Windmills, unseen cliffs and the biggest castle in the Baltics

Today rain nearly stopped play. A persistent driving downpour started before dawn, and hardly stopped before four o'clock this afternoon. Luckily, we were able to take refuge in the keep of Kuressaare castle with its eclectic collection of displays ranging from dodgy stuffed wildlife to a fascinating and chilling retelling of Saaremaa island's extraordinary role in the 1940s as the rattle between Germany's Tweedledum and Russia's Tweedledee. A third of the population perished as a result.

Mustn't let the Tsar and his family get wet

We arrived on the island yesterday after a brief 25 minute ferry crossing. We had started the day in the wonderful spa town of Haapsalu, having taken the dogs for a walk along the shore to see the glorious railway station built to receive Tsarist holiday makers in the early 1900s. It has a 216m long covered platform, so that the imperial party didn't get wet on arrival. A collection of Soviet era locos is rusting away outside, and the inside is now a museum. The track itself is a cycle path. 


Our water tank was almost empty, having not been filled up since leaving Tallinn, so we elected to pay for the first time to fill up at the fuel station in town - 5c a litre. We then pushed on to Virtsu, and the ferry to Saaremaa, now a popular holiday destination for people from Tallinn, but for many years closed to outsiders as a Soviet defence stronghold. The ferry was modern and rather posh compared to some of those we'd become used to in Norway, and the cafeteria, shop and comfortable seating meant we were taken by surprise when invited to return to our vehicles barely 20 minutes after leaving them. 

The ferry arrives in Muhu, a small island between Saaremaa and the mainland, and there is a causeway between Muhu and Saaremaa. A short lunch stop at the causeway informed us that the islands had held out against Christianity longer than most of Europe, but the last group of pagans had been massacred by the crusading Brothers of the Sword in the 1340s. It also described the building of the causeway in the late nineteenth century, and how when money was finally made available work progressed much more quickly than expected as the locals construction workers were paid by the yard. 

The tree makes a great defender

A detour for supplies in the Co-op at Orissaare allowed us a quick visit to the town football pitch, which is unique for having an oak tree in the middle of it. The sports field was built with the tree still standing, on the expectation that the tree would be felled before completion. However, the tree was not inclined to comply, and despite scars and scorch marks in its hollowed-out trunk, it is there to this day. 

Who do we know interested in gravestones?

Next stop was the 14th Century St Catherine's Lutheran church and its similarly aged gravestones, before parking up at Angla Windmill Hill. €4 each gave us access to a bizarre collection of farm machinery, some local artefacts of dubious provenance, and the windmills themselves. There were once 800 on the island. This collection has four small windmills, and one large Dutch one, all built around the turn of the last century, and grouped together on a windy ridge for practical reasons. We had fun scrambling around their innards, and admiring the vast wooden cogs and wheels. By now it was time to look for a pitch for the night, and luckily Saaremaa has its own collection of RMK campgrounds. We found one down a track to the sea, with room to turn Florence around, a dry toilet, and seaside walks for the pups, but little chance of anyone else coming by.

Another seaside picnic spot

This morning full waterproofs were required for dog walking. It's a shame Florence has no rainwater collection system, as our tanks would have been well topped up, even after showers for the crew. Instead we visited a nearby marina, having become aware of the need to fill up whenever possible here. There wasn't a soul to be seen, so we made use of a tap on the harbour wall, and hotfooted it out. Our first stop was the cliffs at Panga, at 20m the highest on the island. I had a vision of parking on the cliff and looking out to sea, but the road took us to a large car park and neither of us could face the prospect of togging up in waterproofs again to walk into driving rain and squint at 20m cliffs. The ones at Nordkapp were over 300m! We abandoned Panga and made for the island's capital, Kuressaare. 

They don't pull their punches here

We have as yet only glimpsed the town itself, another elegant spa resort offering curative mud baths, but with rain failing to let up, we have made the most of the fabulous castle grounds, and the almost fully intact keep with its warren of passages, stairways and mis-matched displays. It appears that any collection installed in the museum has been left as it was, and others have been added later. So there is an introduction to local wildlife and geology in the basement that looks unchanged for 50 years, with moth-eaten stuffed animals and poor translations. There is a local history collection taking visitors from the Stone Age to the 1980s, with only Russian translations and the occasional attempt at an English summary in dodgy capitals. Then there is the collection of Soviet memorabilia, with no English information at all, followed by the truly powerful and contemporary section detailing Saaremaa's history during the second World War and since. This display has excellent English translations and handouts in several other languages. It is utterly scathing about the years under Soviet occupation. We emerged with our brains overloaded with information, to discover that the rain had finally stopped, the sun was peeking through the clouds, and a game of ball with the spaniels was possible on the grass. Just what we all needed before settling down in the town car park for the night.

A short history of tractors in Estonia

The Soviet section

"A zealous street renamer"  Ouch.