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Eastern Europe: Lithuania

September 30, 2018Louise George

Coming from Latvia, (you can read my Latvia blog here) right on the border is a small Bar. We are excited to see it, as we are both out of water. We stop for a soft-drink and a reprieve from battling the wind. Back on the bikes, the road appears to have narrowed a little, but we are now hemmed in by tall forests either side, and the wind doesn’t seem so bad for the remaining distance we have to Palanga.

At Palanga we stock up on groceries, and cook in the shared kitchen at our accommodation. Rain falls throughout the night.

It´s still raining when we wake, but at least it’s dry when we leave our room. We both agree there is nothing worse than starting in rain. If it comes later you just ‘get on with it’. Palanga is a thriving summer holiday destination for Lithuanians, but it’s now cool autumn, and very noticeable that the holiday season is over with the number of deserted restaurants along the pedestrian precinct, that leads up and over a sand hill to the beach where it’s howling wind.

From Palanga we have only 30 kilometres to get us to Klaipeda and it’s a pretty ride, mostly sheltered, through forests on a bike trail. We stop to look at a small lake set up for bird watching and later at a blustery view-point looking out to Dutchmen Cap, where the wind is so strong it’s hard to stand up. Rain hits us at this point and stays with us to Klaipeda where we stay for two nights.

We’ve come to Klaipeda so that we can ride on the Curonian Spit, a 98 kilometre sand dune that separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. The lagoon is a resting place for many migrating birds and the sand dune is a protected area. We catch the bus down to Nida, only four kilometres from the border of the Russian land of Kaliningrad. Nida is hit with a hail storm not long after we get off the bus.

Fortunately we are indoors having lunch at the time but the afternoon is cold and we keep our raincoats on for extra warmth. The spit has dedicated cycle trails, mostly through wooded areas. We take our time and include a walk out to the moving dunes, and later to the dead dunes. Time gets away on us and we realise we’ve still got about 28km of Trail to ride and the signpost beside us, shows that for vehicles it is about 8km shorter. We take the road option, only to find later that there are signs that bikes are not allowed on the road and there is no shoulder. There’s not much traffic so we chose to ignore the signs and race to the ferry. We arrive back at Klaipeda in darkness.

A few days ago we had spoken with a local cyclist who told us that most cycle tourers in the Baltic State ride from Germany on the EuroVelo Route and in the opposite direction to us. This would give them the advantage of tail winds. but we had chosen the most interesting route south by coming south-west. He said that there was nothing much between Klaipeda and Kaunas. We had the option of taking a train, but a transfer was involved, or a bus. We found that the bus had bike racks and was the quickest option so we loaded up and sat back and enjoyed a bus ride from Klaipeda to Kaunas.

Kaunas is a town that had a large river and a couple of hills and we were staying for two nights in the suburbs at the top of one of them. We had one day exploring on foot. The bike lane through the walking precinct was very impressive! The weather had turned cold and while our raincoats protected us from a couple of heavy rain showers, we were not warm. We walked for many kilometres that day and late afternoon went to a movie, (English with Lithuanian sub-titles) to sit somewhere warm and dry.

We are back on the bikes Kaunas, heading towards Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. The morning was heavily overcast, but dry. We have booked accommodation about 50km away so with not too far to ride, this should be easy. As soon as we left the outer suburbs of Kaunas we were riding firm packed sandy forest roads. It was nice to be away from traffic and to just focus on dodging the occasional pot-hole. The scenery was typical of what we had seen throughout Lithuania. Occasionally we came across people foraging for forest mushrooms, and we had seen many different varieties available at the markets and on menus. Occasionally we came across ´Cross-Craft´; that is a centuries old artistic tradition, expressing the Christian faith, through remembering the dead, expressing gratitude, or repentance; and styles were unique to different areas. We continued to pass by thousands of homes of the same style pictured here, in both towns and in the country-side; some were made of wood but many were made of whitish-grey brick. Towns we passed through were only a cluster of farm houses with no services, so it was just as well I’d dropped into a supermarket for a couple of ‘marmalades’ (jam doughnuts) before leaving the Kaunas behind. These doughnuts were eaten roadside, washed down with water rather than the hot coffee we would have preferred. Lunch was pre-packaged sandwiches and vendor-machine coffee that was eaten at the kerb, outside the petrol station we purchased them from.

