August 28, 2024
Day 58: Tallinn to Padise
From the city into the forest
“The bike path is a nice surprise,” Rachel says as we finally make it out of the city and on the Eurovelo 10/13 route. Since we had grown accustom to Scandinavian bike paths, we were not sure what to expect with the infrastructure for cyclists in Estonia.
We started the day with another hotel breakfast. As Patrick waited to get the coffee, a man asked if he was a cyclist, recognizing his shoes. We shared a table with the couple from Germany on a tour of the Baltics. Yesterday walking around we spotted a sign for the Eurovelo route, so Patrick knew the direction to get out of the Old Town. Then the navigation became tricky though mostly still on bikepaths. After 9kms we see the sign for the Bike routes 10 and 13. Over the course of the day, the signs became more of a confirmation that we were on the route rather than helping with directions. Some intersections where a sign would have been helpful they were not existent.
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The route we are taking today is not the most direct, but all information we have seen about cycling in the Baltics says to avoid the main direct roads. This route makes a big arc and follows the coast. The road looks fairly new and the bike path is almost continuous. After 29km we briefly cycle on the road but it has a nice shoulder. We stop for a chocolate milk and eat the pastries we bought at a Lidl shortly after leaving Tallinn, then later make another stop for coffee. A couple of times the road is along the Gulf of Finland coast, but most of the way we only see trees. After our road intersects with the main direct route we turn south on a pretty nice road, but after a couple of kilometers it deteriorates in to a gravel dirt road. The bugs are pretty thick, when we stop it does not take long for the mosquitoes to find us.
Most of today we are on bike paths except for the section that we did on an unpaved road.
Before Rummu we split up briefly. Patrick rides two kilometers to Amari to see the Soviet Pilot cemetery. There used to be a Soviet air force base here, there are derelict brick apartment buildings that still seem to be in use. He meets three national guardsmen from Maryland who are here to work on the landing strip, “It’s a different world,” they say. Rachel continues onto Rummu and waits at the Duett grocery store. When Patrick arrives we buy some beers and chips for this afternoon and head for our lodgings. A couple hundred meters on is a flooded quarry that we turn into to have a look, but we decide against the 5 Euro pp entrance fee when we would only be there briefly to see the structures that are in the water.
We see the signs for our destination “Kalaste Kalu” that takes us again through a forest on an unpaved road. We feel like we are the only guests in an old Soviet style vacation camp. The grounds are huge and the lady shows us to our “hobbit hut” accommodation. Across from the hut is a small wooden building with the WC and the shower. It certainly has an “outdoor” feel, but the shower is hot. We share a sandwich, potato chips and beer that we picked up in Rummu. There are lots of playgrounds, an amphitheater, disk golf and so on. It’s just all abandoned. Nearby are some open sheds with old Soviet cars and really cool old wooden sleds, work benches and other tools.
Sketch watercolor here
Patrick had arranged to have dinner and at 5pm we make our way back to the main area. We are impressed with the meal of potatoes, chicken, pork, sausages, cucumber and tomato salad with dressing and a fantastic dessert with coffee. All this for 10 Euro each. Too bad the WiFi does not reach to our hobbit hut, but we’ll just update things tomorrow.
Today's ride: 75 km (47 miles)
Total: 2,782 km (1,728 miles)
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