An outing to Alatskivi manor.

I remember visiting the manor some decades ago. At that time it was derelict, although still structurally sound, and only traces of its grandeur were visible. Now it has been restored inside and out, and made very visitor-friendly.

There were many splendid rooms to explore (with chandeliers hand-blown in Murano!). In the basement we enjoyed an exhibition about some of the key jobs and roles in a manor, from valet and coachman to governess and housekeeper. The kids got to dress up in period(ish) costumes and waltz around the ballroom.

Every summer during our trip to Estonia, we visit an adventure park. It’s become a tradition almost, and it’s one of the activities we all look forward to the most. There is one park in Tartu (smaller but very conveniently located) and another one in Otepää (larger, more exciting). We went to Otepää this time.

Last year Ingrid was just a few centimetres short of the height limit for some of the routes in Otepää and she has been really crossing her fingers that she would be tall enough this time. And she was, barely! The last two routes (out of five) were physically quite challenging for her.

But not psychologically. She wasn’t afraid of the heights at all, not even at the final piece de resistance where we saw grown people sitting for minutes, near tears, building up their courage to make the jump. (It’s literally a leap of faith across a wide gap, holding on to a rope, aiming for the safety net on the other side. Not like in this photo where you glide across along a wire, but a free swing.)

1. I’m pushing Adrian to go to the men’s room on his own, rather than to the ladies’ room with me.

2. He hates the hand dryers in public restrooms because of the noise they make, and shakes his hands dry instead.

The old school dryers weren’t too bad, but modern ones are often way too loud even for my ears. The Dyson Airblades are the worst ones I’ve encountered. We both flee when someone starts using one nearby. I understand that they are good for the environment but I truly wish they didn’t exist.

Our traditional annual visit to the Ahhaa science centre. In between other attractions, we attended a workshop about blood pressure (and tried measuring each other’s blood pressure, with varying results), and the kids saw a chick hatch. The most fun they had was, I think, the building area, just like last year. Adrian took it very, very seriously.

Ingrid joined her friend for her riding lesson, while Adrian and I waited and watched.

It rained.

Adrian found a bench to climb and balance on.

With friends in Tartu, playing Potion Explosion.

The kids like to do things together with us adults, naturally. But they are not too fond of the adult activities that feel too much like work (such as cooking) whereas I’m not too fond of playing with their toys. I can build with Legos or other construction toys for a while, but when the building turns into playing with what we built, I just feel like I’m going to die of boredom.

I’m glad that both kids are now of an age that we can play board games together. It’s an activity that we can do together and really enjoy, all of us. For some harder games, Adrian teams up with someone else, but quite often he can hold his own.

I recently bought a bunch of new games; Potion Explosion was one of them. It was easy to get started with (the age recommendation of 14 years is ludicrous) and quite a lot of fun, so we brought it with us to Estonia to play with friends here as well.

For the first time in decades, I went to a song festival. It’s an Estonian tradition going back almost 150 years, and an amazing experience. This year’s event was not the “full” festival but the youth festival, with a particular focus on young composers, conductors and performers. (The full one is a bit larger.) Even so, there was a choir of 10,000+ singers and 50,000 people in the audience. Awe-inspiring, quite literally.

We were a bit late to the venue so we ended up sitting further back that I had hoped, among the trees at the top of the slope, and didn’t quite get the full impact of the ten thousand voices. So we’ll have to attend the next one again and be there earlier, to get an even better experience.

I have vague, distant memories of attending the festival as a small child. Somewhat more strongly I remember the extraordinary (in all senses of the word) “Song of Estonia” festival in 1988, attended according to some claims by a quarter of the population of Estonia. I was a callow child, uninterested in current affairs, but even I could feel history being made on that day.

Due to strong headwinds and unspecified “technical issues”, the ferry was over two hours late arriving to Tallinn.

There isn’t much to do on a ferry other than eat/drink or browse the tax free shops, neither of which we are interested in. The cabins are tiny and claustrophobic. The seats in the lounge areas are all full. At the Tallinn end of the trip, there isn’t even a view to be had from the lounges – just dull gray seas. (Meanwhile at the Stockholm end the views of the archipelago are almost worth a trip of their own.)

Luckily the ferries sometimes convert a café or a conference centre into a play area during summer. This one had a small ball pit, some building blocks, and ride-on cars and ball hoppers.

At the playground in Kadriorg park, waiting for time to pass.

Today we take the ferry back to Stockholm. The drive from Tartu (where we stay) to Tallinn (which has all the connections to the rest of the world) is over 2 hours, plus city traffic in Tallinn, plus a lunch break of uncertain length, so I aim to arrive an hour before we really want to be at the ferry terminal.

Kadriorg is a large beautiful park very near the harbour and it’s become a tradition to kill that extra hour there. (Well, except for one year when we got stuck in a traffic jam due to a bike race in Tallinn and used up the hour, which is why we have it.)