopped the executions.



This is the cell of the woman who married one the leaders of the uprising hours before her execution, according to the guide they were never allowed to be alone and were only able to exchange their marriage vows before she was removed from the goal. She ended up in prison because she was arrested by her own countrymen during the Irish Civil War 1922 -23.



Another view of the main hall. These old grim buildings have a certain beauty in the ironwork.



The yard where executions took place.

 

[OZDUCK]

Some more Dublin Photos

No prizes for guessing who this is commemorating



Some nice Georgian Buildings







A picturesque part of the Grand Canal. Unfortunately, this photo also illustrates part of the reason we never really warmed to Dublin.The blue blob on the left is the tent of someone sleeping rough. These little camps were dotted along the canal. In the centre of town we encountered a distressing number of beggars and indigent groups - and they were not "professionals" like those in Paris. Walking around the city it is obvious that it has not yet recovered from 10 years of severe financial difficulties.

 

[jeng]

Great report. Looking forward to more

 

[OZDUCK]

Great report. Looking forward to more

Thanks for this, I was worried about how much to put in. Plenty more to come - mostly covering our road trip.

 

[RB]

Lucky you, it really is a pleasant place. We are determined to visit the 3 Baltic states now - by car or rail.

We managed to see parts of all 3 in 2005 just using public transport. Certainly had a great time & we were treated well by the locals. We have a friend who is in her 80's-she & her mother a fled Estonia during the war. Before we went she warned us the Estonian men were quiet & boring until they got a few beers into them! We were in Riga for the VFL & NRL Grand Finals & managed to find a pub that was showing them-made for long days

 

[OZDUCK]

We managed to see parts of all 3 in 2005 just using public transport. Certainly had a great time & we were treated well by the locals. We have a friend who is in her 80's-she & her mother a fled Estonia during the war. Before we went she warned us the Estonian men were quiet & boring until they got a few beers into them! We were in Riga for the VFL & NRL Grand Finals & managed to find a pub that was showing them-made for long days

Good to know. Your experience makes it seem that it would be a worthwhile trip for us. One of our German friends did the same trip as you just a few weeks before our arrival and also had a great time. We actually missed him in Tallinn by 3 days. Neither of us realised our dates were so close.

 

[OZDUCK]

Last of Dublin

As I said earlier, I lost some photos of Dublin. I didn't realise quite how many until I started this report. Mostly they were unremarkable, however I am sad that my photos of the Book of Kells were lost. I was surprised how much time to view and how good a view of the "book" that you could get - luckily it wasn't peak tourist season. It is a definite "must see" in Dublin.

It is an advantage to book your tickets to the exhibition on-line (even if like me you stupidly "remember" the wrong date and have to pay for them again). With our pre-booked "timed entry" tickets we skipped about 50 people in the line.

Part of the (huge) grounds of Trinity College - at about 8 PM. The Book of Kells is in the building on the right. During the day this area is very busy.



The "Long Room" Trinity College - you get to see this as part of the Book of Kells visit. It is fabulous but, as you can see, crowded even on a quiet day.





"Brian Boru" Harp - dating back to the 14th - 15th C.