The Jones'

Jagala Waterfall

Baltic Sea

#1 attraction outside Tallinn!!! Look at all that water! amazing!!!

We finally made it to the "biggest boulder in Europe"

Part of the wall and tower that surrounds the old city.

Viewing Platform - looking out over Tallinn

We flew to Estonia this morning, arriving about midday - Mike, Louise, Josh and Me. Mike had hired a car so we went driving around the countryside. First we stopped off to see Jagala waterful. Then with all aniticipation we headed to the "#1 attraction outside Tallinn - Vilaste Waterfall". The picture says it all! We then drove out to see what was said to be the biggest boulder in Europe. We wound around unsignposted road by unsignposted road until finally when we were ready to give up we spotted a man and decided to ask for directions. Only problem was he didn't speak much English - in fact none! He drew an unidentifiable map then proceeded to get in the car to show us he way. Upon entereing the car we smell that he has been accompaning his fishing trip with ale! However, we make it to the boulder, one pen poorer as he decided that it was our gift to him for the directions, and one kiss on the cheek richer! After an event filled day in Estonian countryside we returned our car, and checked into our hotel in Tallinn before taking a stroll around the city.

Tallinn is the capital of Estonia and is divided into the 'old town', which was surrounded by a fortified wall, and the'new town' -with more recent buildings and developments. Our hotel was in the new town. 60% of people speak Estonian and 40% speak Russian and most speak a little English. The danish conqured Estonia in 1219. Between the Livonian and Northern wars Estonia was ruled by the swiss. Russia then ruled Estonia for 200 years from 1910 - 1918, when a treaty was signed by Russia giving Estonia it's independance. However, in WWII Russia again invaded Estonia and it was ruled by the Soviet Union untiul after the cold war in 1991. At the end of the 1980's the Estonians had a singing revolution for their independance. On the 13th August 1989 they formed a human chain of 530km long from Tallinn, connecting the 3 Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. However, the ex-soviet forces didn't leave Estonia until 1994.

We went to Paris this weekend and it was great! We went via Eurostar. You don’t even know you are going under the sea, it’s just like a big tunnel. We went on the Friday night after work, so we could start our sightseeing early Saturday morning. Day One We got up early Saturday and saw the French buying their pastries for Breakfast. We went to the café and I ate just eggs - oh and it all comes with bread, but not toast, baguette, all cut up in a basket. The baguette comes not only with breakfast, but every single meal. The other thing I noticed about he food was that if you asked for a black coffee you got an espresso, unless you specified an “Americano”. After breakfast we planned to go up the Eiffel Tower, but it was so foggy that you couldn’t even see it! Another day. Instead we brought a hop-on, hop-off bus ticket that we could use for the next two days to visit all the different parts of Paris. On that first day we say the Arc de triomphe and walked down the Champs-Elysees – a famous shopping street. We walked around the Trocadero centre and watched some street performers. We drove down the Place de la Concorde and along past the Seine river. We went into Notre Dame, around Bastelle. To finish the day we rode the bus around Montparnasse, through the Latin Quarter, past the Pantheon, up the Boulevard des invalides then we went for a walk around the Hotel des Invalides. After an exhausting day of sightseeing we went back to the hotel and got changes for dinner. We had dinner on Boulevard St Germain where we tried, avocado and caviar and salmon eggs – all of it gross!!! But we ordered mains on recommendation of the waiter, as it was all in French and we couldn’t read the menu and ended up with a crock-pot like dish with an entire joint of beef, potatoes, carrots and some other root vegetable. It was absolutely delicious but there was so much of it we could barely finish! Place de la Concorde

Notre Dame

Stain glass window from the inside

Arc de Triomphe

Close up of the top

The inside

Montramere Tower we went up on Day 2

On the bus tour

Behind Trocadero looking through to the Eiffel Tower

Trocadero

Daytime Eiffel Tower pictures

Hotel des Invalides

Hotel des Invalides - Napoleans remains are buried here

Inside Hotel des Invalides - Palace Vauban in the background.

Palace Vauban

First nights dinner - we got so much food!

Underneath the Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower at night

Day 2 We began Sunday with another early morning – at lets say once you were up it was easy to get ready as the shower was always cold!! Infact it didn’t seem to know the meaning of hot water! Not to mention the fact that when we checked into our hotel we couldn’t find the bathroom, then we notice a wardrobe next to the bed and sure enough when we opened the door, there was the bathroom with a toilet, sink, and shower and about 50cm square of standing space in front of the sink! Good thing we weren’t there for the hotel!!! Sunday was a lovely clear day and we went up the Eiffel Tower. We went up first thing in the morning, on recommendation for Louise as we still had to wait 40min in the queue till we got in! However, this was better than yesterday afternoon as security said if we waited in the queue then it would have taken us 1.5hours to get to the tower. It was awesome up the tower, so beautiful. After the tower, we went on more bus touring, around Montmartre, where we saw La Madeline and went in the Opera and were entertained outside by a French brass band. We then drove down past the Moulin Rouge. Soon after this we got off the bus and had a coffee. In the evening we went on a boat ride down the Seine River, it was really great to see everything from the water. We went for dinner at a restaurant on the Champs Elysees and had no starters – for fear of last nights repeat and instead had a lovely meal, I had duck and Josh had apricots and lamb! We then ventured to dessert and I had chocolate, sorbet and ice cream all mixed together in a lovely kind of sundae thing and then a baileys! After dinner we went to the Montparnasse tower, that you can go up and look out 360 degrees at Paris. We went at about 10.30pm and saw all the beautiful lights! I am told Paris is called ‘The City of Lights’ and we could see why from up there. Eiffel Tower visit

Guards around the tower

Views of Paris from the top

Look how far away we are from home!

Josh having a beer on Floor 1 of the Eiffel Tower

Outside the Opera

Details on the outside of the Opera

Inside the Opera - it was really beautiful, the pictures don't capture it well.

Madeline Church

Looking down to the Palace de Concorde

Alexander III bridge - no supports in the middle look!!!

Seine River - the boat in the background was the one we went on.

Lift in the Montramere Tower - fastest in Europe, giving 360 degree views of paris

Eiffel Tower by night

The Louvre by night

Arc de Triomphe by night

Day Three

We had an hours sleep-in on Monday morning as by this stage we were both bordering on exhaustion – waking up at 8.30 as opposed 7.30am. We had breakfast then walked down past a couple of palaces and through the gardens to the Musee du Louvre. Where we had some breakfast, saw the Mona Lisa and went on a guided tour, where we saw 'The Winged Victory of Samothrace', Painting of the wedding at cana and the painting of the cornation of napolean and the crowning of Josephine. Both these paintings are so big, that when they were brought to the Museum they were cut in half to be transported, when you look close enough you can see the line. We also saw the statues of the 'Dying Slaves', 'Hermaphoraditos Sleeping', 'Venus De Milo' and a hole lot more. We brought ourselves a book on all the famous paintings and sculptures to read and educate ourselves prior to the tour! After the tour it was about 5pm and we headed back to the Champs Elysees where we found somewhere for an early dinner and has Escargot as an appetizer, followed by a seafood platter for Josh that had more snails, shrimps (with shells on), king prawns, mussels and a lot of Oysters! I decided to have chicken and rice. We finished the meal with Crème Brule! It’s no doubt by the time we headed home on the Eurostar at 8.30pm that I felt positively ill!!! Even today I am still feeling slightly crook! Too much food! Too much rich food! The holiday was fantastic, we saw so much, it feels as if we need another weekend away just to recover! Josh and Winston Churchill comparing stomachs outside the palace