Nice little breakfast buffet at the hotel restaurant. Not too much, not too less. Enough variety of food and all I could want in the morning. Stomach’s full and the trip starts again. First stop – Väimela manor. Old manor that needs a hand for rebuilding. It could be a great and beautiful place but time has done its job.
Next up – Tamme-Lauri oak – the thickest tree in Estonia. Used to be oldest also but they discovered an older one. So with 17 meters (56 ft) high and circumference is 831 cm (327 in) it feel like an ant to be under it. It is really huge and amazing how big it can be. And it is around 700 years old.
Cool fact: when we still had kroons, it was on the back of the 10 kroon bill.
Then we found another National Geographic’s yellow window in Urvaste with a view to Urvaste church. After that we made our way to Pühajärve and walked in the park to find Pühajärve oak of war. It got damaged a lot
in 2010, so it doesn’t look so good anymore and it will its time soon. It is 300-400 year old around 7 m in circumference.
As it is not summer yet then some cool thing we wanted to visit in Otepää were closed then only went to see the yellow window there. But we will be back for the action! Before going for the hike we also visited Cantervilla castle which is famous for the weddings. It is also a hotel and should be open everyday then somehow it was totally closed on the day we got there. No sign, nothing. The castle itself looked beautiful but hopefully some other day we will be more lucky.
So for the hike we went! First up was a warm up in Pangodi where there is a nice picnic ground and a little walk around the area. After that came a real hike – in Elva-Vitipalu – track called Viti lake hiking trail (Viti jätje matkarada)! First we had a lot of trouble finding the right place where the track starts. But when we finally got on the way it was good and sporty road in the forest. On the way we visited Viti lake and Vitipalu lookout tower. Estonia is beautiful!! On the way got lost, so instead of 2,3 km we did like 4 probably. Well, it was all good exercise and also had some great hills, so it wasn’t just plain walking.
Second and last hike was Vapramäe educational hiking trail. It had signs on the way and the road itself was really good, especially thinking it was beginning of April. So the trail itself is 3,5 km. We got really distracted on the way because at some point we were walking along the river and on the other side the had those beautiful houses and one complex was so huge and pretty that we tried to think what was the story with it. It turned out to be trout catching place that also has party rooms and other things.
So we ended our big trip with out 5th yellow window – Tartu observatory. After long 2 days we washed the car and got home. We were happy to get home, same time really happy that we took this trip! I’ve never thought that Estonia is beautiful and since last year I have started to discover how magical Estonia actually is. So this trip was total proof of magical nature in Estonia! Even when the trees don’t have leaves yet and everything is quite brown then hiking trough woods and driving trough little villages will show the beauty of Estonia!!