Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania

The ferry trip from Helsinki, Finland to Tallinn, Estonia was quick and easy. We booked two days in advance online, showed our passports to board and were on our way.

Although commonly dubbed “the Baltics,” a young Latvian we talked to suggested that grouping the three countries together indicates tourism laziness. The three small countries share a history of being overrun and ruled by bigger, more militaristic surrounding countries, but each has its own character and uniqueness. Estonia and Latvia still have significant populations of Russian speaking immigrants who are segregated from the country’s native language speakers. Estonia is more linguistically and culturally aligned with Finland, while Latvians and Lithuanians can almost understand each other. Estonia and Latvia are predominantly non-religious while Lithuania is predominantly Catholic. The thriving Jewish populations in all three countries were decimated during WWII. All three countries have horrifying stories and relics of the Nazi and Soviet occupations contrasted with fantastic people, art and architecture.

ESTONIA

Tallinn immediately entranced us. There is a magic to its medieval streets and architecture, and you encounter centuries of history in varied layers at every street corner. It almost instantly became one of our favorite European cities. The fact that the city was closed to western visitors until the 1990’s somehow added to its allure. Coming from the west coast of the US with no infrastructure more than 200 years old, it is incredible to see signs of medieval life everywhere. We dove into Tallinn’s past, learning about the years of oppression coupled with the years of various rulers bringing the best of their arts and artists to contribute to the building of the city. In its most recent history, Estonia has been controlled by Sweden, Denmark, various German orders, and Russia. The progression of oppression has left a population that has maintained its identity as it worked toward its independence. Medieval and modern architecture co-exist well and there is also a modern city center with a lot to offer. We chose to focus on the Old Town. You can wander the streets for hours and the old city walls provide a variety of viewpoints over the rooftops, castle turrets and church steeples.

*View down on the rooftops of old town Tallinn*

*Unexpected tunnels - and amazing doors*

*Toompea Castle. Ever pragmatic, the Estonians renovated it into the current parliament building with the medieval turret still attached and standing*

*Exploring Tallinn - so much to see, sometimes we can’t believe we are actually doing this*

Once again our favorite city experience - the free walking tour with a local guide. Here our guide, Kadri, teaches us some Estonian. Apparently one of these phrases is “there is a moose asleep in the bush.” We did not have an occasion to use it.

We spent several hours with Kadri, our Tallinn Free Walking Tour Guide, who shared stories of the history and culture of Estonia interspersed with personal stories of her family. From her we learned that 30% of the population of Tallinn are Russian immigrants who live separate lives from Estonian speakers, speaking only Russian and attending separate schools. She explained the generational viewpoints through her family - a grandma who was exiled to Siberia and will not talk about Russia, a father who is actively angry and refuses to interact with Russians and her own viewpoint that there are relationships to be built - once her generation works past the language barrier and the geographic siloing.

*Posing the truck - currently our favorite photographic model with no children along to force into the role. Alexander Nevsky Orthodox Cathedral.*

*Old wooden houses of Tallinn, outside the old town*

Finally we managed to tear ourselves away from Tallinn and headed out into the country to find more castles and national parks.

*Rakvere Castle, built in the 14th century by the Danes (as were so many things in this region.)*

In our brief education in European castle history, our simplistic synopsis is that they were mostly initially built in the 13th or 14th century, repeatedly destroyed by fire and artillery through the 18th century, added to and embellished in the 19th century (or left to crumble), and then brought back to life by a combination of reconstruction, renovation and rebuilding in the 20th century. No matter what state each castle is in, there is a magical moment when you first see it on the skyline (because they are almost always at the highest point.) Rakvere castle was mostly in ruins, but that led an authenticity to its view.

In Tallinn, we had camped in a city parking field - $2 for the night. Such a deal, but definitely lacking in aesthetics. We were pleased to find our own spot (and our own WCs) in Lahemaa National Park, beautiful woods right on the Baltic Sea.

*And an amazing recycling system explained in pictures for us!*

*Hiking in the Oandu old growth forest in Lahemaa National Park*

*Famous kissing students sculpture in Tartu town square*

Our next stop was the university town, and second biggest in Estonia, of Tartu. The first thing we learned was that the university was initially built by the Swedes and Estonians were not allowed to attend. That has changed and students were everywhere.

It was also laundry and grocery time so a day was spent taking care of business (although we found a laundromat and supermarket in the same parking lot, easy!). With the free walking tours only available at the weekend, we instead stopped by the tourist information office and got our own map and guide of the highlights - very complete and informative - and set off to explore.

*Back out to the National Parks to camp. Found a great spot on a lake in Karula National Park.*

National parks were conveniently dotted throughout all three Baltic countries, providing beautiful free camping spots, typically including a supply of freshly cut firewood, a fire pit, picnic table and often a shelter.

We have been plagued by some squeaking and rattling– Andy took a moment to tighten the bolts holding the camper to the flatbed, which had loosened. Good to fix, but unfortunately did not solve the problem.

*Climbing the highest peak in Karula National Park*

*Karula National Park - woodlands, farmlands, creeks and lakes*

LATVIA

We said goodbye to Estonia, with hopes of returning (never enough time), and made our way to Latvia. First stop, the village of Cēsis and a castle, of course.

