Today we head back home to Sweden, but we squeezed in another half-day in the countryside with my father and his wife.

Last year’s canoe trip on Ahja river was a hit so we did it again, but slightly differently. One canoe rental place has invented/introduced canoe rafts – three canoes attached to each other, with a wooden platform on top. It handles like a raft, sturdy, no wobbles. A bit less nimble but still decently steerable.

The big bonuses are that it’s much more social than a bunch of individual canoes – and it is very child- and dog-friendly.

There was eleven of us, and we ended up with one raft of adults and one of kids, with one dog each.

The dogs had to be split up and weren’t entirely happy about it. But two large, playful dogs on a raft getting the zoomies or starting to tussle with each other would have been too chaotic. They longed for each other, though, or perhaps they just wanted their herd to be all in one place.

We were on the same lake and river as last year, but only did half the distance, and in the other direction (upriver). Not that it felt like the direction made much of a difference – mostly we paddled along a lake with no noticeable flow.

At around the halfway point we steered our rafts into a little bay, tied them to each other, and had a lovely picnic. The rafts made it very easy. Dogs and paddles and kids and food everywhere.

The lake turned into a river for the last kilometre or so, and the paddling was more challenging now, with logs, submerged broken branches, sand banks and other obstacles.

I got fewer photos this year since the rafts didn’t exactly allow any darting around to the side to get new angles on things. And with four of us paddling, I couldn’t just stop my part whenever I felt like it, or we’d end up going in circles. Ingrid helped out and took over the camera for a while, too.

Ingrid’s most favourite burger ever, that she’s been looking forward to for a year. The sweet potato burger at Veg Machine at Aparaaditehas.

The kids and I spent the day in the countryside with my father and his wife. Walked and talked and made sushi.

My father is struggling with a bad back so he couldn’t join us for any of the activities any longer, so here’s us walking with my brother instead. I swear I definitely didn’t line them up this time, it just happened!

This year there’s peas growing in several of the fields closest to their house, which makes for good snacking.

A crumbling wall mended with Legos, found in Tartu.

As usual, the trip to Estonia wouldn’t feel complete without a visit to the adventure park at Otepää.

Thanks to Ingrid, I have some photos of me climbing as well.

The last trail is challenging for all of us. Now that Adrian is as tall as the rest of us, we’re on an equal footing.

That trail ends with the so-called Tarzan leap – hold on to a thick rope and leap off a platform to swing across a twenty-metre gap to a net on the other side. After a few attempts it no longer feels scary – as long as I don’t stop to think about it.

Of course we’re all harnessed and clipped into things so there’s no real risk.

The trails all end with zipline rides, which is like the cherry on top.

Finally the two long zipline rides across the valley and back cap off the entire day.

The Hansapäevad festival has shrunken and simplified into a Hansalaat market. Gone is most of the medieval feel and all the cultural activities; we’re left with just a market. Which is still fun but not the same thing.

We had vaguely planned for a picnic but then the kids ended up just eating market food instead. Bubble waffles. If I’d had more energy, I’d maybe have tried to argue for a picnic but I didn’t. Perhaps that was a good thing, because we got hit by several surprise rain showers later in the day.

After browsing the market we went to Toomemägi and climbed the cathedral ruins there.

Dogs and kids with bad knees stayed down below.

My friends are all dog owners now, and the dogs are on the large and energetic side. The easiest way for us all to meet up is to go out for a walk with the dogs.

I ran ahead a bit to get some distance for the photo. I suspect Ingrid lined them all up in the meantime.

I’m off to Estonia with the kids, to visit family and friends.

We’ve always used Tallink ferries to get there (apart from the early days when I flew) but this time we’re trying a different approach. Tallink never reinstated the second ferry (after cutting down from daily trips to every other day during the covid pandemic) and now their schedule doesn’t suit us. I went looking for alternatives. Flight + rent a car? Expensive. Different ferry line? Better schedule, better prices, better times, but less convenient harbours. Worth a try.

DFDS leaves from Kapellskär which is further away from us than central Stockholm. On the Estonian side they go to Paldiski instead of Tallinn, which is further from Tartu but on larger roads. Tallink ferries are basically floating hotels and act accordingly: there are lavish tax-free shops, onboard entertainment, plenty of restaurants, and they try to keep you there as long as possible to squeeze the most money out of you. DFDS on the other hand just focuses on getting you there: leaves several hours later, and gets there several hours earlier. Which suits us really well. The ferry experience was fun for the kids when they were young, but now we’re all just waiting for time to pass and wishing we could get there sooner.

I enjoyed watching the crew play Tetris with all the large lorries.

Estonian butter knives are the best. Swedish butter knives (not pictured) are better for spreading butter than ordinary table knives, but they’re thin and the blades are small, so they’re not very comfortable to use. We somehow manage to wear ours out, so several of them are now barely more than flat sticks.

I’ve been planning to buy more butter knives of the well-designed Estonian kind when we go to Estonia. I was already planning on it last summer but never found the time. Oh well, we’ll make do with pointy sticks for another year. But yesterday at the crafts fair I saw a whole huge stand of wooden utensils, including butter knives with sturdy, rounded handles – and the lovely smell of juniper wood.

At first I thought that maybe some Swedish firm had copied the superior Estonian design, but then I saw the Estonian brand name. No need to wait until summer – the knives have come to me.

I bought several. And then sniffed at them for a good while before packing them away in my bag.