Spa Hotel Meri Kuressaare

After a four hour journey from Tallinn (Including a wee ferry trip!!) I was in Kuressaare, the capital of Saaremaa Island. Upon arrival it appeared to be a slightly dusty and unfriendly town, but after finding a place to drop my stuff and go out for a further wonder, my opinion changed completely I can see how easy it would be to just stay here... (Incidentally ...

Saaremaa really is 'old Estonia'. A sizeable island off the north west coast, just south of Finland, during Russian occupation the island was 'off limits' and as a result the island has changed little for decades. It really does have the beautiful deserted beaches and the roads through forests where you can drive for an hour or two and not see a soul. And very good mud ...

We took a small small road as it was evening and time to stop. We saw an even smaller road and Mara went to have a look. She came back happily waving her hands, it was a dream of a campplace at the sea-side: and old little harbour with a bench and a fireplace.

We'll be very short about Hiiumaa: it was raining cats and dogs the whole day and we decided to use this day to travel on to Saaremaa. By evening we arrived at an out-of-this-world beach with orchids and underneath a thick pack of clouds... a sunset. Unbelieveable.

... on the ferry to Saaremaa, where dry weather welcomed us at a stunning campplace by the sea: all alone, orchids in the sand, sunset, red-throated divers (birds) on the sea, and trees to dry our wet stuff. What can two cyclists wish more for? Day one we cycled to Panga Pank, a cape that attracts many tourists for good reasons: white cliffs, waves that go all directions, fossiles ...

... would have been safe to tow him. We offered a cell phone but they declined. We finally managed to agree to bring the wife to the next town. It wasn't a very pleasant ride as they had obviously been fishing all day ... the wife wasn't exactly minty-fresh.

We dropped her off and were on our way. Mary later confessed that she thought they might kill us. I then confessed that I wish they had ...

Today I turn 30 ... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh well, what do you do? At least I'm turning 30 while doing what I love to do. And I must admit that celebrating a birthday in Europe for the 3rd year in a row is pretty cool. I wonder how much longer I can maintain that tradition?

Mary Moment #20: A funny thing happened last night. I was in bed, trying to sleep when I heard some loud snoring. I looked ...

... pro cyclist like me to have to deal with this amateur ****). In the afternoon, we looked long and hard (over 20 km or so) for a Dolomite factory (which was supposed to be super cute and authentic) but unfortunately only found ourselves down several gravel (grrrrr...) roads and into dolomite quarries, one of which we got locked in by the worker who left after we biked in. Arrival in Kuresaare was extra early (6 PM), just ...

... seen them everywhere. I got a sandwich and hot chocolate in the cafe. It was a lovely journey to Kuressaare the main town. Although it was slow and we seemed to head off every little side road to drop off, pick up or just check. As we got off I recognised one of the other passengers that had been at the hostel in Vilnius. He was off to a hostel the lonely planet mentioned but the rough guide doesn't. I had booked a B+B on a website and headed there. The ...

... and it worked, and about one hour later we were on our way to the capital of Saaremaa, Kuressaare. Population : 16,200. More information : www.saaremaa.ee We first had a look at a nice Lutheran church and had lunch in a medieval Weighing House for some fish tartare and shrimp soup. And then we met Piret (my Estonian language teacher) near an old windmill. Afterwards we went to the castle where they have an interesting museum about life in Saaremaa. The beach ...