iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 16/07/2026

Next set of Travel Tiles ticked off are a couple of coastline cases at Ninamaa. These each required going a little bit off-road, but not by very much. A route from here to that one remaining unvisited cell further south looked a bit nasty though, so I'll have to get that from the west another time.

Travel tiles map from Tabasalu up to Suurupi, and down to Vaana-Jõesuu. The two tiles in the very north west corner, at Ninamaa, were previously marked as my having never cycled there, but are now highlighted as newly visited.

Coastline out at Ninamaa, beyond Suurupi.

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 11/07/2026

Woot! Eight new travel tiles unlocked on this ride via Sõrve and Tutermaa. Slightly annoyed that I didn't think to take a 100m detour to fill that remaining gap at the top, but I'll have to go back and take the route via Vahi and Kiia at some point, so must remember to do so then.

Travel tiles map showing eight tiles around Vaila, Vääna, Humala, and Kütke highlighted in green to show that I've now cycled that route.

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 10/07/2026

Yep, that's one of my favourites too (though I wish it was easier to get across to Tiskre: crossing at www.google.co.uk/maps/place/5... goes to a residents' gate that's sometimes locked.) Current coverage map is:

Travel tiles of Tallinn and its surroundings showing where I've cycled to/through over the last year or so, after the updates here of the last week. The gaps to be filled that are within a 20km radius are getting fewer and fewer.

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 10/07/2026

The point where I came out of the forest onto the streets has a great example of the evolution of outdoor gym equipment in Tallinn: until a few years ago these were mostly bodyweight machines, like in the first picture, but then someone cracked the puzzle of how to do adjustable weights securely.

Public exercise equipment on the edge of the forest. Picture one is slightly older equipment: a single unit with four bodyweight stations attached: two seated, for chess press and pull down row; one that I think you stand on and twist from side to side, and one at the back that isn't very visible, but looks like some sort of stepper.

More exercise equipment on the edge of the forest, but this time four individual, more modern machines with adjustable weights. The weights are securely attached in a clever way that means they can be added/removed to the exercises, but someone can't just decide to take them off and take them home.

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 10/07/2026

With Kopli/Paljassaare ticked off, I'm quickly running out of unvisited tiles that are under 20km away *and* actually reachable. The next of those to be ticked off is Ilmarise mets. I've cycled through here countless times, but seemingly never with the cycle map app tracking it before.

Travel tiles map showing one tile as yet unvisited: the area I know as Ilmarise mets/terviserada, though the map only shows Pääskula mägi.

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 08/07/2026

Bus stop of the day is Pikakari, which doesn't even qualify for a bench, never mind a shelter. The trees nearby, however… they do get benches. In fairness they *are* nice trees.

Pikakari bus stop - the last stop on the Paljassaare line. There's nothing particularly interesting about the stop itself: just a pole with a stop name and timetable - not even a bench. But it's beside a series of nice trees (I'm no expert, but they look more like White Willow than the Crack Willow that google claims they are), several of which _do_ get benches.

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 08/07/2026

There are lots of abandoned ruins and concrete pillars: some I assume are remnants of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_t... but others are probably Soviet-era military. I tried to get to more of the ones at the very top, but the wind was far too strong so I had to turn back shortly after the water tank.

Photo of instagrammable blue heart at Paljassaare, along with a somewhat confusing sign that seems to be saying that you're not allowed to fall off the edge into the water (it's round, not triangular, so it's a prohibition, not a warning, but the person seems to be falling rather than deliberately diving/jumping, so there's definitely some mixed messaging going on). In the distance you can see the spires and high-rise buildings of Tallinn.

Path up the west coast of Paljassaare which initially appears to be tree-lined, but on closer inspection actually has lots of thin concrete pillars. This area has lots of remnants of the Peter the Great defensive line, but I suspect these are more likely to be Soviet military.

Abandoned building on Paljassaare. Nothing I've found gives any info on what this was, so my wild guess is that it was part of the railway: https://db.esap.ee/object/p-2440

Giant wastewater tower on Paljassaare, heavily graffitied, including a large dinosaur.