For the final 12 km of the day’s ride we went through the Regionalpark Kaunasser Meer, on tarmac to Ziezmariai. Often with a tail wind we moved along quickly. It was threatening rain on our approach to Ziezmariai and we were keen to get to our accommodation without a drenching. Alas it was not meant to be. Google had taken us to a street of the name Parko g. in Kaisiadorys but this was rows of apartment blocks and nothing like the picture of our accommodation, nor was there a lake that the building was supposed to face! We dropped into a shopping centre to escape the rain and get our bearings, only to find we should be at Parko g. in Stasiunai, 6 km away. We knew we wouldn’t have kitchen facilities but had decided to get supplies that we could cook outside, on our stove; with the hope that there’d be enough gas for one lastcook up! Finally we made it to Dalyios Sodyba, wet and cold. A man turned up and showed us to our room then kindly opened a nearby lodge for us to use the commercial kitchen facilities.

Our last day cycling in Europe! The day dawned dry, at least only the ground was wet from a recent shower. Knowing we only had about 60 kilometres to ride, followed by a number of days off the bikes was a positive. Another boost occurred as we rode through the countryside. A young man out walking, called “marvellous” and “beautiful” accompanied by applause, and that brought a grin to our faces. Today the entire ride was a pleasure; there was farmland, forest and marshlands with many lakes that are sanctuaries for migratory birds, but none present at the moment. There were many hills that added exertion, as well as interest. What goes up, must come down and instead of free-wheeling we wound the gears up to the top of 18 and tried to see what we could get for maximum speed. Nev got 52kph and I got just under 51kph. Goes to show how much we trust these loaded idworx bikes; good speeds and not even a shimmer!

We stopped at Trakai that has a 14th Century castle fortress on an island in Lake Galve. We found the day’s temperature very cold and having already been inside of, and climbed many castle towers over our travels, decided it was more important to warm up by having a solid lunch of hot soup and Lithuanian potato dumplings; potato similar to a mash texture, filled with something similar to a meat patty, deep fried and covered in a sauce such as mushroom.

Warmed from within we had a brisk walk around the castle and then rode the lake shore track to the railway station. To avoid entering a city on busy roads, we caught the train, the final 30 kilometres, to Vilnius, capital of Lithuania.

Vilnius would be our final European city. Our Schengen Visa is about to expire and we fly out in two days. We struck the jackpot with the apartment we booked. It was reasonably central and was the first one we’ve had with a separate bedroom. The little kitchen had everything we needed. We soon cluttered the lounge with cardboard bike boxes and drying laundry.

Vilnius has some hills, great for view-points, and every time we raised our eyes there was a new spire in sight. Vilnius is a city of churches and the different denominations, and different time periods have all produced beautiful architecture. The impressive St Anne’s Church remains much the same as when it was built 500 years ago. There is a beautiful Old Town to explore. A quaint area that was the Jewish Ghetto. Until World War 2, Vilnius had a Jewish population of 100,000 making up 45% of the population. There were over 110 Synagogues; now there is one remaining. Most of the communities were decimated and 90% of the Jewish population exterminated. There is a KGB museum here and other historic buildings that have been witness to years, recent, and in the ancient past, of turmoil and war. There is also a quirky ‘Republic Uzupio’ an artistic community by the river, as well as cosmopolitan suburbs and malls as you would expect in any modern city. We found Vilnius to be a delightful city in which to finish our Eastern Europe cycling tour.

