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  [2/2] Seto Museum of Farming keeps live animals, but due to the spread of foot-and-mouth disease across Europe visiting the animal barn isn’t currently possible; we nevertheless admired the traditional stick fences (📷1). For lunch we enjoyed a hearty Seto variant of goulash soup with an unexpectedly soft and flavourful dark bread at the farm’s restaurant (📷2). In normal times you can drive from this recreation of a wealthy 1920s farm to Saatse Seto Museum, uniquely passing through Russian Federa...

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  We looked over the architecturally-interesting Estonian National Museum in Tartu, built atop a former Soviet airfield. Tartu tähetorn | Tartu Old Observatory is Estonia’s first observatory, completed in 1810 and now a museum (📷1). The “pearl” of its collection is Fraunhofer’s refracting telescope (📷2). This instrument was used by German-born Russian astronomer Friedrich Struve to measure how distant stars were, with its superior optics (Fraunhofer was an optician by trade) and a micrometre att...

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  Karula rahvuspark | Karula National Park in southern Estonia was the setting for our last hike before crossing back into Latvia. We chose the circular Rebäse maastikurada | Rebase Landscape Trail as it promised views over rolling hills. The trail begins/ ends with Tornimägi Hill, at 139m the highest “peak” in the Karula Uplands. This soggy trail offered mud and mosquitoes, passing through a couple of swamps (📷1), winding around a few small lakes (📷2), and surmounting a number of hills—some fores...

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  [1/2] A transit of eastern Latvia. After leaving Rebäse in Estonia we headed for the border with Latvia, aiming for Rāznas nacionālais parks | Rāzna National Park in the Latgale region, the southeastern “Land of Blue Lakes”. Mākoņkalns | Cloud Hill is 248m above sea level—although only about 50m in relative height. At the top are the scant medieval ruins of Volkenberg Castle, although our motive for the short climb was an elevated view of Rāznas ezers | Lake Rāzna, about 2km distant (📷1). Rāzna...

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  [2/2] A transit of eastern Latvia cont. We left Rāzna National Park and en route to Velnezers entered a Border Zone where we were stopped by 🚨 police (Belarus was to the other side of Dagda). They asked where we were going, where we had come from, and looked into our mud-splattered van. We continued on, the gravel road again getting narrower and muddier—until we bailed, and backtracked to tarmac. Our revised sealed route went through Aglona (known for its basilica), near to the petite and pretty...

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  Aukštaitijos Nacionalinis Parkas | Aukštaitija National Park was our first destination in Lithuania, following our entry from southeastern Latvia. We passed through a military checkpoint en route to Palūšė, where the church built in 1750 CE is one of the oldest surviving wooden churches in Lithuania (📷1). From the Visitor Centre we took the recommended Meironų pažintinis takas | Meironu Nature Trail, which includes forest, swamp and lakeside sections. More than elsewhere we were molested by 🪰 Li...

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  [1/3] Our second hike in Aukštaitijos Nacionalinis Parkas | Aukštaitija National Park began in the village of Ginučiai, settled in 1554 CE. The watermill has been a feature since at least 1738 CE (📷1) and the village contains many examples of traditional-style wooden houses (📷2). After leaving the village the trail follows a dirt road through forest for several kilometres before offering the first lake views, at the site of a bridge at a four-way crossroads (📷3). There’s more traditional archite...

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  [2/3] Ginučiai hike cont. Here’s another view of the village of Salos (📷1). Just down the road is its sister village, creatively named Salos II; we ate lunch beside this nicely restored 1922 barn (📷2). Our favourite view on the trail was from a small bridge over the channel connecting the lakes of Alksnaitis and Linkmenas (📷3). Next up was Ladakalnis Hill, formerly a place for pagan worship, where six lakes can be seen simultaneously. The adjacent Ginučiai Mound (“castle mound”) is the site of a...

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  [3/3] Ginučiai hike cont. Always a pleasure to spot a new-to-us 🦋 butterfly; Polygonia c-album | the comma has characteristic notches in its forewings and orange/ brown/ black colouration, mimicking fallen leaves (📷1). We saw Natrix natrix | the European grass snake again several times—although only once alive (📷2); the others had been run over. It was a similar story with Anguis colchica | the eastern slowworm (or possibly Anguis fragilis | the common slowworm); this is a legless lizard, not a...

