The PicuMarZ Diary

First destination today was Tehumardi battlefield. A large number of Soviet and Nazi soldiers were killed here during a night battle in October 1944, and there is a large monument and several grave stones as a reminder of this sad event.

Today was another hot and sunny day, so we went to Jarve beach to swim in the sea. The water felt very cold, but both Stephen and I managed to swim anyway. Miranda just dipped her toes, that was enough for her . We also stayed a while sunbathing, and Miranda fell asleep in the pram.

We had brought some food with us, which we ate as lunch. In the afternoon we drove further west on the island, and arrived to a village called Kihelkonna. This church has the highest steeple of all churches on Saaremaa. Also, it has the only campanile in the whole Baltics.

After visiting the church we drove to Loona Manor, which is the centre of the Vilsandi Nature Reserve. We were a bit disappointed on the building, which looked like a deserted old house, not like a grand manor that we had expected. But anyway, Vilsandi on the whole did not disappoint us at all. We just drove randomly in the forest, and after a while we parked the car and started walking. Suddenly we saw the sea glittering through the trees, and we found a small road leading to a wonderful, deserted beach. The place felt almost unreal, it felt like we were the only people in the whole world .

Stephen walked out into the shallow water, and was a first a bit afraid when he sank down a bit in the mud. But he kept on walking, and realised that the mud was very smooth and nice. He put some mud on his skin, and got a good, free, natural mud-therapy! He also convinced me to go, and although I was very sceptic and a bit afraid at first, I also experienced how smooth the skin got afterwards.

Unfortunately some other people came to the place a bit later, so we lost our privacy for a while. But they soon left, while we found it difficult to leave this magical place, it was almost starting to get dark when we finally had to go. However, we promised each other that we would return here one more time before leaving Saaremaa.

On our way back we saw the church of Lumanda, and Stephen stopped to take a photo. Then he spotted a restaurant nearby, which looked very interesting. It served typical Estonian food, and we decided to try it. As a starter we got a salad with some potato pancakes, really tasty, and large portions. Luckily the starter was large, because I did not like the white fish we ordered as main course. But anyway, I am still glad we tried this original restaurant.