Next stop Morocco (you can read our Morocco blog here).

categories Travel on bikes
tags Cycling Baltic States, Cycling Eastern Europe, Recycled Adventures, Bucket List Travel, Baltic States Cycle Tour

Eastern Europe: Latvia

September 22, 2018Louise George

We crossed from Estonia (you can read our Estonia blog here) into Latvia. Of course, the road and scenery hadn’t changed; flat, forest, occasionally farmland, with no view of the ocean, and I was beginning to think that our ride in Latvia was going to be uneventful. I started to question why we were here. We wanted to experience the Baltic States, as these countries were closed to travellers in the mid 70’s when we travelled extensively in Europe, by VW Combi van. We hadn’t found much information about riding here, and the relative unknown had an appeal, but the ride was starting to feel monotonous, and unspectacular. There were two points of interest, published in tourist brochures so we headed inland to see Cesis and Sigula.

At Salacgriva, a bill-board map showed we could follow cycle route 7, then later switch to 111, to get to Cesis. The route went through Limbazi and there was a lake that had a trail along the shoreline. We felt certain we’d find a suitable camp spot there, but scrubby bush grew almost to the spongy lake edge so we continued into the countryside. Near the start of the minor road we would take the next day, we found a secluded area beside a small lake near an abandoned cottage.

The night was our coldest yet, it was only 6 degrees when we broke camp. On the minor road the surface was sandy-gravel and it sucked our energy but warmed us up quickly. We rode about twenty kilometres on forest roads, although still gravel, fortunately the surface firmed up. It was good to get back onto tarmac near Stalbes and buy some more water that was ‘normal’. Last night’s supply, purchased as a back up, had been mineral water. Not so good for making coffee. We rode through Gaujas National Park, a heavily wooded area, popular for hiking, and with small lakes for boating.

Cesis, a small town of cobbled streets and wooden houses that seemed to have mostly been converted to coffee shops, is known for its medieval castle built in the 13th Century, and rebuilt many times since. There is also a ‘new castle’ that was a palace. We visited both, walked all of the streets and around the castle lake and had an early dinner at a restaurant serving Latvian traditional food, before making our way to the station and catching a train to Sigulda, saving ourselves a 40km cold, wet, ride. We had read that Latvian trains are awkward to get bikes onto and that was certainly the case. We had unloaded the bags but had to hoist them up a number of steep steps to get them onto the carriage. Fortunately we got offers of help to get them onto, and later off, the train. We had trouble finding our accommodation. It was near town and the location easy enough to find, but we’d booked an apartment and found ourselves standing outside a concrete apartment block, that with an exterior of peeling paint, looked rather dismal. Eventually a young man stopped and asked if he could help. He rang the phone number on the booking. We were at the right place. A man came to let us in to a very nice apartment on the third floor. I guess here people who rent apartments in huge blocks have no control over the condition of the exterior. With no secure parking, Nev, as usual, had to lug each bike up the stairs.

A tourist brochure had a couple of cycle routes to explore. “Sigulda ‘Thrills’ Bike Ride” guided us to Walking Stick Park, that acknowledges the 200 year old history of walking stick making, that began to assist people walking in the woods. On the outskirts of town we had extensive views of forest of the National Park that surrounds the town. Sigulda is proud of the two adventure parks and a Bobsled and Luge track, used for training by locals who have won medals at Olympics. There is also a Serpentine Road, the only one in the Baltics, and a castle, but our hearts were no longer in sightseeing mode, so we headed back to the station and caught a midday train to Riga.

Riga is the capital of Latvia, and we enjoyed one and a half days exploring, on foot and by bike. Riga is a pretty city with a canal and parklands running through the centre. There is also the very wide Daugava River that has a port. The Old town, had many interesting buildings and many streets on the more modern area of the city had buildings of ‘art nouveau’ style; painted in pretty pastels with white decorations as elaborate as wedding cakes.

To depart from Riga, we took a train to Slokas Station, Jurmala, 24 kilometres away. This gave us an easy exit from the city and allowed us to start our ride from the coast. We had deliberately chosen a, not so direct, route to Liepaja, because there were a couple of attractions on the way. While our ride began by following the Riga Gulf coast, we couldn’t actually see it. Later, at the place where we detoured to go to look at the ocean, it happened to be a war memorial, remembrance to the Finnish Jaegers who fought along this coast in World War 1. Indentations of the trenches were still visible. We continued our ride rather sombrely as we passed a number of cemeteries in the area, and reflected again on our good fortune to be born in a ‘lucky” country. Even though we’d started our day by train, and the ride had been only 60 kilometres, with only occasional waves of hills that added interest to the landscape, it had seemed like a long day. We pitched our tent amongst some trees and settled for the night.

