Tallinn to Riga

We got up at 7am, two hours earlier than we’ve been starting, so that we could catch our excursion to Riga.

When I was booking the trip, I debated renting a car so that we could see more of the countries and not just the capital cities, but I didn’t want the responsibilities of a car. There’s a company that runs excursions between Tallinn and Riga (and also Riga and Vilnius) that pick you up in one city, take in the sites between the cities, and drop you off at the other. So you get day trips and transit for the price and time of one. Anyways we booked both the Tallinn to Riga and the Riga to Vilnius excursions.

Our taxi driver had some trouble trying to figure out how to get into the old city, but we got there exactly at 9am. We the last to arrive and so got the front row of the minivan, which wasn’t so bad cause we’re small people and the view was better.

Our driver / tour guide was excellent. She knew all about the history and current state of Estonia and the surrounding region. We chatted with her most of the drive. Found out some interesting local details, like that mushroom foraging is a big thing in Estonia. Everyone has their own favourite secret place in the woods.

Made a number of stops along the way, Viljandi (with a crumbling crusader castle and strawberries as the local symbol because of a painting), Valga, which sits on the border of Estonia and Latvia (with a military museum where our guide gave a moving description of Estonian history from WWI to present), hiked (in the rain) along the sandy cliffs of Sietiņiezis in Gauja National Park, walked through the medieval old town of Cēsis (our favourite of the day), and finally the bobsleigh track in Sigulda.

We arrived in the old town of Riga at 8:30pm. It makes for a long day, but it’s not that tiring because of the frequent stops.

Our hotel was a six minute walk, so we didn’t have to worry about taxis getting lost in the old town. We stayed at Le Chevalier, which a lot of the food bloggers had mentioned as either a place to stay or go for brunch. So it looks like our breakfasts will be good :)

Dropped our stuff and rushed out for a quick bite. Went to a hotel-recommended restaurant (Key to Riga) which wasn’t that great (note to self - don’t ask hotels for restaurant recommendations!). It was down the main drag which was still pretty busy for a weekday evening. We were further south, so the sun set at 9:59pm, about 15 minutes earlier than in Tallinn. After dinner we walked around the square near the restaurant and then called it a night.