To understand Estonia’s history in the lead up to the first independence, I took an interest in Russia’s Tsars, also a key to...

Oak, birch, pine, hawk and lynx, spring, beach, sea, cliff, hill, sand and island - typical Estonian surnames today. For peasants,...

Knit patterns for a long time preserved Estonian tradition, during the long centuries of foreign rule. On leaving Otepää, our family gave...

“Oh mother river, where still flowers the tongue of an ancient time, where its song and string sounds still call after us.” Words of...

You’ve seen them all; they are tall and have a light on top. Although a trip around Estonia’s lighthouses would not be without merit....

Wandering around the old town of Tallinn, its size is striking, even for Mediaeval merchants needing a fortified port and entrepôt. Stone...

Estonia’s national stone is limestone, although as quarry men will tell you, most countries prize their calcium carbonate. Fair enough...

One day around 3500 years ago a piece of space rock burst into flame on hitting the Earth’s atmosphere, disintegrated, and plummeted into...

I had not heard of Konrad Mägi until cycling to the shores of the saadjärv. This is one of several long, thin lakes separated by moraine...

Pitching a tent among Baltic pines, the sea nearby, blueberries in season; what could be better? Drinking water, but I’m not complaining....

Vladimir Lenin declared on sealing Estonia’s independence by treaty in early 1920: “We have yielded much. The more important are the...

Central to Estonian culture – and to many others – is the idea of reciprocity. We received so much hospitality during our trip, we are...

The Estonian language is a case of, “don’t try this at home”, or ära püüa kodus seda keelt õppida. I probably got that wrong. Estonian is...

Growing in the middle of a football field on Saaremaa is an oak voted European tree of the year in 2015. Someone had a sense of humour....

The story of Bernhard Lehova, grandma’s younger brother, always had an unreal quality to it. In dad’s telling, his uncle returned to the...

Cousin Inga pulled out two letters dated 1949 she had discovered 3 weeks prior to our arrival. Hidden in the back of our great-aunt...

A warming climate, a Pope in difficulty, and a boy born Temujin in 1162 figured among key events - to my mind  - that ended millennia of...

Did our grandfather ever play Paul Keres, Estonia’s national chess hero? I have not been able to find out, though it is a tantalising...

Everywhere we cycled in Estonia the abandoned ruins of white, silicate brick buildings spoke mute testimony to the failure of collective...

Tallinn saw the world’s first appearance on public display of a Christmas tree, in 1441. The Brotherhood of the Blackheads – not a...