*Keeping it atmospheric, we were given a candle lantern to explore the inside of the castle*

Cēsis Castle was fantastic - for us, it struck the right balance of ruins and reconstruction. You could feel its age, get a sense of its true bones and yet there was enough reconstruction to explore what the castle really felt like.

*First Latvian camping spot - Gauja National Park on the Gauja River*

*Rumšiškės - Āraiši archeological park with reconstructed island fortress*

Next, more history lessons. Everyday we learn more about how little we have known about the world we live in. We visited the Āraiši archeological park in Rumšiškės to see a recontructed island fortress and recontructed bronze age homes.

Then onwards to Sigulda for, once again, castles. We opted to park at the train station and walk what we thought was a 7 km loop encompassing three castles and a cave. As it turned out, the mileage was one way so we ended up walking 13 km on roads, up and down steps and through construction zones. In the end we were very tired and likely did not appreciate the sites as much as we could have. Some days are like that.

*Sigulda new castle, built for a Russian prince in the 1800’s*

*Gūtmaņa Cave, largest erosion cave in the Baltics. It was a nice Sunday so we were not alone. Interesting inscriptions everywhere.*

*Rebuilt medieval castle in Sigulda. Not our favorite castle, but we were tired and over stimulated with people and sites.*

*Back to peace and quiet camping on the Gauja river in Gauja National Park and celebrating Andy’s birthday. And send him many years of sunshine days!*

After getting refreshed and replenished in the woods we were ready to hit another big city - Riga. We put truck life on hold and booked into a room in an old convent in the old town. $40 US per night and we had an apartment with a mini-fridge so that we could transfer groceries and complete a needed defrost of the camper fridge.

A quick COVID note, in Estonia there were no restriction or requests to see our proof of vaccination. In Latvia, we were asked to show proof of vaccination to enter a building - store or restaurant. We have been able to show pictures of our cardboard US vaccination cards most places. We have also downloaded the CLEAR app and have a QR code. However, the QR code does not work in Europe. So far the only thing we have been prevented from doing was going to see the new James Bond movie on Andy’s birthday. They were only accepting Latvian QR codes. Oh well, safety first.

*Freedom Monument in Riga, symbolizing Latvia’s hard won independence*

Once again we joined the free walking tours, spending many hours with Kaspars, a native Latvian who taught us with humor and grace.

*Riga’s Art Nouveau, highest concentration of Art Nouveau architecture of anywhere in the world*

Kaspars took us by the iconic House of the Blackheads in Riga but also pointed out that despite the language on the buildings stating they were renovated in the 1990’s, they were actually completely rebuilt. So not old, but a replica of what was.

Replenished with food, water, propane, gas and freshly showered, we left Riga for our final two spots in Latvia.

*Bauska Castle, partially recontructed and partly in ruins*

*Rundāle Palace, built by German dukes in the 1700’s. We walked around the outside gardens to stretch our legs but opted out of the paid entrance fee.*

LITHUANIA

With a sense of panic as the countdown on our 90 days in Schengen countries marched steadily down, we left Latvia and entered Lithuania. Our first stop was the Hill of Crosses where people began memorializing those lost during a string of oppressive occupations. Despite being mowed down twice by the Soviets during their occupation, the crosses kept returning.

*Hill of Crosses - a testament to human faith and hope*

*Our first Lithuanian castle - Kaunas Castle, completely rebuilt.*

We stopped off in Kaunas to see the castle, wandered the town square then made our way on to the largest open air museum in Europe - the Lithuanian Folk museum. Unfortunately, one of the places we did not get the most out of. Many of the exhibits were shut down for the season - buildings closed - and there was very little contextual information given for what we were seeing. But we had a nice walk. On the other hand, we thought Kernavė was intriguing. Thought to have been the spot where Mindaugas (responsible for uniting Lithuania for the first time) celebrated his coronation in 1253, this cultural reserve comprises four old castle mounds and the remains of a medieval town.

*Lithuanian Open Air Folk Museum - housing through the ages*

*Castle mounds at Kernavė - impressive Unesco site*

*Reconstructed 13th century craftman’s village homes in Kernavė*

*Trakai Island Castle - we arrived at sunset and enjoyed the view from a disance.*

A little bit tired of trying to decipher history for ourselves, we were happy to hit Vilnius for, yes you guessed it, two more free walking tours. Our guide was Ugnė, fabulous at showing us both the hidden corners and the main historic and cultural sites of the city, all the while making it interesting and entertaining for our tired brains.

*Statue of Medeina, pagan goddess of forests and animals*

*A walk through Užupis, an artist enclave and self declared free republic in Vilnius. It reminded us of Christiana in Copenhagen.*

Vilnius free walking tours with our guide Ugnė

Typically international group: Bolivia, Ukraine, China, Italy, Israel, England, Belgium, Germany, Slovakia and Switzerland.

*Lithuanian version of “and you get nothing”*

*Old wooden house district in Vilnius, Žvėrynas - a diverse historical neighborhood tucked in between skyscrapers*

*And a final goodbye to Vilnius as we leave the city gates. Time to leave the Schengen area, Romania here we come.*

Moldova

Finland