Moments in Tallinn, Estonia

Tallinn is the capital city of Estonia and a great destination if you want to combine the comforts of modern world, versatile nightlife and magnificent adventures in a local historical setting. The city has a great mix of old and new.  The Old Town, center city, is boasting with Gothic spires, captivating architecture and winding cobblestone streets. Within Old Town you will find both visitors and locals enjoying the numerous restaurant, bars, shops and galleries. Tallinn is a beach town and also a very popular cruise ship destination, with more than 300 ships making the call here each year.

Tallinn's Town Hall, pictured below, was built from 1402-1404 and is the best preserved Medieval town hall in Northern Europe.  Originally it was 2.4km long, up to 16 meters high and three meters thick with 46 watch towers. It is so well preserved that today 1.9km remains, along with 20 observation towers. This wall certainly adds to the Old Town charm of this historic city.

Although this stunning building, Soprus, looks more like an opera house, it is actually their movie theatre. 

St. Olaf's Church

From 1549 to 1625 St. Olav's Church was the tallest building in the world.  
The spire is 159 meters high

Just one way to head up to the top of Toompea Hill to get amazing views.

Beautiful views from the top of Toompea Hill

Alexander Nevsky Orthodox Cathedral

The positioning of this magnificent, onion-domed Russian Orthodox cathedral (completed in 1900) at the heart of the country's main administrative hub was no accident.  The church was one of many built in the last part of the 19th century as part of a general wave of Russification. Orthodox believers come here in droves, alongside tourists ogling the interior’s striking icons and frescoes. Quiet, respectful, visitors are welcome but cameras are not. 

St. Mary's Cathedral is the oldest church in Tallinn.

St. Catherine's Passage

One of Tallinn's most romantic spots.  A little lane where craftswomen create and sell stained glass, jewelry, leather goods, ceramics and hats.

Just love the architecture.

Walls of Tallinn

One of the highlights for me was walking around center city and being able to walk on some of the wall.  The views up on the wall of Old Town are amazing.

Kadriorig Park
This is a beautiful park in Estonia that is part of the palace estate but as always been open to the public. 

The palace was built in the early 18th century and was originally an imperial summer residence that was designed to resemble Italian palaces of its time

I really enjoyed Tallinn and would love to go back and explore more of Estonia as well as the surrounding countries of Finland and Latvia.

Cabo San Lucas

It had a long time since I visited Cabo San Lucas so I was looking forward to spending a long weekend there. Cabo is located on the Southern most tip of the Baja peninsula.  I was there for work, a sales incentive, so our company booked us at the Pueblo Bonito Pacifica which was a lovely adult-only resort. It was pretty tucked away and had a private beach although the water was too rough so we were not allowed to go in. The last time I stayed in Cabo, I stayed at the One and Only Palmilla. That resort is very tropical with tons of plants, trees and flowers. The Pueblo Bonito resort was more desert than tropical but still a very nice place to relax. 

View from my room.

 Around the resort.

It was amazing how high the waves came in and broke right where you would enter into the ocean.

 By car, it only took about 15 minutes to get to the marina and Marina Boulevard where a lot of the main restaurants and bar are located. Of course, no trip to Cabo is complete without visiting a few of their popular establishments.

Highly recommend visiting Cabo San Lucas and look forward to going back!

Touring Buenos Aires

There are so many wonderful areas within Buenos Aires to visit and with six weeks, I tried to visit most of them. Yes, some definitely are more touristy than others but I didn't mind. On Sundays, the Feria de San Pedro Telmo is one of the most touristy things you could do but great shopping can be done at reasonable prices. They have everything from antiques to amazing art pieces, souvenirs, leather items such as belts and purses, and lots of tango dancers on the streets providing entertainment.

Seltzer bottles are very popular in Buenos Aires. Apparently, the bottles of seltzer in siphon bottles are still delivered to people's doors much like milk used to be delivered in the United States.

Off the main street we enjoyed some a chorizo sandwich, drink and watched some tango dancers perform.

YUM...chorizo!

In many ways, Polo has made Argentina famous so when I found out they played between September - November I really wanted to go. We didn't know what to expect since neither of us have been but were excited to check it out. The Campo Argentino de Polo is located in Palermo and was walking distance from our apartment.

As you might imagine the grounds are emaculate and I felt like I was surrounded by the Buenos Aires elite. High end restaurants within the facility and liquor companies showcasing their products in upscale pop-up kiosks.

Time to watch some polo!

The last time we were in Buenos Aires was in 2010 for a long weekend and we visited the neighborhood of La Boca. It was drizzling that day so I wanted to go back and spend some more time.

The famous stadium La Bombonera were Boca Juniors play. The name translated in English is Chocolate Box. From my readings, it says it is due to the shape. The stadiums capacity is 49,000 people.

Down a few streets from La Bombonera is Caminito ("little walkway"). Another huge tourist spot but I loved looking at all the bright colorful houses.

There is a famous bookstore in Buenos Aires, El Ateneo. Located on Santa Fe Avenue, the building actually opened as a theatre in 1919. According to Wikipedia, the theatre has a seating capacity of 1,050 and held a lot of performances, including tango. The bookstore is also named Top 10 Most Beautiful Bookstores in the world.

We decided to attend a tango show before we left. It was a tough decision on which show to see since there are so many to choose from. All of them offer a dinner / show ticket but after reading so many reviews I opted for just the show tickets since the food did not seem to "wow" too many people and the tickets are expensive for mediocre food.

After much research, I chose Esquina Homero Manzi. It is located on the corner of San Juan and Boedo which is famous for the opening verse of the tango Sur, one of the best-loved songs in Buenos Aires and more importantly the corner and name of this restaurant is the author to those lyrics.

 My last weekend in Buenos Aires we went to Puerto Madero. I had heard mixed reviews of the area, mainly nothing really to see and restaurants are pricey but I wanted to at least check it out for myself. This area is definitely more contemporary and is considered one of the safest area in the city and highest property value among other Latin American cities.

There are large open boulevards, river views and trendy outdoor restaurants and bars.

 The Puente de la Mujer, Spanish for Women's Bridge, is a 335-foot-long suspension pedestrian bridge. It opened in 2001 and rotates 90 degrees to allow water traffic

So if you have time, I would highly recommend visiting some, or all, of these places while you are in Buenos Aires.