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Monthly Archives: July 2012

The 99th Tour de France

I love the Tour de France like puppies love dirty socks. All year long, I look forward to those three weeks in July when 198 scrawny cyclists race around France in a giant circle. It’s a tradition in my family to watch the final stage in Paris when the surviving cyclists ride several loops around … Continue reading »

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Paris

My first stop in Paris is always the same place: Le Marais. The Jewish quarter is home to some of the best falafel around.   Once I had eaten, I wandered around the city, checking out some of the city’s iconic sites.   The Louvre museum with its famous glass pyramids and the fountain at … Continue reading »

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Helsinki’s Suomenlinna fort

My last day in Finland was spent visiting Suomenlinna, Helsinki's sea fortress. Housed on a collection of islands, the buildings represent three distinct eras in the country's history. When Sweden included what is now Finland, the first buildings on Suomenlinna were built in the mid eighteenth century. Sixty years later, Russia won the Finnish War … Continue reading »

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Rovaniemi, Finland

We caught an overnight train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland which sits just a few kilometers from the Arctic Circle. The train ride was beautiful, which is just as well because traveling north to the Arctic Circle in July means you enter the land of twenty four hours of daylight so at … Continue reading »

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Helsinki

Many of my fellow passengers on the first ferry of the morning from Tallinn to Helsinki had clearly been up all night indulging in Tallinn's nightlife so the ride was pretty quiet. The ferry was a pea green and orange ship that must have held around two thousand passengers on its nine decks. Even though … Continue reading »

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Beware the statues

Courtesy of Mini Bear Films, I bring you the trailer from my time with statues in Tartu.  

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Tartu, Estonia

Estonia is small enough that the bus ride from the western island town of Kuressaare to the southeastern university city of Tartu is probably the longest direct bus ride in the country, and it's just six hours.   I picked up a map of town, not realizing at the time it was a self guided … Continue reading »

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Kuressaare, Estonia

It was a quick four hour bus-ferry-bus ride from Tallinn to the island of Saaremaa in western Estonia. Along the way, the land was pancake flat and I passed more rolled hay stacks than Monet could paint in a lifetime. Saaremaa is just under 3,000 square kilometers and has a population of 35,000. The biggest … Continue reading »

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Tallinn miscellaneous

Odds and ends from Tallinn.   Common souvenirs include fake fur, leather, hand knitted goods, and amber.   This pharmacy was originally built in 1422 and is the oldest still functioning pharmacy in the world.   Just because I'd kick myself if this was ever an answer in Jeopardy, Ferdinand Vieke founded the Estonian State … Continue reading »

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Tallinn’s Soviet prison

Are you looking for the perfect place to host your event? An intimate wedding? An all night rave? Or maybe a work conference? If so, perhaps you should consider holding it at Tallinn's former Soviet prison. That's right, this building which has been used as a defensive fort, a military barracks, and a Soviet prison … Continue reading »

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