The following days became a blur of a view that hardly ever changed. A long stretch of road, that eventually led into a corner, farmland either side and in the distance some forest. Apart from breaks at a couple of towns, this view continued for 300km, getting ever more drawn out as we battled into headwinds, all the way to Klaipeda in Lithuania. Over the next few days we covered around 80km each day, taking turns in the lead for 2 km at a time. We were mostly riding main roads, watching the white line, pulling into the lay-by every second bus stop, and changing lead position. At least traffic was light, and continued to overtake us courteously.

We’ve come this way to see Latvia’s highest waterfall, Ventas Rumba but we won’t get there until later in the day. We’re attracted by a bill-board that boasts to be Latvia’s second highest waterfall so pay the €1.50 each to take a look. We ride to a pretty river that has not much more than a small rapid on a bend. It’s a tranquil spot with a camping or picnic area beside it. I note the sentence on the bill-board as we leave to the effect that; ¨people from overseas may not be impressed by the size of the waterfall, but people form opinions based on their world view and other experiences¨. I am reminded again of my privileged lifestyle. We’ve been given opportunities and made some good choices in life that have lead to our current retirement travel by bicycle. People here have only had 30 years of freedom, and still many would not have the opportunity to travel beyond their own country.

Our next stop was at Ventas Rumba, the widest waterfall in Europe – 249 metres (817 ft) and up to 270 metres (886 ft) during spring floods. At certain times of the year, fish jump it to go to their spawning grounds. The waterfall was a solid obstruction on the Venta River, and at times between the 17th and 19th centuries, efforts were made to dig a channel around the falls to achieve a waterway between the Baltic and the Black Sea. These efforts were later abandoned. We crossed the brick bridge built in 1874 into the ancient town of Kuldiga, first mentioned in 1242, and wandered around the cobbled streets, admiring the wooden buildings.

From Kuldiga we ride another 10 kilometres, as we’d noticed a small lake on the map just off our route, and decided to head there to camp. We passed open pasture, and some farm houses to get to the lake but after some exploring, found the lake to be surrounded by reeds and bog with many mosquitoes. By the time we got back to the main road it was almost dark. Fortunately we found a good place to pitch the tent on a grassy unused track, just to the left of, and on a rise, higher than the road.

Another long day of riding into headwinds delivers us to a nice ‘granny flat’ in Leipaja that is situated in the backyard of the owner. Having had 2 nights of free-camping we are ready for a shower and catching up on laundry. We walk into the town centre for dinner and the next morning ride around the key points of interest in the town, along the river promenade and through a park that borders the beach, before battling another long day of 80km into headwinds. We stop for lunch at Nica, and are each served an enormous meal. Potato fritters and salad for me, and for Nev, pork and mash. From here it’s a long ride to Palanga, but we cross the border into Lithuania before we get there. You can read our Lithuania blog here

categories Travel on bikes
tags Eastern Europe Cycle Tour, Baltic States Cycle Tour, Latvia, Recycled Adventures

Eastern Europe: Estonia

September 15, 2018Louise George

The cruise ship we had travelled on, overnight from Stockholm, the Baltic Queen, berthed mid morning, and with the paper map and occasionally using Google maps to pinpoint our exact position, we easily skirted the old town and headed towards north-east Tallinn to the suburb of Pohja, where our accommodation was. We noticed that the style of housing in Tallinn was apartment living. The apartments closest to the city were wooden, either a natural brown or painted in pastel colours. Further out the apartments were concrete structures and we found we were staying in a residential housing block similar to the hundreds we had already ridden past. We had an almost new shopping mall one hundred metres away and although it wasn’t beach weather, there was a beach three minutes walk away.

