Day: August 11, 2025

My expectations about the ferry last night further didn’t match reality. Fairly certain what happened is the ferry made another overnight run to Helsinki with us onboard, taking advantage of low overnight occupancy to sell more cabins. More noise than the last ferry, and then up at 5 am. But at least I wasn’t trying to find accommodation at 10 pm.

Coming off the ferry, I rode directly to the hostel to drop gear in luggage storage. After that, I took the day to explore Tallinn. With the hostel only a few km outside of town, I still put 17 km on the bicycle exploring the city.

Tallinn has adopted the “we love tourists”. Everywhere older buildings are being renovated. The signs for historical sights and monuments include an English translation. And everything, even churches, includes a notable entry fee. By the end of the day I’d visited four museums, three churches,

an abandoned amphitheatre,

a former prison,

and cycled around at least most of the city walls, towers and bastions

(including 400 m underground).

Also seen many historical ships (both model

and full size).

And another submarine.

Tomorrow I head out on Eurovelo 13 to explore the Estonian coast. Camping abounds, although it comes in a bit more variety than is typical. Estonia also offers intermittent primitive sites. Estonia permits wild camping as well. I’m not quite sure what to expect but stocked up on food and water.

Didn’t get a great night’s sleep last night in the hostel. One person’s breathing cut right through my ear plugs. The hostel also had something like servers in a rack. The whine of the fans pervaded the hostel.

The weather forecast called for rain between 1 pm and 5 pm, with check-in for the ferry starting at 5 pm. I spent some time last night searching for items of interest in Helsinki to visit in the morning. The farthest was roughly 4 km away. I loaded up the bicycle to check out, and learned I could hang out in the common area after I checked out.

After viewing various things, I returned to the hostel to wait out the rain. Overall Helsinki is a city of curves and modern art. I found a display that discussed the newness of Helsinki, a city with less history than other parts of Europe. That said, they charge a lot for everything! 2 pm arrived with no rain. The forecast had shifted to have rain during the loading window. I headed out to wait at the ferry, to be as close as possible, and dreading the part of the loading process of waiting in a line of cars for up to a couple hours, unsheltered.

In the end, no rain fell, and I boarded the ferry without incident. Now being an “experienced” overnight ferry traveler, I had arranged my gear load so I only needed to pull one pannier, and leave the rest on the bicycle. Upon reaching my adorable “piccolo” small room, I did the usual, setting up a clothes line and washing my clothes.

Only to then realize I hadn’t brought an additional shirt with me! The ferry had departed, which locked the cargo compartment. I force-dried the shirt I had just washed by rolling it in each of the two towels provided.

The trip from Stockholm was 15/16 hours. The ferry did not have much lounge space as most everyone had a cabin. I expected the voyage from Helsinki to Tallinn to take 11 hours (based on departure at 7 pm and arrival time of 6 am), but I experienced a very different trip, and similar to whatever other overnight ferries I’ve taken. People (and their dogs) camped out all over the ferry. On benches. Under stairs. In the hallways. I appeared to be in a cabin as the minority. By the time I finished wandering about the ship, my shirt had dried.

Well that didn’t work out as expected. The ferry arrived in Tallin at 9:30 pm. Those who chose an “overnight” cabin stay on board until the morning, explaining any number of oddities. Everyone else disembarked upon arrival. Well, at least I got plans confused in the correct direction and have a place to stay!