4th Oct 2016
While I was there some of the horses were being exercised. They only have race days on alternate Saturdays. I really have no idea as to the quality of the 'racing' but suspect it is more of a gambling medium than a sport.
The stables, indeed the whole racecourse set-up, looked very dilapidated. Some of the buildings were falling down and bits of broken down cars, smashed up sulkys and machinery littered the place.
I saw very few poeple about, but eventually tracked down a girl who had been excercising some horses. She was called Anna and very charming and chatty. She was so busy as she had 19 (yes 19!) horses to look after that day, single handed, and was talking to me as she harnessed up another horse. Complicated harness for these trotting sulkys. She had to exercise most of them, muck out the boxes, sort out the stable, clean the tack, do the feeding etc. all on her own. Apparently a friend sometimes comes along to help but not today. Phew! Left: Her taking one of her charges for a spin.
.....and a couple of wee Shetland ponies were tied up on long leads alongside the track. Not sure what their purpose was.
Next a taxi ride out to the seaside on Tallinn Bay, just north of the town. I must mention here, and give credit to, the Tallinn taxi drivers (that I used) who were totally honest, pleasant, with good meters, gave receipts if you needed them and were relatively cheap.
I had read of the Lennusadam Seaplane Harbour out at Kalamaja. This is a vast triple-domed reinforced concrete hangar built in 1917 to house the original Baltic (British made) seaplane fleet. It has something of a Bond film villain's lair feel to it. It has been restored and now houses a maritime museum, plus some other weaponry. I had only intended to have a quick look around but, because there was so much to see and play with, I spent 3 hours there. Right: a poor pic of the main gallery.....that's a submarine on the right.
There is a curious and varied amount of stuff on display, ranging from ice-racing yachts (left), to nautical buoys, ship's anti-aircraft guns, ship's guns, old racing yachts, mines, and a large display of Viking history, plus many interactive toys and games for children of all ages (including me) .
Right: One of the original (or maybe reconstructed) 1st World War seaplanes, a Shorts 184 made by Shorts Bros, UK, in 1915. I had no idea!
Left: Many types of anti-aircraft guns were on show including this Soviet ZSU-57-2. A blast from the past.
Right: A Viking fishing boat.
Pride of place in the main hall is the Estonian submarine EML Lembit (right). This is a Kalev Class submarine built in 1936 by Armstrong Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness, UK. It is one of two built at the time for the Estonian Navy. It's sister ship, the Kalev, was sunk in 1941. The Lembit served through WW2 and was subsequently used by the Soviet Navy in their Baltic Fleet. It was the oldest submarine in the world still afloat (if that's the correct expression for a submarine) until finally taken out of the water in 2011.
We were free to wander around inside. I know diddly-squat about submarines and found it all quite interesting. Being rather out of the tourist season, and there weren't many visitors in the museum while I was there, I had the ship/boat to myself.
Left: The operations control centre. Periscope and ladder up to the conning tower at far end.
Right: The galley.
Left: The engine room, at the back end, obviously.
Right: The Officers' Mess. I expect they had white gloved livery attired stewards in attendance, a well stocked cellar and all the Mess Silver on display at Dinner.
Right: The walls around the area were festooned with some rather clever 'wall art'.
Left: More wall art. This one was about 30' high.
Interestingly, a lot of the streets in the outlying areas consisted entirely of 'clapboard' style wooden houses as per photo (right). I believe this is a common feature of Baltic towns, and, as I discovered previously, in many Nordic towns and cities as well.
Off south to Latvia tomorrow. I had hoped to go by train. There is a smart 'International' railway station with swish looking trains just next to my hotel but, as I discovered, there is no service operating between Tallinn and Riga during the week. No problem if you want to go to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Baku or any place east, but not down through the Baltics. There must be some political reason for this...I don't know.
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| The Tallinn Hippodroom. Not exactly Ascot. |
Having an interest in horse-racing I decided to take a wander out to the local race-course, or 'Hippodroom' as it's known here. Unlike the Nordic countries, horse-racing in the Baltics is not very widespread. Indeed I believe that they only go in for 'trotting' or 'harness' races which involves the horses pulling a buggy, or 'sulky' on which the 'jockey' sits, around a dirt track. Sort of horse and cart racing if you like. For some reason they don't go in for proper horse-racing. As far as I can see there is only one of these tracks in Estonia and another in Lithuania. It would seem to me easier to put a saddle on the horse's back and ride it.
When not in their stables the horses seem to be turned out on mud (right). They looked well enough despite that.
The stables, indeed the whole racecourse set-up, looked very dilapidated. Some of the buildings were falling down and bits of broken down cars, smashed up sulkys and machinery littered the place.
I saw very few poeple about, but eventually tracked down a girl who had been excercising some horses. She was called Anna and very charming and chatty. She was so busy as she had 19 (yes 19!) horses to look after that day, single handed, and was talking to me as she harnessed up another horse. Complicated harness for these trotting sulkys. She had to exercise most of them, muck out the boxes, sort out the stable, clean the tack, do the feeding etc. all on her own. Apparently a friend sometimes comes along to help but not today. Phew! Left: Her taking one of her charges for a spin.