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 08/07/2026

After the tip of Kopli, the next most obvious missing tiles to fill were Paljassaare. I've been up the east side before, but never the west, so this was a good excuse to go explore that. 🧵

Cycle Map Travel Tiles, with two hexagons as unfilled: the Paljassaare peninsula north west of Tallinn, Estonia.

Map of the Paljassaare peninsula showing large areas that are inaccessible, as much of the area is a nature reserve.

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 07/07/2026

This is also right beside the Maritime Academy which has a publicly accessible branch of Taltech Library (taltech.ee/en/estonian-...), so also counts for my "How good is bike parking at Estonian libaries?" series. In this case it's about as good as it gets: 40 well spaced staples.

Photo of the Estonian Maritime Academy building in Kopli Tallinn, taken from an angle that particularly highlights that there's lots of bike parking racks outside (By my count there are 50, though not quite all of them are in shot).

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 07/07/2026

After Sunday night's adventures, last night had a much simpler goal: fill the tile at the very top of Kopli. Most of it is the BLRT factory/shipyard, which AFAIK has no public access, but that's fine because the top corner of Süsta park is easily accessible, and does the trick nicely.

Travel tiles zoomed right in at the the tip of the Kopli peninsula in Tallinn, which is still unfilled (unvisited). Most of this is the BLRT GRUPP factory and shipyard, which has no public access (AFAIK. If it does, please let me know, so I can go explore!), but there's a little park with the very western tip crossing into the unvisited tile. Easy pickings!

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 05/07/2026

And for anyone who made it this far, today's bus stop is the intriguingly named 'Maksima' stop. This is presumably named for the Maxima supermarket it's almost outside, but as Estonian technically doesn't have an 'x' in its alphabet, that needs to be transformed to 'ks'.

'Maksima' bus stop. There's a red covered shelter, with a dragonfly etched onto the glass.

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 05/07/2026

Unfortunately that path exists more on the map than in reality. The solid-line path was plausible, but the dotted one ended up just disappearing entirely into weeds and bushes. I was at least able to cut the return short via a little plank bridge (also on the map, but invisible from the far side!)

Supposedly a path, but really just weeds and bushes. On a drier day I might have pushed ahead, but it had been raining heavily all afternoon, and this screamed of being a Really Bad Idea™ to try going any further.

A little plank-bridge helpfully crosses the river here, avoiding the need to go the whole way back around, if you're brave enough. The far side of the bridge just disappears into thigh-high greenery…

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 05/07/2026

The final tile was a nightmare. There's clearly a road through it but that's the main Tallinn-Rapla highway, which is a single lane in each direction, a 90km/h speed limit, and gets lots of trucks: not somewhere I want to cycle. But there's also a semi-plausible looking path down from Saustinõmme…

Final missing tile. The only obvious road is the Tallinn-Rapla-Turi highway, but there's a path coming down from just east of Saustinõmme.

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 05/07/2026

The next tile was a bit trickier. There's a single unpaved road that gets close to it, and then a wooded path that just about enters the hexagon. This was marked Private/Eratee, but my understanding is that permission to use is implied unless something clearly says you can't. (I hope that's true!)

Missing travel tile #2. No roads enter it, but one gets close, and then there's a dotted line indicating some sort of a path which crosses into the hexagon, goes a hundred meters or so, turns 90º and goes another little bit before stopping.

The dotted line path from the map turns out to be a grassy track through the woods.

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 05/07/2026

The map suggested there might be a path north from the end of the road up to Sausti tee without having to go the whole way back. There sort-of was, but the end required a bit of a detour around what seemed to be some demolished housing or the like, and then a gate I had to lift my bike over.

The road ends, and splits into two paths across the fields. A sign helpfully informs that the 30km/h zone terminates here, and you could presumably now go much faster if only there was a road to do so on.

Fields and trees, surrounding an area that looks like there was once a house or a garage or a building of some sort. There were a few other similar spots like this near-by, but I've no idea what used to be here. Given the rapid development over the last few years in the whole surrounding area, I'm guessing this will be a whole new housing development in the not-too-distant future.

