To Munich Via Berlin

After 3 hours on a plane, 30mins to Berlin HBF on a train, a 5 hours wait at the station and another 9 hours on a train we arrived in Munich!

Flying out of Eesti

We headed to Tallinn airport after checking out the Songfestival Grounds and the presidents palace.
Thats it for Eesti!

Koluvere and Marimetsa

We spent our last day in Estonia by exploring one final little town complete with cemetery & church, and walking through a sticky bog. Dee fell in the bog. Twice. We had really nice weather and walked about 1km through broken and flooded wooden planks to a small inland lake and viewing tower.

Vormsi

We explored our third Eesti island today, Vormsi. This island is manly inhabited by Swedish/Estonians and was the smallest island we explored.

Haapsalu

Today we were taken on a tour of the coast, north of Haapsalu. We stopped by an old restored manor and were given a tour by the local caretaker, we saw the ‘surfing beach’ (wind surfing only….no waves)

Saaremaa

Today we boarded another ferry to the biggest island – Saaremaa. On this island, we found more windmills, deserted beaches and old farms. We spent the night camped in the backyard of an old lady who was a friend of a friend of a long lost relative we found in Estonia. It was free.






The second day we drove to the Sorve peninsula, where we saw a big old lighthouse, and Ivar made it to the southernmost point. Dee was distracted searching for amber in the pebbles and seaweed that she didn’t make it that far!








We had dinner in a windmill, and returned to the tent armed with Saku and a bunch of Eesti Kroons for our newly adjusted poker game. (Four handed poker with two people and double the chance of winning!) It was the last night in our tent for the entire holiday. We have spent about 3 months in the tent, so it was a little emotional. It is covered in bugs and dirt from around 10 countries, but it got us to the end. Even so, we are glad to be finally out of the tent and in proper beds until we get home!! The next morning we left early to catch the ferry to the mainland. We took a detour on the way, searching for an old fortress…we ended up driving through waterlogged muddy bog streets and seeing nothing but old cows.

I heart Hiiumaa

Today we left Haapsalu in the dark windy rain and boarded a ferry to the 2nd largest Estonian island Hiiumaa. We spent the (beautiful sunny) day exploring old cemetery’s with ‘moose flies’ that stick to your clothes like Velcro, deserted beaches, old creaky windmills and amazing spooky forests! It is our favourite Estonian island! It took us all day to circumnavigate the whole island, returning to the mainland the same afternoon.

Day 7 Rakvere to Haapsalu (via Tapa and Tallinn)

Today we left Rakvere to visit Tapa, drive through Tallinn and visit the Estonian Open Air Museum, and return to Haapsalu. We stopped in Tapa to see the two churches for the one small town.




It took us a long time to get to Tallinn, as we stopped to look at some old stone cist graves that had been uncovered when they built the freeway to Tallinn. They still lie right beside the road and we almost drove right by them!! We visited the open air museum, which is where they have picked up lots of traditional farmhouses and farm buildings from all over Estonia and transported them to Tallinn. The weather was cold, and being right on the sea the wind was ferocious! We were a little disappointed with the museum - as we had seen these farmhouses all over the little villages in Estonia, and it seemed lazy that they had picked them up and dropped them in Tallinn so visitors didn't even have to leave the capital to see the 'traditional Estonia'. We left late in the afternoon and arrived in Haapsalu around 7pm.

Day 6 Tartu to Rakvere

This morning we left Tartu to travel along the lake bordering Estonia and Russia. We saw lots of tiny towns, lots of Russian influence! We saw Russia over the water and turned inland. We saw some really old burial holes in the middle of a creepy forest. We stopped to look at another set, but a nasty lady with her nasty dog was paying us a bit too much attention so we took off.






We took a detour before Rakvere to try and see the North Coast. We found a small place called Saka, where they had built a staircase leading down the rainforest-cliff to the beach. Along the beach was the Blue Clay - it is found on the north coast of Estonia, and was very blue in colour but it doesn't come up as well in the photos -



We felt safe when we arrived in Rakvere, closer to the Estonian side of Estonia!

Day 5 Voru to Tartu

Today we visited Suur Munamagi - the highest mountain in Estonia. It is 318m high. We climbed it in about 3 minutes. They had at least two resting spots on the way! We climbed the observation tower, and because Eesti is so flat, we could see almost to Tallinn! (Okay, not that far....but far!) We took a bunch of photos and headed off to Tartu, our next stop.





On the way, we saw the Tamme Lauri - Estonia's oldest and largest Oak Tree. It was very exciting seeing this tree, which we had been chasing around Eesti! We spent about half an hour there trying to get a good leaf off of the tree, trying feet on shoulders, throwing dee into the air, Ivar leaping off of the trunk, etc etc.....eventually we grabbed one that didn't have too many bite marks! We carried onto Tartu...



Tartu is a university town in Tallinn. The uni was founded in 1672. The town was very much a uni town, it had a few great old buildings, including the 'leaning house of tartu', but being the 2nd largest town in Estonia wasn't quite our thing.