The bikes were locked in the lower level, at the base of the stairs along with an assortment of other bikes and kick-scooters. The panniers were dumped in the room and we went to the supermarket for lunch supplies. What a surprise this supermarket was! Stacks of fresh fruit and vegetables, cold meats and fish, herrings mostly; presented in every way imaginable (smoked, marinated, pickled), a bakery with whole-grain, seed breads and black breads, and many cakes. Bowls of every type of salad. Cooked potato’s, even mashed! We couldn’t find any ready-made packet food (for a standby meal to carry on the ride) but there was certainly no need to cook here as there were so many other meals that could be microwaved. To sum it up, this was one of the best supermarkets we had ever seen!

We’ve seen many ‘old towns’ on our travels and each has been interesting to wander around. We found Tallinn both interesting and quirky! Quirky as in the entrance to the Farm Restaurant that was a display of stuffed animals having some ales! Some quirky handcrafts. Marzipan was manufactured here from the 19th Century, first sold in pharmacies because it was thought to have healing properties and later as a confectionery. I’m very fond of Marzipan so pigged out on Dark chocolate with Marzipan centres.

The entrance to the old town of stone wall and Viru gates was very impressive and we paid to climb the wall. The stone stair was narrow and steep ending in a large circular ‘war room’ that had an enormous fireplace along one wall. We got some good views of the city at rooftop height. Later on our walk we found other sections of wall (there is almost 2km of the wall still standing) and in all, 26 towers, that were more intact and photogenic. Unfortunately each section charges a separate entrance fee.

There are many museums in Tallinn. We chose to visit two. The KGB cells are housed in the basement of what is now an apartment block, but was formerly the headquarters of the KGB. The basement has a few small cells and each tell the sobering story of some of those interred here, before their deportation or execution under Soviet rule.

The Estonian History museum exhibit ‘Spirit of Survival, 11,000 years of Estonian History, is housed in The Great Guild Hall, a gothic-style building completed in 1410 as the home of Tallinn’s union of wealthy merchants. The exhibit gives an overview of the history of the Estonian people and the occupation of the country by whom and when. The details are staggering, but essentially Estonia has been occupied by the Swedes, Germans or Russians since the 1500’s until freedom from Russian occupation in 1991. In the last 800 years, Estonians have ruled their own country for only 40 years!

Freedom and Perseverance were words that featured in both these museums. I was reminded then, and many times during our travel in Eastern Europe, how fortunate we are, to be born in a country that our forebears chose to emigrate to, and that for us, has only ever known freedom.

Estonia has some interesting statistics:

Population: 1,354,989 (2018) of which about half live in five cities. 68% are ethnic Estonians.
The largest minority group is Russian, roughly 26%.
60% of the country is forest.
Population density 29/2km.
Estonia is not a religious country. There is no state religion and only 29% of the population claims any religious affiliation (Lutheran or Russian Orthodox).
60% of babies born, (2009) were out of wedlock.
Estonian’s are considered some of the unhappiest people! Possibly due to the Nordic winter and the hardship of the centuries of foreign rule.

I’m not sure how ‘unhappy’ pairs with their love of music and singing. There are regular song festivals in Tallinn attended by about 100,000 people. Imagine the joy of that number of people singing in one place! Evidently Estonia had a massive musical demonstration that in 1988 demonstrated against Soviet rule and was a catalyst towards independence.

We had two days in Tallinn, a city dating back to the 13th century, and explored on foot and by bike. There is a network of roads that skirts the old town, and out through the suburbs. Near the city centre, roads are narrow with many traffic lanes and these broaden as they extend into the suburbs; there are motorways that lead to other cities. Every road we went on in the city, (apart from the motorway, that we did not ride) had a cycle lane, either marked on the road, sharing a broad footpath, or sometimes a dedicated pathway. We rode out to the Kadriorg Palace and then through the enormous arena of the Tallinn Song Festival grounds, and then continued for a few kilometres towards the TV tower. The tower was still a long way off and we decided not to continue but should have done, because then we could say we had been to the second highest point in Estonia. The highest is Suur Munamagi, only 318m, and not in the direction we will be riding.