The end of the path, with the main road in front: but a metal bar at about knee-height prevents access. Presumably this is meant to stop people getting to the side I'm on, rather than wanting to prevent me getting to the road. Thankfully it wasn't too difficult to just lift my bike over.

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 05/07/2026

The first hexagon was fairly easy: there's clearly some streets in the top right. I'm not sure how many of those were there even a few months ago, though: the one I took is still very much in-progress! Every time I visit Kiili there seem to be entire villages nearby that weren't there before.

Close up of the first Travel Tile to fill. Most of it is inaccessible, but there are a few streets up in the top right corner that look promising.

One of the promising streets from the map turns out to only barely exist: it looks like it was only paved incredibly recently.

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 05/07/2026

There's good cycling infrastructure pretty much the whole way to Kiili, and since they rebuilt the Kangru junction, you don't even need to remember where to turn: this is now the primary route. I swung by the library to get a photo of their bike parking (Bad bad bad, though I've seen even worse).

Kiili Library, with metal steps and a metal ramp for access. There are a bunch of bike parking spaces, but they're clearly designed by someone who hates cyclists: close together wheel-benders of alternating height. They look quite new, which in some ways makes it even worse, as it's very well known by now how terrible this style of bike rack is.

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 05/07/2026

Today's Travel Tiles goal: can I check off those three gaps to the west of Kiili? Unlike the similar gap from Saue to Saku the other day, this one has the drawback of there not actually being any roads going across here. In fact there are very few roads to be found here at all. Adventure ensues… 🧵

Travel Tiles showing hexagons of areas visited vs unvisited by bike. There is a gap of three tiles in the middle between Kiili in the east, and the Tallinn-Viljandi highway in the west. There is no obvious route between the tiles, and indeed how to even access them at all is not immediately clear.

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 04/07/2026

Not much in the way of street art out in these parts, but I had to take a bit of a detour on the way back (as my normal route had been commandeered by triathletes: huvi.tallinn.ee/sundmus/must...), so stumbled across a new-to-me Darius Cloud zoo mural right at the crazy Rocca al Mare junction.

Mural by Darius Cloud near the zoo, featuring dozens of zoo animals. I haven't seen it before today, but it's been a while since I passed by this bit, so I'm not sure when it was actually painted.

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 04/07/2026

Today's fun bus stop, Kõue (in Rannamõisa, not Kõue) gives heavy vibes of being the sort of stop that only gets one bus three days a week, and there's only a single person who ever gets on and off here.

Kõue bus stop with one lonely cottage in the background, and otherwise just empty fields. There's a short wooden bench that someone clearly decided wasn't comfortable enough, so they've augmented it with a swivelly office chair. Probably useful if you miss a bus, as this is the sort of location where it feels like the next bus is probably going to be a few hours (if not days)

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 04/07/2026

Tilgu harbour seemed like it would have been a pleasant place to stop for a while longer if I had had the time. Though the 2026 Regatta (tmyc.ee/purjetamine/...) was also apparently happening there today, so it was presumably about to get a *lot* busier .

Cliff coffee-shop in what seems to be a bunch of nicely decorated shipping containers, at Tilgu harbour

Tilgu habour with a relatively small number of boats. The annual regatta started a few hours after this photo was taken, so things presumably would have looked quite different then.

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 04/07/2026

I've been up this side of the cliff once before, back in 2012 when online maps made it much a lot less obvious that this road was a sudden dead-end at what was then the Police Training College, so had to just turn back then too. (Unfortunately 2012-era phone-cameras were just as as terrible as maps)

Appallingly bad 2012-era blurry cellphone photo of the road ending at what was then the Police Training College, with a barrier and watchtower, and then, somewhat incongruously, a helicopter just lounging on the grass soaking up the sun. They've moved location since there, so unfortunately the 2026 photo is higher quality, but poorer content.

Much clearer 2026-era photo of the road ending at what is no longer the Police Training College, with the barrier and watchtower torn down, and a much smaller number of helicopters since 2012.

