Day 1 - Tallinn, Estonia - Baltics first day, but where is our bike?

Joan's View

It all started in primo style with the best Uber drivers to the airport! Note the 3 black bags in the picture. Read on to learn about our quest to locate them. ▼

Luke & Todd on delivery duty. Thanks Nick!

Around noon, on the way to the airport we were notified of a flight delay. However, at the gate, the pilot from the arriving flight said the weather near Washington DC, our first layover, involved a strong thunderstorm and some people on the arriving flight were adversely affected by the turbulence. He therefore delayed our flight for that plane back to DC. The delays continued until we finally left Dayton about 5 hours later which meant we had to reschedule our remaining flights. Tony was on the phone with United at the same time that he was talking to the ticket counter attendant. The flight was finishing boarding. The attendant finally told us to just board and they would figure it out. They hand delivered our newest flight tickets to us in our seats before we took off. We were switched to Scandinavian Airlines instead of Lufthansa, through Copenhagen instead of Frankfurt to Tallinn. They assured us that our checked bags will follow us. 😕

 

Tony using Omniva's phone

Tony's plan was to assemble the bike today as soon as we got all the bags to the airbnb. Tony had put AirTags on the checked luggage (with the advice of some Choice One geeks) and along with United's app, it revealed that our bike and gear remained in DC while we flew on. We arrived in Tallinn around 3:00 and took an Uber to our Airbnb. We dropped off our carryons and headed to Omniva (our carrier to ship the empty bags) so that Tony could change the pickup time for shipping the empty bike bags. After some time of trying to call their main office with the help of staff at the branch because Tony's international service on his phone is not working in Estonia, Tony got that process started but it's all pending when we get our bike. 

We decided to head back to the Airbnb and grab some food at a grocery store, but changed plans when we made a stop at Saint Peter and Paul Cathedral. Mass was just starting at 6:00 which worked out great for celebrating Mass of the Assumption. Note, the funky kneelers that are tilted downward and you have to hang on to the bench in front of you if you want to kneel. We looked around and saw how people were sitting just resting their knees on the kneelers instead of really kneeling. First time for that one. The couple in front of us at mass was from Scotland and is doing a visit to the same countries as us, but by car.

It's a balancing act!

On the way back to the Airbnb looking for groceries, we stopped to smell the flowers at the beautiful flower mart. 

One more quick stop to visit this friendly fellow along the cobblestone roads of old town Tallin. Hey Tisha, Tara, Lynne & Pat is this Buc-ee's cousin?

Tony's Extras

I have been telling people that it would be tough if our luggage didn't show up when we got to the place. I was right. It has been a pain in the butt. I spent more time on the phone since yesterday at 3:00 for 24 hours talking to people that want to help, but struggled. By the way, I am on hold and getting even more frustrated trying to figure this out. What more can I say, but it is part of the journey 😁