Returning to town we rode around the small Pae Lake. Our intention was then to have a look at Ulemiste Lake, that took up a large part of the city map. From the approach we took, the lake was beyond a network of roads, a motorway and a railway line. There didn’t appear to be an easy direct road to the lake and after riding single track along a wooded area that popped us into a cemetery, and nowhere near the lake, we had another look at the map and decided that if the lake had motorway along the shoreline, then it probably wouldn´t be an area worth looking at, and gave up. We will never know if we were wrong!

With the statistics mentioned earlier we envisaged our travel would be through flat, wooded, sparsely populated countryside; and we were right! There was about 1500 kilometres between Tallinn and Vilnius, in Lithuania, where our flight left from, and not much elevation over that distance. We had 21 days to cover Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

For our first night we’d booked a cabin at Kuijoe, about 12km away from the section of the rail trail route we’d planned for the day. That would make our first day back on the bikes to 98km, a distance we hadn’t covered, all in one day, for weeks. We decided to make the day easier by taking a train, only an hour’s journey to Risipere. From Risipere we started the Laanemaa Tervisetee (64km long Health Trail) built along a disused railway that “gives locals the opportunity to exercise (walk, jog, cycle or ski) enjoying movement, joy, fresh air and wonderful nature such as rural settlements, bogs and woodlands”.

The first 12km was a fast, flat, straight, lightly gravelled path through woodlands of birch, oak, pine and juniper. We left the trail to see Turba, a small rural town that boasts a Post Office in an old wooden building and a motor sport museum housed in a former power supply building; we didn’t enter either. There were a couple of high-rise apartment blocks and little else. Back on course, the route continued as before, all the way to Risti. We had a little excitement that day! At one point we saw lights ahead and eventually came across a double trailer logging truck. We squeezed passed, and then watched the driver negotiate a narrow bridge, with tyres hanging over the edge! We saw a snake in the middle of the track, and a squirrel darted away quickly at one point. We found the blue berries (Logan berries) we had read about that grow wild, and sampled a few. Similar to a blackberry, except blue; even though plump and juicy looking, they were a little tart.

Risti had a memorial to the 3000 people of the region who would have passed through the Risti Station on their deportation to Siberia. Nationally the Soviets organised two major deportations, in 1941 and 1949. At least 30,000 people were deported on account of their nationality or financial status. In addition it is estimated that between 1940 and 1988, 60-80,000 we’re arrested and sent to Russian labour camps. That equates to about every tenth Estonia resident, deported during the period of the Soviet occupation.

A large scenic place of natural interest is Marimetsa bog and we went to seek it out. Evidently there is an 8km nature trail of which 5km is boardwalk and there are 3 watch towers for bird watching. The bog is a migration stop for cranes and there are Golden Eagles and wading birds. We rode for about 5 km and then came across signage showing we had another 11km to get there. We were heading in the opposite direction of our cabin, so turned around and headed back to Risti. Bog visit wasn’t really on our ‘must do’ list. On the way to Kuijoe I realised we’d forgotten to go and look at the 250 year old pine tree!

Just as well we’d purchased Instant Noodles and cheese at Risti Coop. We found that Rehe Turismitalu (our accommodation) only provided dinner with advanced notice, so our dinner was going to be meagre. We bought from our host, some eggs and bread, and a couple of bottles of his craft beer. We didn’t go hungry and we had a cosy little cabin to sleep in.

Yesterday the rail trail hadn’t been visually stimulating so we decided rather than ride 12 km to return there, we would take a road that ran on a diagonal to Haapsalu. We noticed that the road we travelled on was signed EuroVelo Route 10; the route was flat, and the scenery almost identical to that along the rail trail; forest each side of the road, the occasional small house tucked among the trees, and then towards the coast some larger farms, cattle, and rolled hay bales. Only seven vehicles overtook us in the first hour! We didn’t really stop the 35km to Haapsalu, apart from, on the outskirts, where we stopped at a supermarket in a new shopping mall (as was our experience in Tallinn, there were no people in the shops, except the supermarket).

