Wednesday, 27 June 2007

Only a few weeks until we invade Tallinn!

Yep, it's creeping up on us. Our trip to Estonia to take on our friends from JK Jalgpallihaigla, the actual game being on Saturday 21st July.
The playing squad going is as follows: Andy Tucker; Lawrence Marsh; Mark Hutton; Phil Baker; Mishi Morath; Steve Rickerby; Matt Hammond; Robbie McClintock; Chris Garrett; Lucas Green; Mick O'Shaughnessy; Lee Shailer; Paul Griffin; Keri Ryan & Dawn Taylor. Non-playing cheerleaders are Adele Beckford & Vicky Hart.
Hopefully I am all set to go...I had a note through my door when I was out today, and something was due to be delivered, which I have to sign for. Hopefully it is my new passport, my previous one expiring at the end of May.
Rest assured on our return you will get a full report of goings on here. In the meantime I will include a few things to 'get you in the mood', so to speak, for our Summer Tour 2007.
The most important thing to know is that the Estonian football season is a summer one, so there WILL be games going on the weekend of our visit. When the Estonians were over here in May they told us there is a First Division game on the Saturday, & our game will be on a pitch nearby to that. They weren't sure of actual kick off time of the 'big game', but it will be either 2.00pm or five o'clock. Ours will take place so it does not clash with it. I don't know what game it is though.
Looking on websites it looks as though there may be a Cup game of some sort on the Friday night, though it's not listed yet. Hopefully Paul Griffin will know more soon, as he's keeping an eye on the fixtures.
On the Saturday there is a match in Tallin between JK Tallinna Kalev & Parnu JK Vapp.
And on the Sunday there is a 5.00pm kick off listed in the city between Nomme JK Kalju and Valga FC Warrior.
There are a couple of general Tallinn tourism sites, which I list for you here & here.
There is so much to see, it looks a really beautiful city. Personally I am only there from Friday lunchtime until Sunday. I fly back on Monday morning, so can't count that as a 'see things' day.
Listing some of my personal preferences, which you might enjoy too, I've spotted the following places to see:
I love photography, so the photo museum is a must for me.
The Maritime Museum looks a great way to spend at least half a day.
And for those of you interested in Second World War history the Occupation Museum is worth a visit.
If I get time I will also try to get to the Architecture Museum as well.
As a bit of a cemeteries 'anorak' I've looked on this site & found that there are no less than seven of these dotted around the city. I obviously won't get to them all...but if you want to pick one of them out go to the 'Discover Significant Cemeteries' bit and then scroll down to 'Cemeteries of Tallin, Tallinn, Estonia. I'm not sure which one I will go to, if I only fit in one on the trip, but it will be the one where the Soviet Memorial that was moved there a few months ago, which caused an outbreak of rioting, that will be my first choice. There is this site dedicated to it, I've not had the time to look through it, not owning a computer, but having had a brief glance it may be a bit too right wing for my liking, but still interesting. I'm sure Hutty will love it! ;-)
Somewhat spookily I've tried to link to a couple of reports from the BBC website about this, but when I put in the link they have automatically redirected to the American CNN news site. Read into that what you will...so much for 'the land of the free'...
Whatever you plan to see I'm sure you will enjoy, not just the cheap beer & clubbing! ;-)
And if you find something in advance that looks interesting-even if it's not to my taste- then let us know & I'll put the link on here.
But if you don't fancy any of what I've listed, but want to see the town in an hour or so try the open top tourist bus!

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