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  The day began with astronomy and ended with archeology, as we visited two of Lithuania’s World Heritage Sites. Looking somewhat like a pet cemetery, this enclosure near Meškonys is one of the country’s three preserved Struve Geodetic Arc sites (📷1). Kernavės archeologinės vietovės muziejus | Kernavė Archaeological Site Museum is a modern, quality museum with two permanent halls, covering prehistory and the Middle Ages. There’s evidence of almost continuous settlement at Kernavė for the past 10,0...

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  Changing of the Light, Neris River, Baltas kalnas | White Hill, Kernavė. 🇱🇹 #europe #baltics #lithuania #lietuva 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife

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  [1/3] The historic Old Town of Lithuania’s capital #Vilnius is UNESCO-listed; it served as the political centre of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and its architectural diversity includes Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassical styles. Gedimino pilies bokštas | Gediminas Castle Tower c. 1409/ 1933 CE (📷1) and its hill offer elevated views of the historic centre, directly overlooking the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania and Cathedral Square/ Vilnius Cathedral—yet we still found orientati...

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  [2/3] #Vilnius cont. Užupis is a neighbourhood in the city partially enclosed by the Vilnia River; during the Soviet era it was a bit shabby. It’s now described as bohemian and in 1997 residents self-declared the Republic of Užupis (📷1). The republic’s “free spirit” (unrecognised) Constitution is displayed in multiple languages (📷2); essentially a list of principles, we picked out Article 13: “A cat is not obliged to love its owner, but must help in time of need”. It’s said that almost one in se...

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  [3/3] #Vilnius cont. We saw big things, like Atlas carrying the Earth on his shoulders—the planet even had its own moon! (📷1). We saw little things, like this social commentary atop a clock keeping incorrect time (📷2). We saw many churches, such as this repurposed one in which we ate lunch; purchased by a priest, it’s now a social enterprise/ restaurant called “Pirmas blynas” employing #disabled staff (📷3). Others were better presented, like the Baroque St. Casimir's Church c. 1604 CE, t...

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  About 25km west of Vilnius is Trakų istorinis nacionalinis parkas | Trakai Historical National Park. We began with a 4km circular wetland trail, Varnikų pažintinis takas | Varnikai Nature Trail, very popular on a Saturday morning (📷1). Lake Galvė, with 21 islands, is the largest of 32 lakes within the park; the best known island is Castle Island—the site of Trakų salos pilis | Trakai Island Castle (📷2). Originally built in the 14th C. the castle was extensively rebuilt after WWII in 15th C. styl...

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  [1/2] Dzūkijos nacionalinis parkas | Dzūkija National Park is located in southern Lithuania, close to the Belarusian border and less than 100km east of the Sulwalki Gap. It’s the largest protected area in the country, enclosing vast pine forests, inland dunes and waterways/ wetlands. The park also contains several ethnographic villages that preserve wooden architecture and customs. We took the Zackagirio takas | Zackagiris Trail, beginning at the park’s Visitor Centre in Marcinkonys; we soon enc...

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  [2/2] Dzūkija National Park cont. Trailside smalls included Fuligo septica | the 🍳 scrambled egg slime #mould, so named for its yolk-like colour (📷1). Looking like a bifurcated donut on a stick, this is Gyromitra infula | elfin saddle #fungus (📷2). We’re fairly sure this is Didymium spongiosum | 🐕🤮 dog sick slime mould because, well… just look at it (📷3)! Adding splashes of colour to the forest and representing the #plant kingdom, flowering Euonymus verrucosus | the warty-barked spindle (📷4). Al...

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  [1/2] Saaremaa is Estonia’s largest island, reached via an artificial causeway from Muhu. Although Karja kirik | Karja Church (📷1) was closed, the churchyard contains three trapezoidal gravestones c. 13–14th C.—among the oldest surviving sculptural works in Estonian history and reflecting integration between heathen and Christian beliefs. We stopped briefly at Angla tuulikumägi | Angla Windmills for a photo (📷2) but drove onward to the meteorite crater at Kaali. This is the primary impact site f...

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  Still in Mid Wales, we elected to return a couple of places we’d enjoyed on previous travels in Wales. The first is the RSPB Gwenffrwd-Dinas Nature Reserve ~6km from Cilycwm, where a 3km circular trail runs riverside (📷1) & through an ordinarily damp alder & oak woodland (📷2), where lichens, mosses and liverworts collectively create a "Celtic rainforest" (a.k.a. Atlantic temperate rainforest). Although they hid from us, birds find sanctuary here too & on a previous visit in...

