Day 3 - Tallinn Estonia - You Guessed it, Luggage still in Dulles

Tony's Views

We were up last night until 3:00am our time watching the bags move around with the AirTags but they never got loaded on a plane. Who from Choice One recommended getting AirTags the day before we left so we can watch them move around. Thanks, Clem and Becca!!! It was disappointing later this morning to see they were still in Dulles Washington DC. 

First day for riding is tomorrow, so we are renting a car to get to the first AirBNB away from Tallinn, Estonia. Actually Joan is driving, so we may need to change the name of the blog to Joantransportingtony. 😂😃 

After and between our hours on the phone with United, Lifthuansia and Scandinavia Airlines, we did get out and check out Tallinn. United seems to be trying. The airline in control, SAS doesn't really care and is very hard to get in contact with. I am typing this blog and watching Joan dance to the hold music with SAS. Oh no, after an hour and a few words they hung up on her. 

I digressed, let me tell you about our touring.

Stopped for breakfast at 1:00pm (we needed to sleep in after last night) our time and yes it was a bakery. I got my Cappuccino and it was delicious, a really fun place. Then we started touring some of the town and we came across this Boris Yeltsin plaque honoring his role in 1991 for a peaceful independence of Estonia. They have been independent for only as long as Wade has been alive. There is a lot of American influence here.

After that we climbed a plateau to have a cool view of the old city and the Baltic Sea.

We got to see a Russian Orthodox Church which was beautiful inside or out, but no pictures inside as a rule. They do have a great devotion to Mary there and their church is very ornate . 

After walking farther we saw some sand volleyball in the square with crowds around. The players were tall and really played great sand volleyball like you see in the Olympics. Just a side note, if anyone from Choice One happens to be reading this, I just want you to know that no one was dumb enough to get a concussion.😂

Then we saw some 3 on 3 basketball. There were teams from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. These guys could play basketball. Most, if not all of them, could really throw the ball down, hard. Besides their slamming ability, they could really handle the ball and it was rough. They were good enough that even Joan was willing to stay awhile. Definitely some professional ball players. They drove to the basket and got shots off that seemed impossible but went in .

We went to Mass tonight and probably the only English Mass we will go to on this trip, but we will see. Bishop Eduard Profittlich is getting Blessed on September 6th and he was the Bishop there, which is the smallest Cathedral I have ever seen. He was Bishop during the Soviet Union occupation. He was persecuted and killed for his faith.

Also, at the end of Mass they said that for two days before the celebration Mass of him becoming Blessed, they were going to read each name of those persecuted and killed during the Soviet Occupation. There were 22,600 known that gave their life for the Catholic religion in Estonia during that time. That sent chills to Joan and I. One last thing about Mass, was that the singing in Mass was mostly the men in the pews and they were loud and had great voices. Something we aren't used to back home.

Joan's Extras

We ate at some really delicious places today. "Restoran Munga Kelder" was our dinner choice after mass. The entrance is the little door on the left in the above picture. I was on the phone with United and Tony went in to find a seat. They were filled with reservations however. Tony saw a couple getting up and asked the hostess, "What about that table?" and she gave it to him. Wish his charm worked on the airlines. They also served us bread that had a fruity taste in this box of wheat. Tony put extra wheat on his. 😆 I devoured duck filets in a wine sauce. Tony also loved his Estonian beer, dark like a porter but somewhere between a dunkel and a porter.

Walking back from our tour around town earlier today, Tony tried some Glogg, Estonia's spiced warm wine, at this cute cafe while I ate a caramel apple pasty.

You can see in our pictures how large the cobblestones are in the streets of old town Tallinn. One advantage of not riding tomorrow is that Tony will not have to balance the tandem over the big cobblestones on the way out of Tallinn. The disadvantage is that we will walk them with our backpacks to the car rental place.

                

 Another night of watching our bags move around at Dulles!