The day started out with a nice run. Liam, Tom and I ran out of Old Town to the Baltic and ran along the water front. Liam wanted to do 10 miles but I was only up for 5 so at 2.5 miles, Tom and I split off and did a little run/walk tour of Tallinn. We found a monument to a Russian ship wreck that happened in the 1890s which was fun as we tried to decipher the monument but then found an English translation. We then took a detour that brought us by a palace that was built by Peter the Great. Very baroque and somewhat over the top but had a beautiful garden. After that detour, we headed back towards Old Town and we able to see architecture from the early 1700s through modern. Luckily, there is not too much brutalist architecture that remains from the Soviet Period.

After run and showers, we headed out to explore Tallinn and the old city, we found a great look out to see the city but it was up a large set of steps but the effort was worth it so see the city.

We then head to the city wall and were able to walk a small portion of it. Gave you a good sense of what it would required to defend the city from invaders. It did appeal to the 10 years old internal me that wanted to fight the invaders and be on the ramparts with a crossbow!

We then wandered the rest of the Old Town and visited a Russian Orthodox Church that sits opposite the Estonia Parliament. It was build as a way to irritate the German population that was living in Estonia in the 1920.

After more wandering, which is very easy as the Old Town is small. I indulged in a pastry and hot chocolate, one of my favorite things. Prior to that we had lunch at the Beer House and I had a craft honey beer bratwurst. The mustard was supposedly the strongest mustard, it definitely cleared the sinuses. The honey beer was very good – not bitter but not sweet.

For our cocktail hour, we went to Vixen Vinotech, we tried to find Estonian wine but I gather that is basically non existent. We had a very nice Georgian slightly orange wine. It was good and interesting.

For dinner, we went to Lee. It was a fantastic restaurant in a beautiful garden.

We did the tasing menu with wine pairing which is one of the best meals I have ever had. The chef is Japanese-Canadian which I would never have expected of in Estonia.

We started with asparagus with goat cheese, cured salmon and pickled vegetables which the wait staff said had been pickled for a year. All of it was great, but the asparagus with goat cheese was the best. The wine pairing as a great Albariño, those who know me know Albariño is a favorite wine.

Second course was fried quail in a plum sauce, fermented cucumbers and kolhlirabi. The quail was super tender and the plum sauce was perfect. We had Riesling with that and as most of you know, I avoid that with the plague, but it was a good compliment.

The final course for mains was smoked trout, boiled potatoes with butter (butter in Europe is so much better than in the US. With the trout, we had a Pet-Nat- Mas del Petrie from Chahors. It was a traditional sparkling.

Dessert was a baked cream with roasted white chocolate with and hard dark chocolate disk. It was served with a rhubarb dessert wine – very weird but definitely good with the dessert. I also got to taste a chokeberry liqueur as I discussed with Maria (a fantastic server) that I had know idea what a chokeberry was. It was not sweet but favorable.

The whole dinner experience was more than I could have expected and was a perfect final dinner in Tallinn. Tomorrow after another run and more absorbing the Tallinn experience we are off to Riga, Lativia by bus. Should be fun.

It is great traveling with Liam and Tom, they are very open to experiencing life and culture and we explore. More importantly, they are willing to indulge me in my desire for new experiences, good food and wine and just having a great time.