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 04/07/2026

Yesterday was rained out, but today I filled travel tiles #281 and #282 by taking a ride up to the new viewing platform at Muraste/Meriküla. I had hoped to enter at the bottom and exit at the top, but the elevator doesn't seem to be working yet, so I just had to go back the way I came. 🧵

Travel Tiles map of the area to the west of Tallinn, showing (in a very rough form) the route of today's bike ride by lighting up each hexagon travelled through. This includes two newly filled tiles (with thicker borders) up in the top left corner at Muraste. One of them is 99% sea, but a tiny sliver of road cuts across the bottom left so by the Rule of the Tile™ I get to claim it ALL!

22 metre tall viewing tower connecting Meriküla and Muraste. The tower has 7 lesser viewing platforms at each level on the way up from the bottom in Meriküla, and a much bigger one jutting out at the top level, where you can also exit and be in Muraste, saving yourself the 8km round trip by road.

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 02/07/2026

I should probably have taken the tiny detour in Saue to get a photo of how bad the bike parking is at their library, but I was in a rush, so didn't think to. It would have made a good contrast with Saku library, which has probably the best bike parking of any Estonian library I've been to.

Bike parking racks outside Saku library. Unlike the vast majority of Estonian libraries (of which no doubt there will be many future pictures), this one not only has good Sheffield-style inverted-U racks, it has *LOTS* of them. By my count somewhere close to 50.

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 02/07/2026

The *actual* road I needed to take was a lot less minor than I was expecting, or would normally like. Thankfully most of the heavy traffic is over with the trucks on the even scarier road. And it's not particularly far up to the tunnels that go under to Saue. But still not for the faint of heart.

"Side road" that lets traffic (or cyclists like me) avoid the wide/fast/scary Tallinn-Pärnu highway. Except this is still a wider/faster/scarier road than many cyclists would usually like. There's a 70km/h sign, which is usually a sign that tells me "you don't to be cycling here. Find the side-road instead." Best I can tell this side-road doesn't have its own lesser side-road (upon its back to bite it)

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 02/07/2026

When I got close to the main Tallinn-Pärnu highway I knew there was a smaller road I could take north back up towards Saue instead. I misjudged the turn at first, taking a road that doesn't even exist on OpenStreetMap yet, presumably because after a few hundred metres it just comes to an abrupt end.

A narrow road with a footpath on one side, and grass all around. And suddenly neither the road nor the footpath is no more. Instead everything just ends unexpectedly at a field with nowhere else to go. There's a lamp-post at the edge the footpath that hopefully comes on at night even though there's nothing else here. Indeed, *because* there's nothing else here and the road disappearing is surprising enough in daylight. I wouldn't want to encounter that in the dark.

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 02/07/2026

Unfortunately this all runs out at Üksnurme, and the route from there to Rahula is just standard country-road. It was very quiet though. I think only three cars passed me the whole way along it. It passes a *lot* of horse farms and stables and places to do horse-type things I know very little about.

No more cycle / light-travel path. Now we just have a standard country road stretching off into the distance with fields on both sides.

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 02/07/2026

For quite a while the light-travel path is separated from the road by a ditch. There's presumably no need to get across it for most the way, but at one point there's a bus stop, which necessitates a delightful little wooden bridge for access.

A light-travel path is separated from a carpath by a long ditch. But oh no, there's a bus stop! How do waiting passengers get across the ditch to the bus? Via this lovely little wooden bridge that can't be much more than a couple of metres long, that's how!

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 02/07/2026

The route from Saku to Üksnurme (from the Selver) is very nice. I've gone a few hundred metres down that street before, but otherwise the rest of the route is entirely new to me. There's a well separated walking/cycling path the whole way.

Walking/cycling path through trees and greenery, well separated from the carpath.

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 02/07/2026

I also decided to cut through the back of the new Saku Gümnaasium for the first time, and discovered that one of the outdoor play areas there has what appears to be a punch-bag, which is a feature I haven't noticed in any others before.

Playground behind Saku Gümnaasium with what looks very like a large punchbag. (It's unclear whether this playgrund is a public one or is school property, or whether that's even a distinction that matters. Perhaps it's part of the school but open to the public?)

