Sharing our experience around the Baltic - July 2017

What do you think if we go by motorbike?

We would love to but having days off only from 13 until 28 of July 2017 and choosing Estonia, almost 3500km from Bilbao to Tallinn will give us only time to ride there and come back without discovering the corners of the country.

Therefore, we booked airplane tickets to Tallinn and we rent a car from the airport to start our journey driving between Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to end up in Helsinki before coming back home. One thing to keep in mind when renting a car that you have to pay extra charge around 10 euros per day which they charge maximum 10 days for crossing the borders of Estonia to other European countries and it is forbidden to cross with the renting car to Russia.

Maybe we are crazy but this is our way to travel.

 

We arrived on a rainy day so we drove the car from the airport heading to Haapsalu. Tallinn, we will be coming back on a sunny day.

Following the GPS instructions, we were surprised to find ourselves driving through unpaved road. Yes, it is true and guess what, there is not a toll highway in Estonia.

What we noticed mostly was the endless rows of trees on both sides of the way hiding the view of the sea. Later we knew that these trees help to protect the area from wind and other natural effects.

On the way, we passed through the Nova and Noarootsi peninsula famous for their untouched nature, which remained inhabited for hundreds of years.

At Haapsalu we rent a room in a local house, the owners are nice but they keep distance maybe for not bothering.

Haapsalu is a small town with narrow streets; the first thing that caught our eyes was the wooden dwelling houses and some old classic cars.

We visited the castle and after a delicious dinner, we did a romantic seaside promenade under a smooth sunlight to reach the old beautiful railway station.

 

 

 The next day we drove 160 km to Virtsu where we took the ferry to Muhu Island.

On the way, we had some stops at Ridalaa and Lihula. Matsalu national park, which covers over 400 km2 of land and coast, is foremost known as one of the Europe’s best bird watching destinations. The beautiful Estonian nature was calling us to stop often: We watched the birds and we walked at Salevere where the colors of the flowers give more life for the green scenes. Of course we had a coffee break in the garden of a rural house on the way. We noticed that always we had to take narrow side ways to reach a bar or camping or the beach.

We didn’t book in advance for the ferry as there is one each 35 minutes but a small advice if you are going there for weekend better to reserve online so you don’t have to wait for at least 2 hours on the queue.

At Muhu we decided to spend the night at a local typical house located in the middle of the forest. The owners were very nice couple, luckily Lea spoke English and told us some stories about Estonia. She explained to us that Estonian people love freedom after suffering for long time from war and for them the nature is sacred, they believe in it that is why they buy very big land and they build their houses, the nearest neighbor is far enough to respect this freedom. Their gardens are beautifully decorated with flowers and they plant some vegetables and fruit. Around the main house, we saw small houses so she explained that one of them is for Sauna because it is a tradition for them, another one which looks like a cellar for storing food, another for the wood, etc... 
At Muhu, we had a relaxing time in the farm, talking to Lea and playing with Freddy, her dog. In the evening we went for a short tour in the island, we visited Saint Catherine church and Koguva port then we had a delicious dinner watching the sunset.
We knew from Lea that normally Estonian people, except in the capital, don't go out for eating and for them the breakfast is the most important meal so next day she prepared for us a heavy breakfast that we enjoyed in the garden.
One more interesting thing about this island is that on winter time an ice road connects the island to the mainland.

 

 
From Muhu we head to Saaremaa by Väinatamm causeway. Saaremaa is the largest island in Estonia. Far from telling the sad history of this country, there are lot of places to visit and activities to do in this magnificent nature.

Angla windmills at Leisi are typical trestle windmills characteristic of the island of Saaremaa. In 1925, when the village of Angla consisted of 13 farms, there were nine wind catchers on the hill.
At one time, these open to the winds hills of windmills were a common sight on Saaremaa. When the people were more agrarian, grew their own wheat and rye, and made their own bread, every self-respecting village had a group of windmills to grind the grain. Beside the windmills, there is a large collection of classic tractors and lot of activities for all ages.

Panga Cliff is a coastal cliff located on the northern shore of Saaremaa, at the end of the Kuressaare. The Panga Cliff stands, stark in colour, at a maximum height of 21.3 m, and runs for about 2.5 km!

Kuressaare castle is considered one of the best preserved medieval fortifications in Estonia. It is late Gothic in style and characterized by a simplicity of form. That day when we were visiting, there was preparation for an Opera concert which we didn't attend.

Of course we didn't miss the walk in the town before having a delicious dinner.

As the sunset was at around 22.35 and the day was long, we drove to Torgu. In 1646 Livonian governor general Gabriel Oxenstierna had a primitive lighthouse – a beacon – built on a little island located at the tip of Sõrve Peninsula. Autumn storms showed that the small island selected for the beacon was unsuitable and the beacon was relocated to the tip of Sõrve Peninsula. A stone tower was established there in 1770, but it was destroyed in the Second World War. The present cone-shaped lighthouse of monolithic concrete was built in 1960.
Interesting facts: The height of Sõrve Lighthouse from its foot is 52 metres and it is 53 meters above sea level.

On the way back we discovered the Sõrve Military Museum, it was out of time to visit but as the gate was open we entered for a quick look with the company of a fox.

Continuing our drive we had a beautiful surprise: we saw lot of stones balance beside the coast so we stopped to contemplate a magical surprising sunset.

