Monday, November 09, 2009

lahemaa - day 9



The next day we started by visiting Palmse manor, considered to be the most beautiful restored manor in Estonia. The grounds are somewhat extensive, but perfectly explorable under a couple of hours. We got there early and in rainy weather, so it was really quiet and peaceful. My favorite part was the lake and the building below (the bathing house, if I'm not mistaken).







From Palmse we decided to drive all the way to Rakvere, outside of the National Park. I'd read the castle was worth visiting, and indeed it was a really fun and entertaining experience. Inside there are many activities you can try (from archery, to coin minting, pottery making, etc), there's a somewhat scary torture chamber and nice exhibitions to visit.























For lunch we tried the Art Café, located in central Rakvere. It's a modern and cosy small café/restaurant, and the food was quite reasonable.



One of the main reasons for going to Lahemaa was to visit the Viru Bog, something that A. was really keen to see. We did the 3.5 km nature trail on the wooden walkway and then returned to the car park using another hiking route through the woods. Total hiking duration was probably a couple of hours, and the landscape was definitely unlike anything I'd seen.



















Last on our plans for that day was to see the erratic boulders by the sea near Kasmu bay. From previous photos I'd seen I thought they would be more impressive, so I was a bit disappointed. Still, it was a beautiful sunset and a lovely way to finish our last evening in Estonia.







More photos:
Palmse Manor
Rakvere
Viru Bog
Kasmu

2 comments:

likeschocolate said...

More gorgeous photos! I think I am really now going to have to visit these locations. What a fantastic trip you planned. I love that it is off the beaten path too.

yummy peony said...

Wow! I love the look of your dishes, how interesting to see a dish with different shades like that!