We sailed into Tallin 23rd August, on a lovely sunny morning. We were both looking forward to another new country.
We went straight to the tourist information on the quayside looking for a campsite close to the town. We end up camping on a boatyard which was the yachting venue of the 1980 olympic games. The facilities are adequate, but basic.
We catch a bus into the lovely medieval town of Tallin, which is now very touristy.

The next day it is raining, so we decide to stay another day and spend another day wandering the twisty streets. We visit the excellent Tallin Museum, which covers the history from the towns' medieval roots right up tp the 20th century history. Evenings are always a problem in a tent in the rain so we go to see a film, which is in English but with two diffferent subtitles, Russian and Estonian.

We move on the next day to Saaremaa one of the small islands off the west coast of Estonia. The weather is still not good so we stay overnight in a deserted hotel at Kaali. Next to the hotel is a huge meteor crater, beleived to be one of the last meteor strikes. We are served a breakfast of Estonian porridge, which I believe comprises four different grains and is delicious. This sets us up for a good day's riding to Kuressare. The countryside is flat and a little swampy, some tourist signs claim this is a special wild life area but we see very few wild animals.
Again we go to the Tourist information in the centre of the town. This is staffed by two of the most helpful ladies we have ever come across, and the internet is free in the library!!
We stay at some slightly tired lodges close to the sea, again these are deserted as it is the end of the tourist season. It is quite spooky staying here but we find that the local 10% beer helps calm us nicely.

Wednesday we take the GS and explore some of the island. The main roads have received E.U funding, and are good, but the back roads are mainly packed earth\limestone rubble. We find some picturesque churches and visit the north of the island. Here I atempt to take a nice photo of the bike with the island behind it but manage to get two wet feet despite wearing Doc Martins, much to Nick's delight

Thursday 28th August we move back onto the mainland heading for Tartu. We get a lovely guesthouse in the town of Viljandi. Whilst checking out a hotel in the centre of town we return to our bikes where a waiting taxi driver sends us to his guest house saying the magic words "motorcycle garaging". Not only is there parking but there is a shared kitchen and a cafe is attached so we spend a relaxed evening enjoying the facilities.

On Friday 29th August we get to Tartu and head for the tourist info. Again we fall lucky and the lovely landlady takes one look at us and opens the garage where her son's bikes are garaged.
Tartu is another interesting town, a little like Tallin, but much less touristy and with a lovely relaxed atmosphere. We stay here for two days, one of which there is a free open air music festival. It is so much easier packing when we have been in a B&B, we have a name for packing the bike called "Pannier Wrestling"

Tartu to Narva, not a good day, a cold and wet ride. The highlight (in my opinion) are the amazing stork nests balanced on top of telephone poles, about 1 meter across with the birds standing casually on top.
We arrive in Narva and search for a cheap hotel. We settle for a hotel close to the border. Narva has very little to recommend it and we spend a restless night, apprehensive about our first border crossing, taking us into Russia the next day