Discovering the World Sans Valise: Estonia: Discovering Lake Peipsi and its surrounding

After our visit to Lareema Park, we drove South East to Lake Peipus (Peipsi in Estonian). This is a very large lake. The west side of the lake is in Estonia while the east side is in Russia. The border between the two countries is in the middle of the lake. Along the lake settled a religious community of Russian orthodox referred to as "The Russian Old Believers". In 1652, some members of the Russian Orthodox church did not accept reforms of the Orthodox church and therefore were cruelly persecuted, exiled, tortured and executed all over Russia. The survivors left Russia to take refuge abroad. A significant number settled along Lake Peipsi in Estonia.

The first striking observation we made when we reached Lake Peipsi was the color of the water: dark brown. High phosphorus level seems to be one cause for this quite unappealing color.

This did not stop us to put our feet in the water. First time in Lake Peipsi! Only my shadow bathed completely in it.

The north shore of the lake has quite nice sand beaches. We decided to have a picnic on the beach!

The doctor said......."Religously protect your head from the sun"

A little siesta after a good lunch!

And a good coffee after the good nap

A place where fish caught in the lake are being smoked and sold to people stopping by.

Many stands along the road - all selling Estonian onions that are supposed to be exceptionally good.

Finally we arrived at Nina Kordon guest house, beautiful old house with an observatory, probably used to monitor Russian activity in more difficult times in the past.

Yes shellfish in fresh water!

We took a walk along the water and again encountered pristine front and back yards showing Estonians pride for their properties. Large areas of grass were impressively cut with a riding lawn mower. The addition of flowers and shrubs made the sight of these yards pleasing to the viewer. This is here that we discovered the use of private green houses to grow vegetables and possibly fruit.