The Big Bike Year

Mike again - yep I'm kicking this one off too.    We left you last time, as we headed to the train to Latvia. Sounds simple - right?   Let me clarify ... we got on the train just in time (unusual for me). There's only one train a day from Tallinn to Riga, and we were picking it up at Tartu, so it was packed. A bunch of teenagers were siting on the floor on their backpacks and all the bike hook spots were taken by bikes or by people siting in the fold up seats where the bike rack is.  Anyway, we found one hook, and with some bungy cords managed to get the other bike vertical next to it!  We then stood up most of the way to the border (Serena got a seat half way).  At the border our train pulled into Valga station, where everyone continuing towards Riga had to swap to the Latvian train (later discovered it was actually a Lithuanian train), however of course there's no signs explaining anything!  Serena found an official to ask and it turns out the train ...

  Mike here... I'll start and get you up to speed.  Then Serena will chime in!   We left you in Helsinki, as we were about to catch the ferry to Tallinn. This was super exciting for me as it was my first trip to any of the Baltic states.  The ferry was massive, we waited dock side with the deck chief who answered all our questions... pointing out that the ferry could hold 2 kilometres of trucks!  That's amazing!! Anyway after successfully dicing it with the trucks for a spot on the ferry we made it to Tallinn and again negotiated the trucks to find our way to our "Hipster" apartment in Tallinn ... and we now think Hipster in Estonian must mean "Condemned", but it was awesome and put us right in the middle of an amazing cool area of Tallinn. It was full of amazing houses and bike paths and cafes. Also it was walking distance to the old town, and the cool new dock/restaurant area.  So, we spent 2 days in Tallinn walking, eating and touristing in the Old Town,...