Haapsalu is a historic seaside spa town, famous for the healing powers of its mud. In times passed it was often frequented by the Tsars of Russia and other Russian aristocracy. At one time Tchaikovsky also visited, and worked on a piece while he was staying here, incorporating a local tune into the music score. There is a bench on the promenade in memory of this. Today tourists walk the Promenade, and see the sites already mentioned, take a spa, poke around souvenir shops and eat at restaurants. A visit to the Episcopal Castle in the centre of town is also of interest. The castle, established in mid 1200 was built over the next 3 centuries, as a diocese for the bishop. Within the castle walls there is a cathedral with a window, haunted by the ‘white lady’.

The ferry to Huuimaa Island leaves from Rohukula. On the way we passed the impressive ruins of Ungru Castle and taking time over getting the best photo meant we had to fly to catch the boat. Just made it!

Huuimaa Island was not in our initial plan but Nev doesn’t like to backtrack and riding through the island would mean we wouldn’t have to do so. From Huuimaa we intend crossing by ferry to Saaremaa Island and back to the mainland via Muhu Island. On Huuimaa Island we only stopped to look at the exterior of a church and a windmill. By the time we got to Saaretirp, we’d covered in total today, 82km. Saaretirp is a spit that, legend has it, started to be built as a bridge, from this point to Saaremaa Island, by a giant of a man named Leiger, however it was never finished. We experienced our first free-camping that Estonia boasts about. Our tent was pitched in a huge mown area beside a cluster of trees. There were long-drop toilets and an enormous wooden swing that would seat a number of people on benches at either end of a wooden platform. Evidently swinging in Estonian is a cultural ‘thing’. People come together at times of celebrations to swing and sing together. 500 metres, in the direction we’d come from was the Lest & Lamas Restaurant that we returned to for dinner. Then we dashed to the seashore to catch a stunningly rich sunset.

Breakfast was camp pan-cooked wild mushrooms, black bread, and a few red currants found growing near our tent.

An easy 31 kilometres got us to Soru to catch the ferry, but we weren’t sure what the ferry timetable was. Apart from a couple of photo breaks and an ATM stop there was no reason to delay. We saw a ferry at the dock and rushed to board it; only to be told that the boat doesn’t sail until 17:30! It was now only 11:00, there was no cafe, or Internet. The museum was closed. Only a shop with a coffee vending machine and a few provisions was open, so at least we could buy snacks. It was frustrating to see the ferry berthed, but not going anywhere, and that the island of Saaremaa was in sight, a distance of what appeared to be only one kilometre away, and we had 6&1/2 hours to wait. With our tight schedule we might get behind in our riding time! Yet if we wanted a perfect day to be stranded this would be it. The temperature was 23C, the sun shone and there wasn’t a breath of wind. The sea was as calm as a millpond. There was a swing that made an ideal spot to hang washing to dry and update the blog.

Later in the afternoon three other cycle tourists came to catch the ferry. They were three men from Finland, who go on an excursion together for a week every year; two of them were on e-bikes. We enjoyed a discussion about bikes and cycling in Finland. By the time we’d docked at Saaremaa it was 6:30 p.m. While on the ferry we had used the free Wifi frantically, and we knew the restaurant at Leisi, a few kilometres away, would close at 7. We arrived with 10 minutes to spare and the lady was happy to serve us. The air was cool as we left Leisi so we put on an extra layer and hit the road. While riding on Huuimaa Island, we’d thought the bus stops, small shelters with a door and window, would be good for a late stop, and decided we’d stay in one here, as soon as it started getting dark. Only problem was the bus stops on Saaremaa we’re only three sides with a bench at the rear and the road facing aspect was open. We set up camp in an area beyond the road and went to bed.