Right: More horses on their mud patches. I saw several being excercised but, for the life of me, I couldn't find where they went afterwards...and I looked. Into the woods maybe? Anna was the only rider, groom, stable person I could find on the whole grim looking site.
I was told she also looked after livery riding horses for clients...in her spare time.
.....and a couple of wee Shetland ponies were tied up on long leads alongside the track. Not sure what their purpose was.
Next a taxi ride out to the seaside on Tallinn Bay, just north of the town. I must mention here, and give credit to, the Tallinn taxi drivers (that I used) who were totally honest, pleasant, with good meters, gave receipts if you needed them and were relatively cheap.
I had read of the Lennusadam Seaplane Harbour out at Kalamaja. This is a vast triple-domed reinforced concrete hangar built in 1917 to house the original Baltic (British made) seaplane fleet. It has something of a Bond film villain's lair feel to it. It has been restored and now houses a maritime museum, plus some other weaponry. I had only intended to have a quick look around but, because there was so much to see and play with, I spent 3 hours there. Right: a poor pic of the main gallery.....that's a submarine on the right.
There is a curious and varied amount of stuff on display, ranging from ice-racing yachts (left), to nautical buoys, ship's anti-aircraft guns, ship's guns, old racing yachts, mines, and a large display of Viking history, plus many interactive toys and games for children of all ages (including me) .
Right: One of the original (or maybe reconstructed) 1st World War seaplanes, a Shorts 184 made by Shorts Bros, UK, in 1915. I had no idea!
Left: Many types of anti-aircraft guns were on show including this Soviet ZSU-57-2. A blast from the past.
Right: A Viking fishing boat.
Several interactive displays kept me occupied for far too long. These included identifying an enemy ship and firing a torpedo at it (I failed despite several attempts), a realistic biplane flight simulator aiming to fly, á la Red Bull competition, through a slalom course (failed several times), an anti-aircraft machine gun (left) to shoot down incoming aircraft which exploded realistically if you hit them (not as easy as it looked...I was rated 'well below average - more training required'), a 'round the world' deep sea trip in a bathysphere, sailing a model container ship around and into a harbour (crashed) and many more. You get the picture.
Pride of place in the main hall is the Estonian submarine EML Lembit (right). This is a Kalev Class submarine built in 1936 by Armstrong Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness, UK. It is one of two built at the time for the Estonian Navy. It's sister ship, the Kalev, was sunk in 1941. The Lembit served through WW2 and was subsequently used by the Soviet Navy in their Baltic Fleet. It was the oldest submarine in the world still afloat (if that's the correct expression for a submarine) until finally taken out of the water in 2011. 
We were free to wander around inside. I know diddly-squat about submarines and found it all quite interesting. Being rather out of the tourist season, and there weren't many visitors in the museum while I was there, I had the ship/boat to myself.
Left: The torpedo tube compartment, at the front end, obviously.
The Captains bunk. He lived in some comfort. All the rest of the crew (there were 7 Officers and 31 sailors on board in Soviet days) slept in bunks hanging all over the place or on top of any flat surface. It must have been quite a squeeze in there. I hope they had a good ventilation system.
Left: The operations control centre. Periscope and ladder up to the conning tower at far end.
Right: The galley.
Left: The engine room, at the back end, obviously.
You may wonder where the loos are. I counted three, in little alcoves, one at front, one next to the Mess room and one at the back. Don't know how they worked. I couldn't see any showers or, indeed, any facilities to have a good wash.
Right: The Officers' Mess. I expect they had white gloved livery attired stewards in attendance, a well stocked cellar and all the Mess Silver on display at Dinner.
I will probably regret showing this. We were encouraged, well the kit was hanging there, to dress up and have our photo taken. This was fully automated and didn't cost anything. Very clever, the camera clicked and it sent a copy directly to my computer mail box.
There were lots of other much sillier uniforms to choose from. Nobody was in attendance so, if this had been in UK, all the costumes would have been nicked in ten minutes flat.
On my way back I decided to drop in at the Telliskivi Creative City. This is advertised as the 'cutting edge' of avant garde alternative shopping, art and creative activities. It is a series of reclaimed and restored factory buildings which were in a previously dodgy industrial area on the other side of the railway from my hotel. Lots of trendy bars and cafés and craft shops flogging a miriad of odd things, plus artists' studios and antique shops. It was getting late when I got there and some of the shops were closing (not the bars). Maybe worth another visit if ever I return.
Right: The walls around the area were festooned with some rather clever 'wall art'.
Left: More wall art. This one was about 30' high.
Interestingly, a lot of the streets in the outlying areas consisted entirely of 'clapboard' style wooden houses as per photo (right). I believe this is a common feature of Baltic towns, and, as I discovered previously, in many Nordic towns and cities as well.
Off south to Latvia tomorrow. I had hoped to go by train. There is a smart 'International' railway station with swish looking trains just next to my hotel but, as I discovered, there is no service operating between Tallinn and Riga during the week. No problem if you want to go to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Baku or any place east, but not down through the Baltics. There must be some political reason for this...I don't know.
Anyway, I am assured there is a good bus service. "Hold very tight please. Ting Ting!". So, as they say (apparently) in Latvian "Turpināsies Rīgā".
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