Estonia - Saremaa and Parnu

The bus to the island of Saremaa took about 4.5 hours, including an hour on the ferry, which was quite pleasant. Except, that is, for the enormous dragonflies the size of small birds swarming all round the decks. I've never seen any this big before and would be seeing yet more of them on the island.

On the ferry to Saremaa

The island is quite special in Estonian culture because due to its isolated location it was always the last part of the country to be invaded and occupied so traditions and culture that were lost elsewhere could be kept alive.

The castle at Kuressaare

The weather was great as I arrived and after dropping my bags off at the B&B in the capital, Kuressaare, I set off to explore the town. There wasn't too much to see, with the exception of a great medieval castle which houses the museum of the island. Otherwise I spent the day relaxing at a slow pace as I knew the next day would be quite tough - I was going to rent a bike and cycle down the Sorve peninsular.

A strange centrepiece for a harbour

Unfortunately by the morning the weather took a turn for the worse and it was raining on and off all day, but I decided to risk it and cycled about 20km south along the coastal road to see the WW2 remains that the island was well known for.

The battlefield site

Some of the heaviest fighting in Estonia during the Second World War took place on the island as the Germans retreated in the face of the Red Army. At the present site of the battlefield now there isn't much to see, except a typically drab and tasteless Soviet war memorial.

'Banned History'at the modern art museum

I cycled back and spent the rest of the day relaxing before catching the bus in the morning to the coastal resort of Parnu, back on the mainland. This is apparently the place where Estonians go on holiday and is known as something of a party town, although I didn't see much evidence of that. It was all a bit eerily quiet but the town was very pleasant with lots of historic buildings.

It's possible to walk the 2km breakwater right out into the sea

I was only there for a night as I wanted to squeeze in one more stop in Estonia before leaving. It was definitely a nice place with a great beach but once again the weather was against me and it was quite cloudy and windy at times.

On the beach

In the morning a grabbed another bus, this time Estonia's second city, Tartu, and my stay there was I'm glad to say, much more exciting!