Blogs from Saaremaa, Estonia, Europe

Biked 57 miles today for a total of 260 miles. Woke up to partly sunny skies with a brisk wind out of the Southwest, which provided a nice tailwind all day. Did not have to deal with rain until we were safely secured at our next stop on Muhu Island. We made our way out of Kuressaare along the east coast of Saaremaa Island. We stopped at Piret's boulder along the way. Had lunch in Orissaare . Crossed the earthen bridge that links Saaremaa and Muhu islands. We flew across this as the wind blew with gusto. Briefly visited a windmill on the far side of the bridge called Eemu. Pam bought a wooden carved spatula here. Later we stopped at the Hellamaa Orthodox, built in 1864, and graveyard. Very shortly after we arrived at our ... read more

Next on the schedule for the OCC rally was a dinner in Tallinn, Estonia on June 27th so we had a few days to make it up there from Liepaja, Latvia. We left Liepaja at 7AM on June 21stand headed to the town of Kuressaare in Estonia on the island of Saaremaa. It was a very uneventful motor sail with time to enjoy the scenery and the beautiful cloud formations, and the sunset and sunrise as we didn’t arrive until 5:20AM the next day. The Roomassaare marina we stayed at was a little distance from the town of Kuressaare so we shared a taxi with another couple and went into town to explore. In the early 13th century Danes invaded northern Estonia and founded the city of Tallinn in 1219, but later sold it to the ... read more

June 18, my birthday trip to Saaremaa The strong winds and rainy weather that challenged Heli's plans had subsided and we woke to brilliant sunshine for our one hour drive to Virtsu to catch the ferry to the little island of Muhumaa, or Muhu, "the island where time rests." Heli planned a very special three day trip on the islands of Muhu, Saaremaa and Abruka with Dave, her grandson Markus and me to celebrate my birthday and introduce us to the wonders of Estonia. The road to the ferry was nearly empty of cars and the countryside was mostly unoccupied forest with an occasional farmhouse. About 45 minutes north of Parnu the road widened to double the width for about a mile. Heli told us that during Soviet times this strip of road was used as ... read more

Well, it's been a few days now since I last wrote and i can say i have finally got some kilometers under the belt (and in my legs). Yay! But not today. Four days of riding, a little bit of rain and already I'm calling a rest day. Not bad eh? But first, the nightmare that was trying to get out of Tallinn. As you know, not the most adept at map reading but... to say I was lost was an understatement. In my defence though I will add that the bike paths do not follow the roads as such and so I managed to get completely off track. I think I found the right road after some 10km of cycling aimlessly in circles. But once out, well what a relief. I had hoped to make ... read more

so this was Kuressaare on the full second day - with sunshine, after day of arrival when I ended up rreading my book and then spending the rest of the evening in the Vinoteek (see separate bibulous account) - Barbara said I thought was A. A. Milne - had to Wikipedia that one, as I thought he was the bloke who wrote Winnie the Pooh and other stories (or maybe he did that AND wrote about food for the Sunday Times!). Anyway finally down to the Kuressaare Bishop's Palace marked on the map attached generally as Vallekraav - it does not always appear to be there - you will likely have to click on the hypertext link above with map name which will take you to the map - it is about the only real attraction ... read more