We left Riga today for Saaremaa Island.

The drive to our next stop was a couple of hours and uneventful except for the fact that we crossed into Estonia, the third country on our trip. We stopped in Parnu, Estonia for lunch and a quick look-see. Parnu is a beautiful resort town that explodes during peak season because it’s such a popular destination. We were there in the off-season, missing the throngs of people, which is just fine for us.

After a short walk we stopped at Dodo Pizza for lunch. Pretty certain Tomas thought we were nuts for wanting pizza for lunch!

After lunch Tomas made a special stop at the shore so Jay could stick her feet in the Baltic Sea. Being the good sports they are, Sondra and Marla decided to join her for the adventure. They stepped in, took some pics, and quickly walked out. Some of the remarks were “that felt refreshing”, “wow that was cold”, and “I can’t feel my feet”. Regardless, it was worth it!

From Parnu we headed to catch a ferry from Virtsu to Saaremaa, which is the largest Estonian island. (Technically the ferry was to a smaller island, and then from that island we drove across a bridge to Saaremaa, the larger island.) We heard there were reportedly 3,000 islands counted in the Baltic Sea, but that included “bird-shitting islands”. What’s that you ask? Rocks that stick up out of the water, used by birds for landing and… well… for shitting. That was a tongue-in-cheek way of saying the island count might be a bit exaggerated.

Our overnight stop was in Kuressaare, the capital of Saaremaa island. This island has 33,000 inhabitants with 13,000 living in the capital. How should we describe our hotel? Dated with lots of roses. It was fully booked as many head to Kuressaare for weekends as there are a lot of resorts and spas, and ours was a resort/spa. Despite being the off season, it was fully booked for the night.

Here is one example of the dated-ness (but also quaint-ness). Even tho dated, it was exceptionally charming and “neat”.

We had a walking tour with a local guide and, due to a timing issue, missed going inside the castle. She said we would ‘walk to the park where you can see the castle’. Expecting to see a pile of rubble, we had no idea that the castle was truly a moated, defensive castle with excellent earthen ramparts and defensive construction. And the moat… we are not talking a traditional, dirty, narrow moat, this was a M O A T.

We spent nearly all of our time on the castle grounds, walking around/on top of the walls, taking pictures, and enjoying a beautiful sunset.

Here are some pictures to enjoy.

Here is a small monument that shows you the layout and extent of the castle and defensive fortress / grounds. To give a feel for how expansive the grounds are, between the left castle wall (above) and the left most earthen rampart, they fit several thousand people for concerts in the summers.

As we’ve said several times, this is the off-season. Great because you avoid crowds, not so great when you’re in resort-type areas and restaurants are seasonal. Our guide suggested a restaurant that was under one of the remaining few windmills that previously ‘powered’ the island.

Somehow, she managed to get us a table although they were fully booked, with the caveat being that we had to be seated and order by 7 pm. It was 6:55 pm. We order quickly and the food was fantastic!!

We strolled back to the hotel and enjoyed the rest of the evening in our hotel.

Ta.