Sunday, December 23, 2018

Estonia, December 2018

We had the pleasure of visiting Estonia this past week and it was wonderful. It is colder than Latvia, and they speak a different language than Latvian. I really loved that we got to see the sun and blue sky! Not for very long because it is winter, but the difference it makes on your mental outlook to see the sun is amazing after seeing grey for weeks.
We rented a lovely house out in the forest that was an hour from Tallinn and an hour and half from Narva in the Lahemaa National Park. Well worth it and such a nice place. It is called the Ooandu Watermill. Margus, the owner was great. 
Small one bedroom cabin for the summer. This is on a little island that you get to by a foot bridge. We saw mallards swimming in the creek.

The main house where we stayed. It has a wood fired sauna! It had three bedrooms and one and half baths.

The sawmill across the creek. It is also has a one bedroom place available to rent in the summer.
There are two footbridges to the island.

The creek from the footbridge.

Laheema National Park is beautiful, right on the Baltic Sea and with old growth forests. The roads are snow covered at this time of year, but there are lots of communities within the park, including Vosu where you can buy groceries and walk on the public beach. Hard to find a cup of coffee though. There are three amazing manor houses within walking/driving distance.
Driving through the Laheema National Park at night through the old growth forest. There is a hint of the moon in the photo. This was a big deal for me since it was the first time I had seen the moon in weeks.
Chris was kind enough to drive me to Tallinn to see the medieval section, which is amazing. Much more intact than Riga's old town, Tallinn's old city has less "Russian built palaces" as Margus told us. Margus is probably referring to the number of Art Nouveau buildings in Riga. Given that it was quite cold and I had forgot to bring my down mittens, I don't have a lot of Tallinn photos as my husband took the majority of them, which I will post later.




Outer medieval walls.

Tallinn has a ferry to Sweden across the Baltic Sea which we might try next summer. We then went up the coast. We found this abandoned church on the way up. The ruins of Pirita Convent.



We then found drove up the coast and I got to take this photo of the Baltic Sea. And the sun!


The sun on the Baltic Sea.

Estonia is beautiful and well worth the visit!

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