In preparation for the European Mobility Week

which is scheduled to start in six days and is meant to promote the use of public transportation and nonmotorized vehicles we did some biking trips. Two of them. The last one was shorter and perhaps more to the theme - biking mainly for mobility purposes rather than for fun and sightseeing. This trip was today. We took a train to Keila and from there, after stopping to stock up on water and rain capes, pedaled to the baseball field. Mike had agreed to be the field ump and I did not want to miss the championship games. Naturally, I checked out the weather report in the morning and was glad to be affirmed of the mostly sunny and 10% chance of rain outlook. Sadly, I was disappointed. I dare to say the games weren't half as much fun as the last couple of Amigos games and the weather man flat out lied. Not only did it rain for 10-15 minutes every 4 innings or so but it also rained hard on our 20 minute ride back to the train station. Capes didn't help much.

But the first biking trip we took on Tuesday and Wednesday was much more fun. To gather the sights under the common denominator, I'd use the word "military". We visited the western parts of our home county; to a previous government it had seemed like a good area to set up military establishments in. Let's see what I recall we saw: lakes in old limestone quarries dug by convicts, a 70 m ash hill growing young birches on top, young men nearing army age posing with rifles in an abandoned prison campus, spouses in slightly dampened never fitted clothes and frizzy hairdos sitting in antique upholstered burgundy chairs in a nice restaurant having lunch, a pink church building just off a nice wide and important highway that about four semis in an hour pass at any given point on a Tuesday afternoon, a military base for "imported" personnel turned into shooting grounds (target practice area) a decade after exporting that personnel, the location of one of the 22 concentration camps in Estonia, dark painted water tanks in every single back yard and meticulous flower beds in front yards of a gated "garden" community where guests with maps can let themselves in, trails through a 40 m2 peninsula that had been fenced off and used for military purposes only, a building that used to lodge a nuclear submarine and that is still heavily guarded, one squad of young solders with painted faces having their lunch break/CPR training and three squads walking in lines probably for their first end-of-summer assessment, country's tallest (50 m) lighthouse after we lost it from sight somewhere between the huge windmills and found again after deciding to move towards the source of the wind, a thrilling view to the sea after stopping at one of the corners of Peter the Great's fort planned to have cut into limestone but not quite finished, and many abandoned military buildings here and there all along the way.

For the future reference, let me type that the two roads absolutely worth taking with bikes were the ones going north just opposite the Padise manor house (the middle one, the one best hidden and not paved) and almost opposite of Maeru tavern (to Madise and Klooga respectively). The eastern trail road of Pakri peninsula is quite bumpy but still manageable, whereas the western road is awfully windy and can slow lighter weight bikers ;) down. Also, I tend to judge businesses by their web site but am glad that we nevertheless gave Allika Holiday House a chance. Now I can attest they may be trusted. The hosts are very friendly, and just as they say, offer many things free of charge. Things like kitchen/shower/sauna, fish from the river, fruit from the trees, absolutely must-take cold fresh spring water from their spring, cricket song at night and sheep alarm in the morning (completely tolerable, most likely even enjoyable). We even got firewood and grill for our s'mores for no extra fee and good wishes for the road of course too. The only things is, if you are not prepared to share your path with a sheep, you might reconsider. Or if you absolutely cannot stand to hear cars go by while sleeping outdoors.

While the RP-s are out celebrating

or was it dining they said they went out for, let me just record how happy I am to have finally been able to be on the field to watch a baseball game. After several reschedulings over the last two months and some small-country drama(!) there was an inaugural or debut game tonight for the youngest team of the league. I would seed the opposing team at number 2. I won't record here what the score was but I can say I am going to look into getting a more advanced course on scoring in addition to the crash course I took last week. And I hope I get to use those skills in the future, and that none of the rookies got discouraged.

Subway is something

we speak of frequently and miss. As a place to go get sandwiches then, not to move around under ground. They have Metro in Tartu that serves the same purpose and is supposed to be as good. But we got none in Tallinn. So we had to make our own little sandwich shop at home. I had cooked meat balls in sweet 'n' sour tomato sauce on Sunday and Mike baked an ovenful of golden, soft baguettes that we combined for an ultimate experience. Yumm!

Looking at the picture collage down the screen I feel I must record it's snowing once again. It's dark out so we can't see but we watch it on TV coming down on the soccer field as our national team ties with Serbia. It is a night game with snow forecast and temperature 1 below freezing, and there were people that actually got tickets to go cheer!

First day of spring training

was today. The players in Mike's team reported and drilled. I heard they all survived. How many of them will show up for the next indoor practice - the time will show. I called it spring training because the spring is almost here. I think last weekend was the first when I thought I felt another season was on its way. There are still mountains of snow outside the city (probably 2-3 feet in my Grandma's yard - a place I checked out last weekend, and even more in some spots in towns) but in downtown Tallinn it is now possible to get from one building to another without having to don ice skates. If you pick your routes very carefully and don't go far.

So it was a surprise to be greeted by this thick, white curtain of snow outside the windows this morning. Nevertheless, Mike judged he didn't need an overcoat to venture out when the snow stopped. He won the battle!
Ask me for larger images if you want to see better how close together the snowflakes were.

How many times

have we contemplated about going to see the Independence Day parade? I know how many times we've actually gone and seen it. None. :( For this year, we got an excuse. No, not -24C weather that morning. But we had to buff up our place for our very special guests. And no, the weather didn't matter because we went out the next day when it was even cooler. So cool that school kids weren't required to go to school. So they skated on an open air ice rink. And we watched them with our special guests.
Seven days of fun, and some days of work.

Rate or ate (eat, that is)?

I haven't been able to make up my mind whether to get into food rating or not. But while I still ponder it, I might just list the places we most frequently go to and write a few words about them each.

I start with Bonaparte cafe, which I wouldn't say is upscale but definitely modernized (as opposed to stuck in the good old have-not-ventured-into-any-foreign-kitchens type eatery). There are at least two locations in town: one in the ground floor of the building we used to rent when first settled here and the other just across the skate ramp, oops, concrete block covering the garage entrance of our present adobe. This last place seems to have discovered and then settled well in a niche of a lunch destination for downtown professionals. In the evenings it tends to be pretty quiet. That is when we normally go there, and sometimes on the weekends, too.

Everything is good with Bonaparte: food in the menu sounds tasty (I'm sure it is tasty), and pastries on the counter are tasty, beer is cold when they have it (which is most of the time, just not always - be prepared!), and tea is hot when I get it. All is good. Except when we were there on Saturday, and some other tea drinkers (had) sat at other tables, the tall cup of tea was served to me in a regular glass. One made for serving cold soft beverages. I had to let my drink cool off before I could lift the glass and I felt I just had to snap a picture to get me started on this.

We got euros!

I thought I'd record this. Mike went out today (I did not) and exchanged the last of his kroons for some Saku and Kirin and got a bunch of newly minted coins back, too. They all have this image on one side but the colors/metals differ. I wanted to ship them on to you but Mike said we should put the first ones aside for ourselves. So you know. But keep your eyes open as you come visit EU on your next holiday or when you send someone over.

Oh, and looking at the title of the last post, we got many packages for Christmas this/last year. We already ate all Grandma's cookies with some help from Mike's office mates and my family. We celebrated the new year today with some tasty, hot popcorn but we've got plenty of other good treats to last until spring at least and some nice things for reading and wearing for even longer. Thanks, Santa!