Spa Hotel Laine Haapsalu

... is that it seems to retain more class even as it modernizes. There's a shamelessness that is obvious in the fashions, the copying of American logic and mall layouts, and the lame music that makes it seem like this place wants to forget its old culture, and has not considered the consequences of taking on this new one. In Finland, however, things are more measured and the sense of "Finnishness" is still emphasized somehow, even if not specifically. Outside of Tallinn ...

... special for its Sweedish circle crosses, plenty of them, very special to see it. Stunning how close the Sweedish culture used to be to the Baltics. Vormsi with its nice houses was very much fun to go through, it was a bit like cycling through an open air museum. We also went to see a coral reef in the middle of the island (which is rising from the sea every year a few mm). The reef was interesting, but somehow the most unusual in this place was a giant ant that we ...

No story about singing at a bonfire until late on a campingsite. We left Tallinn in the morning and by late afternoon we took a long stop at the ruins of a 14th century clooster. Good that we stayed there long, because at a certain point some guys started to bring in microphones and loudspeakers... it turned out that there was a 'pop-concert' inside the clooster that evening. We ...

... after all that trauma, although very dirty she was ok & the only thing to fall off was a fly screen - wow!! So the plan was, head to Tuksi to relax by the beach for a couple of days and catch a few rays, before heading down to Parnu!When we arrived we realised it may not be as peaceful at camp as we may have hoped, as they had a group of 400 people booked in for the night staying in the ...

... the road and said 'see the track, it is there'. Well where was the sign! We felt a little silly, but there you go. It didn't have much water coursing through it, but it was quite high. You could also see the different layers of rock down the cliff face and it all looked quiet lovely. We now had the task of driving back to the other side of Estonia to a place called Haapsalu. We wanted to take another route (not going through Tallinn), but ...

Day 2: 95 km, Vasalemma to Haapsalu Start time: 2 PM (after grocery shopping) End time: 9:30 PM (an improvement) Overnight: NOT Endla Hostel, but Kongo Hotel in the old town in Haapsalu "Highlights": - ruins of Padise monastery - 25km of gravel roads (serious butt-pounding, although not as painful after significant loss of sensation since ...

Destination 23:   km43'335 Der Sonderausflug reduziert sich nur auf Insel Saaremaa, da Fähre nach Hiiumaa nur 4x täglich fährt. Darum gehts weiter um sicherzustellen, dass WM- Match FRA-SUI in Tallinn gesehen werden kann... Beinahe gestürzt während Fahrt, da Strasse Baustelle war und dies in Estland heisst: Fahrbahn ist nicht mit Schotter, sondern mit bis zu ...

... us off on a goose chase for internet services which almost resulted in us missing the bus back to Tallinn. Mulled wine and a big meal at Estonia's first pub, the peculiarly named but great value Hell Hunt was the only real reward for a trying day. No doubt beautiful in summer, this side trip just wasn't meant to be. Still, we'd adventured out of town and ...

... and when Ele saw that there was a man inside getting dressed/undressed, she used her charm (of which she has lots !) and asked him if we could have a look. Before we knew it we were climbing the tower of this Neo-gothic building discovering treasures like one of the nicest stoves I have ever seen and a collection of 1970's communist magazines in the top attic. A historian's dream but a strange collection for a school in capitalist Estonia, don't you think ...

I woke up early, had breakfast with muesli and yoghurt, worked on my travel log a bit and around midday Ele picked me up from Anna's place. She would be my 4th HC host this trip (after Anneli, Anna, Hanna) and we were going to Kaarel, a young sales manager who recently became a member of HC and who responded favourable to a post I published on the Forum. The post read something like this ...