Waking to the patter of rain didn’t inspire us to start the day, but we had a long one planned. This was the first morning ever on our cycle tour that we ate breakfast inside the tent. The rain had stopped by the time we were ready to ride, but it caught us later and we stood in a wooded area waiting for it to ease. We’d taken a small detour to see the Kaali meteor crater, and got caught in another downpour. The crater had been publicised as, “first in Europe and second in the world, which has proven meteor heritage” so internationally unique. This was the largest of nine craters in a one square kilometre area. While impressive that a meteor should find its way to land on the island of Saaremaa, I think one of the comments we got on Instagram summed it up; ¨that it looked like a New Zealand pond¨! Fortunately the rain eased to light drizzle and by the time we arrived in the town of Kuressaare it had stopped and we remained dry the rest of the day. Kuressaare is another spa town catering to tourists, but the tourist season is over and there were only a few people about. The entire town centre was rather unattractive as it was undergoing major road works and was dug up from building to building each side. It will look great for next year’s summer season, but we dodged working machinery, rain puddles and open ditches. We walked along the castle bastions, and got a view of the beach, but the castle and museum were closed. Another area promoted as interesting was the Panga Cliff. In a country that is largely vertical, a horizontal cliff of 21.2 metres is probably stunning, but the photos publicising the feature were taken from a drone over the ocean, looking towards land, and we were never going to get that view!

With 58km to Orissaare we needed to get moving. We rode the EuroVelo 10 route, along a quiet secondary road, through farmland. With only an occasional stop to take a photo or sample free-fall apples, we pretty much just kept moving. We’d made a note of a couple of accommodation options at Orissaare but didn’t want to book anything. I thought we would pass them both on the way into town, but no luck. Evidently I didn’t have the map oriented on my phone, so they were both the other side of town. Fortunately we found a hostel with a spare room, but no food, right in the middle of town. At the end of that riding day my Garmin showed my fastest 40km in 2 hours. I thought that was pretty good for a loaded bike! Nev thought it was a cheat when I told him the time pauses when I stop.

From Orissaare we rode across the land bridge, to Muhu and then across the small island. A short ferry ride then took us back to the mainland. We chose to leave EuroVelo 10 as it followed the coast to Parnu. We cut through on the diagonal and shaved off 44km. I’m sure the two routes would have been much the same; quiet country roads, farmland and forest. With the rain gone, the wind had come up, and mostly from behind it was in our favour as we covered 96 km. Parnu is a town on a peninsula and as we crossed the bridge we noticed a Mexican Restaurant and unanimously decided that was going to be our dinner destination. When we returned later, we were the only customers! Tourist season is finished! Our room in Parnu was one bedroom of three, with shared kitchen and bathroom, in a residential block. All of the rooms were very small but the bathroom included a washing machine (a rare treat) so our room became rather cramped with gear, bikes, and drying rack!

We stopped at Parnu’s wind-swept beach just long enough to be sand-blasted while taking a photo. The beach looked like it would be a lovely place to be on a summer’s day. A self-guided walking tour of Parnu didn’t take long so we were soon on the bikes for the day’s ride. There was only one direct route south, following the coast. We were back on EuroVelo 10 that, wherever possible, would take us onto small roads that ran parallel. The main road had a wide sealed shoulder, edged with compacted gravel. While there were a lot of trucks and buses, in reality the traffic was quite light. With long spaces between vehicles, both on our side and on-coming, the drivers were all very considerate, giving us at least half a lane as they overtook. We got into slip-steam mode and moved along easily. Generally the wind had been in our favour and the rain showers light enough to only be a nuisance. After 57km, near Kabli, we came across a camp. Although a number of children were on school camp there, they were happy for us to pitch our tent, sheltered behind reeds on the sea-shore that the wind had made dirty brown and frothy.

The coastal route continued; flat, forest, occasionally farmland, with no view of the ocean. There were only a couple of small towns and only some had a COOP store that had little in the way of fresh provisions. The coastal forested area is popular for people hiking, there are many trails marked through the woods; there are also wild animals such as Linx and Beaver and snakes. Free camping is allowed at designated areas that have long-drop toilets and a supply of firewood available and steel fires to burn the wood in. We were disappointed not to have found one of these camp sites at a distance that matched a time we would want to be stopping for the night. Then we crossed into Latvia (you can read our Latvia blog here).

categories Travel on bikes
tags Eastern Europe Cycle Tour, Baltic States Cycle Tour, Recycled Adventures, Bucket List Travel, Estonia

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Louise George