Twenty-four hours in Tallinn

As usual, our itchy feet were soon itching again and Tiger and I headed off to Tallinn, Estonia, for under 24 hours! This was actually rather unintentional - it should have been slightly longer but the flight times changed and I figured we would just make the most of a shorter weekend!

So on Friday 27th March, we headed to our favourite Luton hotel but only to be met by total disaster - the NCP Car Parks had just gone into administration days before so our favourite car park hack of staying in this hotel and parking for free for as long as we liked is (potentially) no more. Part of me is wondering about my part in them going into administration thanks to never actually paying to park there!

Our Wizzair outbound flight (£89.96) from Luton to Tallinn was a very respectful 07:00 departure so we were in the Uber from the Premier Inn Luton Town to the Holiday Inn Express drop point for 05:15 (£7) and walking the short distance to the main entrance, along the road and through the car tunnel! I'd stocked up on my £1 coins so Tiger got her fill from the toy machines pre-security and we were soon boarding our plane in the bright sunshine just after half past six in the morning!

The almost 3 hour flight was straightforward and we enjoyed food and snacks using our Wizzair Cafe and Boutique pre-paid vouchers. I had bought 25 Euros worth for the flights each way (£20.57) so we were able to have noodles, coffee, and plenty of snacks!

At the other end, whilst we landed on time at 11:55 there was a 30-40 minute wait at immigration to get through. This was also my first exposure to Tallinn airport which calls itself the "cosiest airport in the world". It was pretty lovely actually with plenty of kiddie stuff to do and even a gym! As we were arriving we were seeing most of this through glass partitions but it set us up for the return leg, where we also enjoyed playing the piano and the kids play area.

After passing through immigration I had a faff about with esims from Holafly which I ended up not managing to activate on the wifi in country, and just ended up buying a normal physical SIM in one of the airport shops (£7.40) instead. At least we now had data so, wanting to make the most of our time, I swerved the Bolt taxi app option to take a normal airport taxi to the Old Town. I can't recall exactly how much this was but the Bolts were only £7 so I think I probably paid £10 or so to get us in with the normal taxi.

We'd actually booked a free 2 hour walking tour for 1pm but we ended up missing that by three-quarters of an hour but it really was no problem. We were dropped off by the taxi at St Nicholas' Church (Niguliste Church) and walked into the Town Hall Square. Here we just wandered - and Tiger cart wheeled!

Quite soon, although our check in wasn't supposed to be until much later, I got a message from our hotel saying our apartment was ready so we checked in at 2pm. This was a mere hop, skip and a jump from the Old Town Square called Tallinn City Apartments Residence, and was 61 Euros (£53) for the one night. We had the 'One Bedroom Apartment with Old Town View' and although not fancy, it had all we needed, including a bath. But the real highlight was the fact that it directly overlooked the pop up ice skating rink - part of Harju Street Park and next to the Swedish St Michael's Church.

We dropped our bags as quickly as we could and headed back out again to the Old Town for a good old wander. Tallinn is famous for marzipan so we found the marzipan shop, along with various cake and bakery shops. In the end, despite all kinds of Estonian delicacies, we took the family-friendly and easiest option of a late McDonalds lunch! We also visited the flower market beside McDonalds and the Viru Gates where, even we didn't buy anything, Tiger did get given a rose!

Finally, to round our day off, we returned to the area of our apartment and went ice skating at the pop up Old Town ice rink . It was a complete surprise to me it was there at all but it turns out this is open from November to end March / early April so we were literally there one of the last days it was open. The ice skating ended up being such a highlight as the skate aids for not only children but adults too (a bit like ice skating zimmer frames) were immense and meant I was able to skate freely and without holding onto the sides for dear life!

In the end, we were at the ice rink for 2 hours hours and paid 8.80 euros for the adult skate hire, 6.80 euros for the child and (whilst we were supposed to pay) didn't pay anything for the skate aids as they were just laying around! There was a little cafe there so I grabbed an Aperol spritz whilst continuing to watch Tiger skate and we eventually left (in the cold and dark!) at 7.30pm. Our final stop before bed, was to a little supermarket called Kolmjalg a few minutes walk away for milk and snacks!

Overnight on Saturday 29th March the clocks 'sprung forwards' by one hour transitioning the time to both British Summer Time and Estonia Summer Time. My phone alarm also didn't go off in the morning so it was a bit of a mad rush back to the airport by Bolt (£7) but we made it! Interestingly, we had to reject one Bolt taxi because it didn't have a booster seat - in Estonia you do have to tick a particular box on the Bolt app if you have a child and if you don't tick this, then they cannot take you (but you are still partially charged).

We were back at the airport by 10am, and our flight was 2 hours 50 minutes back to the UK leaving at 11:30 and arriving at 12:20. The Uber (Holiday Inn Express back to Premier Inn Luton Town) was quite a lot more to get back to our car (£18) but with dynamic pricing it always seems to be!

What made our return to the UK so much fun was that on the plane Tiger had made a passport for one of her little plastic unicorns, which was roundly scrutinised by the border police upon our arrival back!

24 hours is clearly not enough to do justice to Estonia but this was a brilliant introduction. I am sure we will be back soon!