Next morning, even though we would like to spend another day in Saaremaa, we decided to move to Parnu but before leaving we passed to Valjala church: Dating back to 1227, St Martin's church is the oldest medieval rural church in Estonia and the first stone church in the country. It was built on what used to be an ancient pre-Christian worship and burial site, near a fortress. The church has also served as a defensive structure. the 17th century tower is the most recent addition; the walls were made using 13th century tombstones. The wall paintings date back to the construction of the church. Valjala church contains Roman and Gothic styles.
Back to the mainland on the way to Parnu, we were seeing lot of lakes and many birds. The green scenes are breathtaking. Parnu has nice parks and beaches so what is best then to have a walk in the park and around the port and to relax on the sand.
It was funny that for the dinner we had to wait in a queue to get a table and it was the first crowded place that we visited so far.

If in Estonia we drove through unpaved roads, in Latvia it was the same but we noticed that in there they were working on the main road that is why the traffic was cut for one direction with a traffic light that's why the GPS was indicating that we need around 3 hours to drive the 180 km from Parnu to Riga along the coast side.

Riga is the capital of Latvia and the largest city in the Baltic states. it lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river.
We found Riga a beautiful capital, we wandered through Central Riga to the Art Nouveau district to the old town and we were fascinated by the architecture, the colors, the squares, the parks and the canals... That day as it was nice weather we chose only to walk around, what we missed and it was on our mind to see was the view of Riga from St Peter church but unluckily we arrived late to visit because they close at 18.00 (little early no?) Anyway Riga is a place to get inspired and there is much to explore. Of course don't miss the lights of the city at night!
Meanwhile taking a drink we heard Spanish people beside so talking to them we discovered that they were riders coming from different parts of Spain. Some of them were trying to convince JC to upgrade the Pan European to Gold wings which made B happy but not JC pocket ;).

We left Riga leaving space for the new visitors arriving by Cruise. We followed the coast and we had three magnificent stops: in Jurmula beach, Engure beach and Kolka.
Jurmala's beach is 33 km long covered with white sand. We didn't go to the town, we preferred to have a walk on the sand and because it was early we were the only ones enjoying the calm and the beauty of that place. In our opinion, the sea in these countries is for walking and relaxing more then swimming. That is why we had another stop at Engure and we enjoyed a coffee break beside the sea. We continued our way on the seaside crossing beautiful villages to reach Cape Kolka. The journey to Cape Kolka or Kolkasrags feels like a trip to the end of the earth. It is where the waves from two seas clash - The Great sea or the Baltic sea and Mazjura, the Little sea, The Gulf of Riga. During Soviet times the entire peninsula was zoned off as a high-security military base, strictly out of bounds to civilians. Nowadays during the bird migration season, dozens of thousands of birds fly over the cape, and this is the best place to start a visit to Slitere National Park.

 

That day we decided to stay in a very small village named Pope. So to reach there we had to drive through a gravel road trying not to let the big track to pass us. After having a delicious dinner at Ventspils we spent the evening in the garden of the rural house with other four Spanish people. As per the owner they were the first Spanish to arrive to that place.
The next day, we passed again through Ventspils to see the town. Our aim was to cross the borders to Lithuania and to reach Klaipeda where we had booked a hotel. Before arriving there, we had some stops: In Jurkalne for coffee break, and at Liepaja which is the third largest city in Latvia. It is known as the "city where the wind is born". We didn't plan to stay long although there are plenty of monuments to visit and beautiful parks, we only went inside St. Nicholas Orthodox Naval Cathedral (1901-1903) and we can tell that is really magnificent.
Since the beginning of our journey we were seeing lot of cyclists and we discovered that there were lot of ways prepared for this activity. For example there is a bike route from the Lithuanian-Latvian border to Liepaja. We think that lot of these cyclists were following the EuroVelo roads and we noticed that there were lot of bicycle signs.

Before starting our journey, we booked the plane tickets and the car, we had a look on google map to have an idea about how many kilometers we had to drive per day but we didn't book any hotel. So during the trip we were booking the place for sleeping before one day. That is why when we decided to stay in Klaipeda, Lithunia we booked a hotel that was 3 km far from the town center but we didn't know that we had to take a ferry to reach it until we arrived there. So actually we were staying in Neringa. Moreover we didn't know that to enter the island you have to pay tax of 20 euros. And we can say that it was worth it to visit!
Neringa, in terms of population, is the smallest municipality of the country, comprising several villages in the Curonian Spit: Juodkrante, Pervalka, Preila and Nida. The Curonian Spit is 98 km long, thin, curved sand-dune spit that separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic sea. Its located between Lithuania and the Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia. After having a look on the map of this island, we decided to visit the Hill of witches or Raganu Kalnas in Juodkrante. It is a beautiful outdoor sculpture gallery located on a forested sand dune. It begun in 1979 and been expanded to contain now around 80 wooden sculptures which reveal characters from Lithuanian folklore and pagan traditions. Then we head to Nida where you can just walk and admire the houses and calmness. we climbed to Parnidis Dune and we had another beautiful "Baltic" sunset!

Now it is time to start the way back.
From Neringa, we headed to Andrioniskis in the northeast of Lithuania. Of course you hadn't heard about this place because it is a small village of only 229 people but we needed a relaxing place.
On the way, we had two main stops: one to visit the museum of the Cold war and another to visit the hill of Crosses.
The room at Andrioniskis was fantastic, we enjoyed the calmness and the beauty of the nature.


We said goodbye to Lithuania and we drove to Ludza, Latvia.
This was the first half of our journey, and as you can realize we were driving down from Estonia to Lithuania on the coast side, so now we will start the way back up but from the Russian border side. As we were saying goodbye for the sea, we were not imagining that we will enjoy unique moments beside blue magnificent lakes.

Still have more stories to tell you and videos to share with you, so remember to have a look later on to our blog.
Now off to the village so see you back in a week for the other half of this trip!