With the clocks back an hour and nothing planned, an easy start to the day. At 8am, people were piling off the ship and it looked to us that there was no real immigration process, so despite the note in the patter to take passports, we didn't!
We could see Ho-Ho buses at the gate and we had the choice of two companies, who had reps standing side by side and we asked which we should take and then stood back. We should probably have gone with the two young blondes and not the fearsome looking guys (always the best bet…) representing "Tallin City Tour"!
At €15 each and covering three routes, on the face of it, it looked to be good value. Once on the move, we had no idea whether we were on the Red, Blue or Green route as they tended to overlap. It wasn't made any easier when having boarded at stop 9, they missed out stops 10 & 11 and headed straight for #1.
We found out then that we were on the Red route which skirted the edge of the picturesque old town and headed out west to what can best be described as a somewhat bland environment. On the way back in, the bus didn't actually stop at the other dock (stop 8) either and once again, missed out 10 & 11, but also our #9. Weird.
At stop #1, we hopped off again at a market, but the driver pointed us towards the bus at the front of the line and this was apparently the Blue line… Once again it skirted the old town, then dived off west and turned around at the Open Air Museum, before heading back in again.
Sadly, we didn't trust them to take us back to the port as it too was missing out stops, so we hopped off at the Blue 9 (which should have been the same as the missing Red #11!). On their brochure, they plead for a positive comment on 'Tripadvisor'. I don't think they'll be getting one from me, but we'll have to wait until we get home when the internet is a bit quicker.
A short walk into the northern end of town for a much needed comfort stop, at the maritime museum, then we simply turned on our heels and headed back, as we had to be on board at 1:30pm anyway.
So we really saw absolutely nothing of the Tallin old town at all. Our advice for future cruisers would be to walk to the old town from the ship. The Ho-Ho bus might be OK if the weather is poor and you just want something to do. The souvenir shops at the dock seemed to have a reasonable range of local goods and very little tat. This has been a feature of all ports on this cruise. They even had British cider at the dock cafe, but at €3.50 a bottle, I wasn't tempted.
A quick bite and a coffee on deck 5 once again (we are being very disciplined, keeping away from the buffet at lunch time) before heading back to the cabin.
Just two in our team for trivia so happy with a score of 13/20. Needless to say, not a winning score.
It is rare that Princess fails to deliver a decent evening meal, but the Italian themed food wasn't really as good as we have had in the past. The eggplant parmigiana (sp) was very salty and so too was the veal, which was supposed to be with Marsala, which is sweet! Even the head waiter's pasta was marginal. Most unusual.
To Bret Sherwood's magic show. As someone pointed out later, more of a self-promotion and quite a slow show, though some of the tricks/illusions were OK. No better than a 6/10 I'm afraid. Made you long for a Tommy Cooper show.
Clocks back again tonight with our last port tomorrow, Gdynia for Gdansk in Poland and we have no idea what to expect, as we made a very late decision to do a Princess tour. We managed to get on only because a cancellation came through at the very last minute, just as we were enquiring.
Another fine day forecast so we do feel very lucky. More than can be said for our friends back in NZ, who are getting a bit of a bashing by all accounts.
After tomorrow's post, it may go quiet for a day or two, but I will try and do a summary of the Emerald Princess as promised.
No comments:
Post a Comment