501 Places

When asked to recommend good places to eat in London, most of us would tell visitors to steer clear of anywhere in the West End. Much like those along the Champs Elysees or those within a block of Times Square, most places here cater purely for the tourist market and don’t expect repeat business from […]

Seeing the aurora borealis for the first time is one of my most vivid memories. We were staying in the Shetland Islands, around 100 miles north of the Scottish mainland, and had returned to our cottage after dinner. It was just before midnight, and being early April it was still bitterly cold when the wind […]

It was 6.15 am on a deserted railway platform in western Belarus. The early morning sun was shrouded in thick cloud and a light drizzle greeted us as we stepped off the train. There was no sign of the driver who I had been promised would be waiting for us. And then as we started […]

It’s funny how people with the most amazing stories to tell are often the least vocal in sharing their experiences. This was certainly the case with the driver we hired for our short stay in Belarus. Yevgeni had met us early one morning at a rainy railway station in western Belarus. We were a group […]

After five days in Tallinn, we are on our way home. It’s been a busy yet relaxing week, and I will leave Estonia with many happy memories (and a few pounds heavier too!) This morning we saw a little more of the Old Town and noticed how much more activity there was as the weekend […]

It’s hard to beat a whole day spent surrounded by beautiful and varied landscapes, finding some great short hikes to do, and hardly meeting another person for the whole time in the park. We had set off from Tallinn in our rental car (very expensive compared to UK/US prices: around £55 for the smallest car). […]

We finally dedicated a full day to see Tallinn today, and use our Tallinn Cards (24 hours of included sights and activities within Tallinn). Having stayed in the city, we have been waiting for the right day to visit. On Monday many of the museums are closed, and on Tuesday we had ventured out to […]

Our third night in Tallinn, and we are yet to explore the Old City in daylight! That is the plan for tomorrow, but today we took the chance to venture out of town, 100km out to be precise, to a small coastal spa town of Haapsalu. Once we finally found the right bus station (how […]

Everything in Tallinn is close; most things are certainly within walking distance. This is a view from Pirita Beach, apparently popular in the summer but today almost deserted, looking back towards the Old Town, little over an hour’s walk away. Having learned that most museums in Tallinn are closed on Mondays, we decided to take […]

One of the nice things of writing on the road is that you can capture your feelings, your impressions and your experiences as they happen. They are not altered by subsequent events; events which may confirm, contradict or deem irrelevant that which you noted at the time. Arriving in Tallinn, my initial impressions were a […]