Baltics - 21 June 2102 (3)

On Our Bikes!

On My Bike

We finished the castle tour at 13.30 and Ann, Bob and I dashed back to the hotel to hire some bikes.  This was easier said than done.  The biggest problem was that the brakes operated by back-pedalling.  With my dodgy knee, I can only push off with my right leg, which means that my right pedal has to be near the top before I can set off. This is easy at home: I just back pedal to get it in the correct position.  In Estonia, I needed to make sure I stopped with the pedals just so.  This made me feel less secure and so I needed a bike where my feet firmly touched the ground, not just on tiptoe.  It took three attempts before I found a bike which I could ride.  Being smaller, it meant that I would have to do a lot more pedalling for any given distance than at home.

Suur Toll and Piret, Kuressaare

Despite it being a hot, sunny day, I had to dash to the room to put on leggings and boots to maintain my modesty while cycling.  Then I met Ann and Bob in reception and off we went.  Our first stop was to get something to eat at the supermarket behind the old Town Hall.  I just got a Mars bar and a packet of paprika flavoured TUC biscuits (which turned out to be extremely tasty).  Ann and Bob got a cold hamburger in a bun and some gooey cakes.  Nothing very healthy for any of us!

Tori jõgi, Kuressaare

We cycled to a small park, where we ate our food and had a few gulps of water.  It was very pretty and just the right temperature as we sat under the trees.

Bay beside Nasva Surf Club

Then we set off for our big adventure.  We decided to head west along the coast.  We followed a cycle path, covered in gravel.  This wasn’t the best surface for cycling and I was worried about punctures, which would have meant disaster.  The path took us to a sculpture of a man and a naked woman, carrying a boat full of fish.  These were Suur Toll and Piret, who are the folk heroes of Saaremaa.  The sculpture was by Tauno Kangro.  It was in front of a large hotel, so we moved across to the paved path alongside the hotel to save our tyres.

Resting beside Nasva Surf Club

Then we followed a cycle path which took us over two small wooden bridges crossing the Tori jõgi and the Põduste jõgi.  The first bridge was a bit too steep, so we wheeled our bikes across.

Windmill by River Nasva

Once across the second bridge, the surface of the cycle path improved considerably, so we hurtled out of town.  I say hurtled, although really that was only true for Ann.  I was much slower because of my small wheels and Bob wasn’t much faster.  He reckoned it was all down to the quality of the bikes and Ann had been lucky enough to get a good one.  Ann had to keep stopping to wait for us to catch up.  After a while, the cycle path became a mini-avenue between poppies and other wild flowers.  I thought it was so pretty and was glad to be travelling slowly enough to enjoy it.

We passed an oak wood, but decided not to explore as it meant another gravel path, so we continued on until we came to a right turn.  I went off to scout for a cycle path and could see one on the opposite corner, so we decided to take that route rather than come back the way we had gone.

Martins Foraging in Bay

But first, Ann wanted to get to the sea, so we continued on and took a left turn with signs pointing to a surf club, which looked promising.  The road was terrible.  The surface resembled hardened caterpillar tracks on a building site, with gravel thrown on top.  When cars went past, they threw up a cloud of dust.  At least the first one slowed down so it wasn’t that bad, but the others did not.  Luckily, there weren’t many cars.  On the right hand side of the road was the estuary of the River Nasva, so we knew we would have to come back the same way.

Wooden Houses, Kuressaare

At the end of the road, there was a hut, which belonged to the surf club, and a wooden slope to the beach.  On the other side of the river, which had now become a small harbour, was a hotel or similar, with a wind turbine.  Ann walked off to find some interesting stones on the beach and I watched a martin on the wet sand.  When Ann returned, lots more martins came onto the beach.  We thought they might have been gathering wet sand for their nests, or they might have been finding insects.

After a rest, we headed back up the road.  I went down to 2^nd gear, which made the ride a bit less bumpy – or maybe it was smoother on this side of the road.  There were no cars, so we cycled three abreast.  I said it was like in the Famous Five.

Kuressaare Castle from Coast

Then we got back on the good track and headed back to the junction.  Although a main road, there was no traffic, so we were able to cross without stopping.  Unfortunately, the cycle path disappeared soon after the junction.  So we cycled back to the right hand side of the road (there was still no traffic) and kept to the white line at the edge.  The others let me go in the lead, so that we could stay together and make sure we were all safe.

Harbour, Kuressaare

Two ambulances overtook us: one when we were on a small piece of cycle lane, racing down with sirens blaring; and another moving slowly when we were a bit further on.  Very few cars passed us during our long ride up this road, even though it seemed to be the Kuressaare by-pass.

We saw a brown sign and stopped for a while to look and read the information board.  To our right was a lake, which was famous for its wildfowl in the summer.  We didn’t see much wildfowl while we cycled past.  Most of the wildlife consisted of mosquitos, including one I caught biting me through my leggings.  There were some large dragonflies, Bob and Ann spotted some white butterflies and I saw three hooded crows – and that was it.

Baltic Coast of Kuressaare

At long last, we came to a roundabout with a road leading into Kuressaare.  There was still no cycle path, but still hardly any traffic.  We re-crossed the Põduste jõgi and saw a very pretty arched stone bridge to the left.  We passed some soviet style apartment blocks, which we had missed on our city tour for some reason, but then reached some of the more picturesque wooden houses.

After a small dog-leg, we reached the sea and recognised the sculpture of Suur Toll and Piret.  We waved to David and Dulcie as we took a diversion to see the boats in the harbour.  On the way back, we saw Craig, who took a photo of us.  Then we returned to the hotel, parked the bikes and paid Juhan – just €4.00.