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  Before leaving North Wales & Parc Cenedlaethol Eryri | Eryri National Park we stopped for lunch at Harlech. The beach here on Cardigan Bay boasts several kilometres of sand that are notably wide at low tide (📷1) & are backed by dunes that constitute an important conservation area (📷2). We found the beach awash with Chrysaora hysoscella | the aptly-named compass jellyfish, apparently common in coastal coastal Atlantic & Mediterranean waters—although it hadn’t registered with us previo...

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  [2/2] After ~6km/ 2h on trail we reached Keld, the highest village in Swaledale. After 🍦 we began climbing Kisdon via Corpse Road when we spotted our flora small of the day: native flowering succulent Sedum acre | the goldmoss stonecrop (📷1). Elevated views from near the Kisdon summit offered a sense of landscape scale (📷2) & served as a stage for the ground-based & aerial antics of avian fauna of the day, Vanellus vanellus | the northern lapwing (📷3). We descended towards Muker (📷4) &am...

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  We drove to the Mont Aigoual summit at 1,565m elevation in Parc nationaldes Cévennes | Cevennes National Park; the park is recognized as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Our route up via Nant & Dourbies was long, winding & frankly tedious, so despite views towards the coast (📷1) & further inland (📷2) we felt less appreciative than we should have. We decided against our intended hike in 7°C & headed down via Gorges de la Jonte. En route the road verge was decorated with...

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  [2/2] Roques de la Vila cont. Between the two lines of strata sits the 11–12th C. Romanesque Esglèsia de Sant Vicenç | Ermita San Vicente | Church of Saint Vincent, seen here from the more challenging path to reach it—poles are useful (📷1). On this part of the hike you cross over one of the walls & reach water level, where we noted this particular slab, nicely illustrating the process of continuing erosion (📷2). The hermitage is partially formed from limestone & the sanctuary is...

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  [1/2] Roques de la Vila is a geological formation also known as Muralla (China) de Finestres | the (Chinese) Wall Of Finestres. We followed online & local advice to 🅿️ at Puente de Penavera, a bridge NE of Estopiñán del Castillo, given the state of the dirt road. The 6.4km drive from our pitch in town took ~30 minutes. Although we sighted the formation ~4.5km into the hike, we first came to the former settlement of Finestres (📷1). It was depopulated in 1960 due to the filling of the Canel...

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  Nazaré is globally recognised among the surfing community for it’s big waves, which can reach 20–30m in height. Just offshore here is one end of the largest submarine trench in Europe, at ~230km long & ~5km deep. The Nazaré Canyon funnels Atlantic swells towards the shore, where the abrupt change in depth compresses wave energy, refracting & amplifying it. Our visit to Nazaré coincided with a coastal wind warning (gusts up to 55 km/h) so we saw no 🏄 surfing, but we did see 🌊 surf...

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  [3/3] Ruta del Cares. The trail was no less dramatic walking it in the opposite direction (📷1). On our outbound leg the mountain goats were generally high above us, sometimes heard but not seen. On our return leg a number had descended onto the trail (📷2). At one point we encountered a “toll goat”, hoping to extract a fair exchange for passage through one of the tunnels (we didn’t feed it). A view ahead to a stretch of “up” before the final descent to the trailhead (📷3). Did we mention we saw go...

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  [2/3] Ruta del Cares. At one point, looking down into the canyon, we observed what we think must be a resurgence, where water that has been flowing underground reappears at the surface; they’re common in karst landscapes (📷1). The trail, like the canal itself, passes through a number of tunnels when cutting into the sheer rock face isn’t enough (📷2); this bridged section includes a steel grate so you can see the drop beneath your feet (📷3). We turned around just beyond this window in the rock wa...

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  [1/3] Ruta del Cares. With a fresh overnight dusting of snow on the peaks we set out to hike an out-&-back section of the 12km point-to-point Ruta del Cares (PR-PNPE 3) trail in Parque Nacional de los Picos de Europa. This is the park’s most popular hike, linking Poncebos (Asturias) & Caín (León); it’s considered one of Spain’s most beautiful trails. We 🅿️ at Poncebos & initial views of the clear-flowing Río Cares from near the trailhead looked promising (📷1); a short stre...