Otepää

Last night Sue and I enjoyed a lovely meal with Susan and Roy at the Kaerajaan restaurant in Tallinn's vast Town Hall square.

The tallest spire was nicely lit as we strolled past it on our return to the

Tallink Spa and Conference Hotel at which we were based for a couple of days.

This morning's three and a half hour bus transfer to Otepää took us past forests of silver birch and pine, across flat terrain with empty fields that no doubt will yield grain later in the year. We had a short break for elevenses at a café by a windmill. No sign of any livestock, just a few crows and birds of prey.

We skirted around Tartu to arrive at our nice hotel in Otepää - Tehvandi Hotel - in time for a buffet lunch.

This is a skiing trip. The bad news is that there seems to be no snow of any note in Estonia. The good news is that there appears to be a snow factory from which lorry loads are being unloaded at this venue. Sue is pictured on our short course in front of a freshly dumped pile. The lorry has just driven off. The bottom picture shows a few of us at 'the end of the snow'. It comes to an abrupt end above a pretty valley.

Despite the constraints, most of us skied around in circles for over two hours in bitterly cold conditions. Sue and I covered just over 16 km. 

We must be mad!