A day in Viinistu

We arrived damp and tired at the hotel in Viinistu but first was it there? Then how to get in?  The place is in a fish factory.  Well. What do you do witha. Fish processing factory when the political situation changes and the Russians stop buying your fish?  If you have a good art collection and money then a gallery, hotel and restaurant.  But May is still out of season, so things were not operating so much.  We did find our way in and all was revealed by a Spannish man who was staying there with his parents.  Everything was closed that night but the restaurant, gallery etc would be open the next day.  We spent the morning in the gallery which we thoroughly enjoyed and the afternoon cycling round the peninsular.  In Soviet times it was closed to all unless you lived there, because if radar and submarine bases.  This has left the area undeveloped and so is now a National Park.  When the Rusians left Estonia the buildings were just all left to decay.

The factory buildings made into the hotel and museum.

Some art work outside.

Abandoned radar buildings.

More erratic boulders.

An enormous building for submarine research, now reverting to forest. We were told it was quite safe to go in and wander round but it was getting late, so we just walked round the outside.  Somewhat sad to see such a fine building rotting away.

Onwards to Viinistu

Tom has forgotten just how wet it was cycling to Viinistu.  It stopped briefly while we went to a nature centre about the beavers and then again while we walked round the beaver trail.  But we ate our lunch in the drizzle and were totally soaked by 5 when we arrived at the next nature centre. It was shut but the baronial hall was open and with shortage of time we had a choice of going round the house, or the cafe 200 metres further on.  We chose the cafe.  It didn't look like a cafe, more like posh stables of a wealthy establishment, which is probably what it was.  We would never have gone in if we hadn't been told.  Inside was not only warmth, but the wonderful atmosphere of long wooden tables in a long hall, friendly service and excellent food.  We couldn't stay long as we still had some way to go but by the time we left we were warm, drier, fed and it ahead stopped raining.  Our spirits were lifted.

The beaver dams that Tom remarked were untidy. But then he has never tried making a dam with twigs.

The whole of the coast and coastal areas are littered with rocks, called erratic boulders, left from receding glaciers.  A few are really large, many have myths or spiritual meaning attached to them.

Photos etc of the first days in Estonia

It's my (Katherine) job to add some photos.  I still haven't learnt how to manage these within text, nor to get them in the order I want. These ones are of Narva.  It was very heavily bombed in the war, so very few buildings remain, apart from the castle, the Orthodox Church and townhall.  We were pleased to find the route 1 cycle sign, which has been very good throughout the ride so far.  Also the highest waterfall for Estonia. No it doesn't look very high but then Estonia is pretty flat.  The padlocks left behind are presumably symbols of undying love.  I don't know the symbolism of the tree. Waterfalls tend to have cafés next to them. The pancakes were excellent.

Orthodox Church in Narva.

Medieval town hall in Narva.

We are following he Baltic Sea Cycle Route 1.

Highest waterfall in Estonia.  The shale layer is where they were getting the uranium from.

This worked better than expected!

got too far behind; the next bit to Tallinn

Well, the lack of anything from us for quite a long time is not excusable, but it happened.  The last bit of our story is entry to Estonia.  We have now been in Estonia for about 2 weeks.  We are in a place called Kaali on Sarimaa island, having got here in 14 days cycling.  A brief resume about the first bit of this.

After crossing from Russia in Narva, and spending a night in a hotel there, we cycled to Toila, a seaside place a bit West of Sillamae.  The route went via Narva Joesuu by the sea, a small and rather pleasant resort.  Sillamae was a centre for uranium extraction in Soviet times, and one had to skirt the large industrial area.  Then on dirt roads part of the way.  We camped in Toila, the first time in the whole journey.  The next day, followed the route West and we got as far as Kunda.  The route is extremely well marked in Estomia.  It is national cycling route 1 and also EuroVelo 10.  I make no comment on Euro jargon, except it seems fair enough.  Kunda is industrial, with a large cement works.  The accommodation we had hoped for did not materialise, but in a cafe, the woman phoned around and got us into another lodging place, where we had an extensive flat for several people all for ourselves. We have found people here very helpful when we have asked.  Estonians have a reputation for silence, but their helpfulness is terrific.

So far, the weather in Estomia had been good, but the next day it deteriorated.  We were now in the Lahemaa National Park.  Interestingly, this was established when Estonia was in the Soviet Union and was the first national park in the Union.  It is a coastal area, relatively unspoilt because much of it was a military zone closed or partially closed to the public. From our point of view, it was very much cycling on roads through forest, birch mainly and some pine, for mile after mile.  We did stop off for a walk to see some beaver dams, which were much more untidy than I expected - those beavers really need to get their act together and smarten up their act.  But it was interesting.  It was a long day, but we finally arrived in Viinitsu where we had intended to get.

Viinitsu is notable for having a gallery of Estonian art, the collection of a local lad who made good in Sweden as manager for ABBA and had the money to acquire a great range of modern and not so modern Estonian art.  The museum was good; we enjoyed it.  We made this a day off from the relentless onward progress that these bike trips entail.  We also cycled out to the headland - Viinitsu is on a peninsular - and also looked at the abandoned building of the Soviet submarine research centre.  The peninsular was a closed area in the cold war, and housed this facility and a large radar station on the headland.  There are a lot of abandoned buildings from that time. The weather was better.

We went to Tallinn the next day.  I was a long day, and what with one route mistake and a short diversion to another former Soviet submarine facility, for degaussing, also abandoned, we covered 114 km - way over our usual!  A strong wind was against most of the time and we arrived quite late and pretty tired.

We were joining Tom's brother George for the continuing ride.  He and his wife Debbie were in Tallinn already, in a rented flat and we joined them there for 3 days in the city.  Debbie did not join us for the continuing cycle ride, but more of all this later.

Photos from Petergof to Svetogorsk (border town)

Some wayside crafts.

I seem to have little control as to where pictures go.  The first one is of the castle on the Estonian side of the border. The last picture is of the Russian side.  It looks very meaningful to have castles facing each other on either side of the dividing river, but actually that was not the case historically.  Both castles were in Estonia till the end of the war.  Apart from the area round St Petersburg there is a real problem with rubbish.  It lines the sides of the roads, fills the ditches and denotes a picnic spot.  Why do people bother to dump an armchair so far from any habitation?

Photos from Petergof

Fountains went from the grand to the jokes, such as fountains that came on went you went down the path, or tried to take a drink from the table. Petergof also had a typically Orthodox cathedral.

Photos from St Petersburg

I was supposed to be putting photos onto the blog, but somehow never got round to it. So here are some from The Hermitqge,  and St Petersburg. Sorry I don't seem to have any control over the positioning of these.  Note the rather grand toilet outside the Hermitage!  The millitary were practicing for parades on the 9th May, Victory Day, commemorating the end of WW2, which now replaces 1st May as the big holiday.