It was a very easy 8-hour flight from Chicago to Frankfurt on United Airlines even if we were sitting in Economy. I zen into watching movies, always pick pasta from the two selections and try not to think about cramped quarters. Once in Frankfurt, it became slightly more difficult to stay in the “zen” mode. Frankfurt Airport changed their security process again and you must go through one huge area of security before you connect to Terminals A, B, C or D. This took over one hour before heading into a Lufthansa Club (privilege even on a free ticket if you maintain Elite Status with United Airlines). Good thing we had a couple of hours before the once-a-day Lufthansa flight to Tallinn.

It is a very short two-hour flight to Tallinn’s Ulemiste Airport and we were the only passengers in Business Class. Lufthansa never ceases to amaze me. Fly any one of the American carriers on a two-hour flight and you’re lucky if a bag of pretzels is passed out. Lufthansa offered a choice of two hot meals in Business Class and fed all Economy passengers as well. ex-Marine and I sat in Business Class by our lonesome with a flight attendant practically standing over us, eager to do something…anything. What else was there to do for two hours except admire the clear scenery over the Baltic Sea as we approached Tallinn.

lunch on Lufthansa to Tallinn, Estonia 

flying in over Estonia on Lufthansa
It was incredibly simple entering Tallinn. A small, modern airport with no need to show passports because it is part of the European Union. That meant no Estonia stamp in the passports. Darn. Our two suitcases were the first off. Walked out of customs through the “nothing to declare,” and went over to a currency window to ask if there was an ATM in airport and if so, where it was located. The currency booth woman was determined to talk us out of using an ATM. She said our bank will charge a fee. They wouldn’t give a good rate of exchange. A taxi would cost around 200 EEKs, but finally parted with the information there was an ATM perhaps 30 meters away from where we were standing. The ATM made its happy chugging sounds, out spit the EEKs and we were in business. Outside into a taxi.

The Wikipedia travel section had made me unnecessarily nervous over a section about Tallinn taxis that “literally take you for a ride” along with dire warnings. This may have been true at one time but all the taxis in the rank had company logos on them and our taxi pulled down the meter without asking. You can take a taxi to the city center for about 86 EEKs or Bus Line 2.

Our taxi had a very nice and perfect English-speaking driver (practically everyone in Estonia speaks English besides Finnish, Swedish, Russian, German) who proceeded to give us Tallinn information on the 5 km/3.1 mile ride to the Reval Hotel Central and didn’t even want to take a tip.

Tallinn, Estonia map
Tallinn is loaded with Finns who ferry across on weekends since food, shopping and nightlife is considerably less expensive here than in Finland. The inexpensive Reval Hotel was loaded with tourists speaking every different language and an absolutely fabulous location but we had just one objective in mind. Bed! After 24 hours of traveling, we collapsed and left the sights for tomorrow.

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