Beyond the City Walls

This morning we decided to venture outside the city walls and explore the Estonian countryside. We rented bikes for the day and took a 30 mile tour - of which 10 miles in the forest were decidedly less ideal on the ass for biking. We checked the following things off our list.

• Lahemaa National Park: Estonia's largest national park. We think it is only called a national park to trick tourists like us into visiting. It seemed no different than the rest of the countryside scattered with farms and small villages
• Estonia's largest waterfall: At 8 meters high it wasn't quite as impressive as Niagara Falls, but it was close second
• The largest manor in Estonia: Much to Katie's dismay this was enough to get me singing the Sound of Music as we ran around the house
• Boulder Counting: According to our guide book we apparently rode right by "the most beautiful group of boulders" in Estonia but we did count 2,743 along the coast
• Kasmu: "Estonia's cutest village"- more like a small grouping of 10 homes

Just when we thought we had seen it all, the clouds parted and it warmed up to a balmy 85 degrees. An oasis appeared in the middle of the forest complete with a beach, a waterside, and a flock of flying squirrels circling overhead.