We left Tallinn very early, flew to Amsterdam, changed planes and flew to Bucharest, Romania.  We were met by a driver and taken to the hotel.  My first impression is of a beautiful city with huge old houses that are now foreign embassies or private homes.  And the city is full of beautiful and big gardens.  Our hotel is nice and we walk to a restaurant and have sour soup, chicken and mushroom blitzes and grilled chicken wings with cucumber sauce.  Back to the hotel to await the group we will tour with.  (With whom we will tour).  We meet for dinner in the hotel at 7:30…we have a mother, her two daughters (one in high school one in college) and a friend of the girls…from Switzerland.  A man and wife from Holland.  Two sisters from Holland…one speaks a few words in English.  A woman from Australia traveling without her husband, a woman from Australia traveling without her boyfriend, a college professor (French History) from Boston and two men from Brazil I am presuming to be partners…they speak Portuguese.  We have our guide, Peter who speaks English and Romanian and a second guide, Michael, who speaks Romanian, English, French, German, Spanish and Italian.  This language situation sounds a little like the Towel of Babel.  Wonder how confusing this will be?  Guess we will find out.

Today, we went on another tour near Tallinn, Estonia.  There were eight of us with the guide.  The guides we have had the last three days have been young, smart and really know their stuff.  All under 25 with at least three languages they are fluent in…English, Estonian, Russian…then Spanish or French or German.  Today we went to a beach.  Very Sandy with not too many people on a day that was a bit chilly.  Then we headed to another waterfall and Forest area.  The waterfall was more impressive that yesterday’s fall, but not as tall.  On the property was another Manor house that looked like a castle, and there was a small chapel next door.  We went to a wind farm, making electricity and it abuts a defunct nuclear power station.  It will be able to be dismantled in the 2040’s.  It does nothing now except store nuclear waste.  Then we went to lunch at a small pub.  We are outside under a cherry tree near a mint and rhubarb patch.  I had borscht, port roast studded with garlic cloves, and boiled potatoes with dill and sour cream.  Did I ever tell you that we cannot get dill nor sour cream in Italy?  Well, we can’t   We had fresh rhubarb cake right out of the oven.  Another wonderful meal.  Off we went to a monastery built in the 1200’s for Cistercian monks who helped bring Christianity to Estonia.  When lightening hit the monastery centuries ago and it burned, a manor house was built across the courtyard and today it is a  lovely hotel.  From the monastery, we went to a prison.  At one time it was so low security, they allowed prisoners to go home for two weeks at a time. It later became a maximum security prison and now it is empty and will be dismantled at some point.  Originally the prisoners worked at a limestone quarry next door.  After the prison was closed, the area around the quarry was flooded and today it is a huge lake with some big cement block houses in the middle.  Lots of people were there sunbathing today, and swimming and kids were climbing inside the house to the second story and jumping into the lake.  One of the guys on our tour had brought a suit, so he changed and went swimming..said it was very cold and very refreshing.  Past of the Baltic Sea freezes in the winter and people are allowed to drive on it.  Very strict rules…under 20 km per hour or over 70…less vibration for,each of these speeds to avoid ice break up.  You cannot wear a seat belt…the only time that is allowed…and the door to the car must be cracked open a bit.  Sounds a bit outside my comfort level…and can you even imagine how cold it must be for the sea to freeze solid enough to drive on?  The last stop of the day was to see a defunct Soviet aircraft.  Today, it houses a model airplane club inside.  We got to go inside and sit in the cockpit and even climb on the roof.  Even though they tried to scrape off the Red Star off the wings and tail, they can faintly be seen.  We were asking questions of the guide, when a darling 14 year old boy with flaming and curly red hair and freckles said, ‘I can answer the questions for you’.  Perfect English..considering he is from Greeley, Colorado with an American mother, Estonian father.  They are here as Naptist missionaries.  The young man, Theo Magi (pronounced Maggy) flies a model glider, wants to be a fixed wing pilot in 4 years Whe. He is old enough.  He was so smart and personable…and I told him Imwas going to keep an eye out for him!  Evidently he had placed 2nd in an important model airplane competition this year.  Tomorrow, bright and early, we head for Amsterdam and then Bucharest, Romania for an 8 day tour of Romania.  So that is all of Estonia.  It is a beautiful country I wouldn’t mind visiting again.  But NOT in the winter!  Good night.