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 02/07/2026

The new building right on the corner facing the Rimi when you reach the brewery seems to finally be finished (last time I passed by the ground-floor shops were open, but the upper floors didn't seem done yet), but I was much more impressed by the fancy new design on the bus shelter.

Bus shelter in Saku which has been fancily decorated with stylised pictures of rabbits. Or maybe hares. I can barely tell the difference at the best of times, never mind in artistic impressions like this.

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 02/07/2026

Today's bike ride let me fill in travel tiles 279 & 280 by taking a different route between Saku and Saue. Rather than the standard cyclepath that mostly follows the ringroad, this time I took the entirely-new-to-me road across via Üksnurme and Rahula (and got to see a _lot_ of horses on the way). 🧵

cycle.info travel tiles map with two previously empty hexagons now highlighted as visited on the road between Saku and Saue

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 01/07/2026

I remember the first of these being painted, and in my mind there's no way it was as long ago as 2022. The others are completely new to me, and the last one seems unfinished and isn't on the Ülemiste City web site yet, so I'm not sure what the story with it is.

"Silent Observers" mural (Kristi Kindel, 2026)

"Silent Observers" mural (Kristi Kindel, 2026) [other side]

Large wall mural Tallinn, with an ghostly figure, probably not yet finished, sitting cross-legged working on their laptop by a forested lake

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 01/07/2026

And obligatory Ülemiste City street art photos for @jukes.ie

“The Ülemiste Girl” mural (Von Bomb, 2015): https://www.ulemistecity.ee/en/art-work/the-ulemiste-girl/

"HK Unicorn Squad" mural (Britt Samson, 2021): https://www.ulemistecity.ee/en/art-work/hk-unicorn-squad-illustratsion/

“Boy with an Airplane” mural (Gerly Piho, 2025)

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 01/07/2026

I also got to tick off another library (or technically two, as the Repository Library also houses the Library for the Blind). I've been a couple of times before (including a guided tour during the Open House days last year www.openhousetallinn.ee/en/location/...), but this is my first time by bike.

The building of the Estonian Repository Library (plus the Library for the Blind)

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 01/07/2026

The very end of the airport also has an interesting old plane that's decorated as if it is/was used as a children's playground or something at some point. No idea what the story is with this; anyone know?

Aeroplane decorated as if it's a children's playground

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 01/07/2026

It's *very* obvious where the municipal boundary between Rae and Tallinn is! I've no idea if Tallinn plan to ever improve their side of this, especially as the path ends a couple of hundred metres beyond this, but it's such a stark symbol of why cycling outside Tallinn is usually much nicer.

Cycle path from Lagedi into Tallinn, crossing a municipal boundary. The Rae vald side is pleasantly paved; the Tallinn side a stony track.

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 01/07/2026

A quick lunchtime spin and tile #278 is filled. I'd been putting this one off because large chunks of Suur-Sõjamäe are aggressively unfriendly for cycling _and_ most of the traffic is trucks, but once you reach the city limit, there's a rather cycle path now almost the whole way to Lagedi. 🧵

Map of Tallinn with hexagons for areas visited. One new area highlighted out past the airport on Suur-Sõjamäe

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 01/07/2026

I have a rough plan for most of the remaining gaps in and around Tallinn, but this one is trickier, as it's a military training ground: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A4... I'm hoping there's some public access somewhere, but it's not the most accessible, so tricky to investigate. Anyone any ideas?

Map of the area between Luige and Männiku, with most tiles filled in as visited, but one gap: the unvisited area of Männiku raba

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 01/07/2026

For the last year I've tried to track everywhere I've cycled using @cycle.travel Travel Tiles, and I'm quite pleased with the process. It's a lot of fun working out to fill in lots of the gaps, but with most of the low-hanging fruit taken, I guess I'm going to have to start going further afield…

Map of everywhere in the vicinity of Tallinn I've cycled in the last 12 months.

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Tony Bowden @tmtm.com · 24/08/2025

The Town Hall Square used to be full of cars too: e.g. www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=...

Tallinn Raekoja Plats full of parked cars in the 1970s

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