September in Provence

 September is a great month to visit Provence. The summer crowds have gone, the weather is still hot... but not too hot! Reservations at popular restaurants are easier to achieve.

If you are staying near Aix a visit to the Vasarely Foundation is interesting......

some are immense!

Of course it is great to wander around Aix itself.....

Villages like Cucuron have great small restaurants...... where you can have light tapa style meals.

The Chateau La Coste is great to visit for lunch.......

This can be followed by a walk in the hills behind to admire (or not!) the art installations........

Another interesting place to visit is Arles.... with its Gehry tower in the LUMA complex......

And no...I was not tempted to try the slide!

Arles does have some different, more historic sites!

and a great hotel for lunch...L'Arlatan.......

with it's interiors decorated by Christian Lacroix....

A visit to the Baltics!

 I decided to do a 3 country trip.......fly to Helsinki, Finland, take a ferry to Tallinn, Estonia and a Flixbus to Riga, Latvia. It was actually quite easy to arrange!

First stop... Helsinki.

 There is a very fast train costing only 4 euros which takes one directly from the airport to downtown Helsinki, an easy walk to all central hotels.

I chose the Hotel Haven as I would be taking the ferry across to Estonia. It was in a great location! 

Dinner was just up the block at an old charming restaurant.....Kappeli.....

Superb breakfast view the next morning.....

.... a short walk to the Cathedral.....

The climb to the Cathedral was quite steep.... 

A great waterside restaurant, Shelter......

Great location, great food....... almost opposite the presidential palace!

On to the ferry to Tallinn........

A rather large Viking boat! However no problem getting to Tallinn......old and new together.....

View from my hotel room showed the modern side.....

and the rooftop bar showed the old!

Food there was also great!

Exploring the city next day was wet! Lots and lots of heavy rain!

Then on to the Dome church, the oldest in the city...

It had an impressive organ.....

Lots of these road blocks around the city!

This is one of the oldest Guildhalls in Europe!

The Town hall is also quite old!

Lots of evidence of anti Russia sentiments....

 I don't think they like Putin nor want to return to being a Soviet nation!

Then on to Riga, Latvia by Flixbus! I don't often decide to take a bus between countries but this trip had the bus station close to my hotel in Tallinn and also close to the one I would be checking into in Riga, as opposed to taking a taxi to the airport and checking in 2 hours earlier than the flight. Added to that it cost around 24 euros as opposed to 200 euros. Decision was easy!

Riga Old Town was charming.....

 

The Cathedral was also very old and worth a visit....

The Three brothers.....the oldest homes in Riga.

The old town was great but I was unprepared for the amazing Art Nouveau area....apparently the biggest cache left in Europe!

 

This whole area was amazing..... noticed the Irish Embassy thought so too!

The hotel where I chose to stay in Riga, the Grand Palace Hotel, was an excellent choice... in the Old Town so it was close to everything.

My room was great....

... as were my breakfast companions!