Today we met our tour group to go to the Lahemaa National Park in Estonia.  There were 6 of us.  Two ladies from Austria and a young woman from Tokyo.  And our guide, a darling 22 year old ‘wealth of knowledge’!  First, we went to the largest waterfall in Estonia.  It was lovely, but I’ve seen bigger waterfalls at private swimming pools.  The water is low this time of year and it would be more spectacular of the width were larger as it will be later…and in the winter when it freezes I imagine it is beautiful.  We then went to a Manor House.  A HUGE house in terrible state of disrepair.  It was built by the Teutonic (German) Knights during the 1500’s.  When Hitler called all Germans back to Germany, this family left and now a private family has bought the Manor and wants to restore it and make it a hotel.  Don’t think this will happen in my lifetime…but it will be spectacular when and if it is finished.  We then went to a Russian submarine de-magnetization station from the Cold War.  The submarines would get magnetized going thru the water…something to do with physics…so they would wrap wires around the submarine to de-magnetize it so it wouldn’t show up on radar.  I never could get a real grasp on how this was accomplished, as the place is pretty much in ruins…but it is in a beautiful cove off the Baltic Sea.  As a side note: Estonia has 1500 islands and some are for sale.  Finland has only two islands.  They are NOT for sale. On our drive today we saw a Moose Crossing sign.  Saw no moose!  I would have loved that.  The. We went to a little fishing village to a home and museum to have lunch.  The owner of the museum has collected boating antiques and memorabilia for years.  He and his brother hold the worlds record for underwater swimming!  Quite a character.  He is also an artist.  He smoked salmon steaks for our lunch in a big metal smoker and they were the best I’ve ever eaten.  We sat outside in a little covered patio area, looking at the sea.  Huge bowls of boiled potatoes with dill were passed and a cucumber/sour cream sauce.  Had black bread and butter, honey, coffee, tea, strawberry water and blueberry cheesecake for dessert.  A fabulous meal!  After lunch we went to another little fishing village that had old style typical houses with a reed roof.  Done properly and maintained they last 50-60 years.  In a park, there is a swing.  Estonians hold an Olympic record for swinging.  This is a big wooden thing with platforms and handrails.  Six people get on the swing facing each other – three on each side standing up. And they start swinging, and this thing can go 360 degrees over the top bar!  How they hang on is beyond me…must be another physics thing!  The girls tried it and I took pictures.  I may be a lot of things…crazy perhaps, but I’m not stupid!  One of these house we saw in this village had a bid moose head carved on the side of the house…protection from evil spirits.  Then we drove to another Manor House…this one completely restored.  The out building consist of a museum, a hotel and restaurant and several cottages, perhaps part of the hotel.  This is a popular place for weddings and a beautiful setting.  Once a year, there is a costume ball and people rent 18th century ball gowns for the event.  This place was built by another Teutonic Knight family…and left when Hitler called.  Our last stop was The Bogs.  During the Ice Age, this part of the Baltic Sea was a frozen mass.  As it warmed, water was trapped and became a bog.  The water is acidic and no bacteria can live in it, but they have found perfectly preserved bodies in the bog.  It is a beautiful area…first a forest with pine and spruce and lots of small blueberry bushes as undergrowth.  We picked and ate the tiny wild blueberries.  Going further in towards the bog, the terrain changes to stunted pines, lots of heather and some funny flowers at the end of a stark bare stalk.  These white flowers are poisonous and dangerous.  If there are too many in a bog area, just smelling them can make a person dizzy and disoriented.  They can be used in small, proper amounts for medicinal purposes and are part of the rhododendron family.  Walking thru the bog, there is a wooden bridge the entire way so you don’t get bogged down!  We came back to Tallinn and went to dinner.  I had cucumbers…tiny ones sliced with a sour cream and honey sauce and a fish soup.  Clear vegetable broth, dill, carrots, tiny onions and chives, potatoes and pieces of salmon and cod.  Delicious.  Home. Hot Shower. Bed.  A great day with our 9 hour tour!