Other trips I've done with Millerine are Rakvere to Viimsi and Tartu to Viljandi.
In general, Estonia is a great place for cycling in summer. There are quiet roads, regular villages and towns, and most importantly it is very flat. The highest point in Estonia (and all of the Baltics) is Suur Munamägi at a mear 318 metres high.
There are about a dozen official sign posted bike routes throughout Estonia. The number 1 bike route is part of the number 10 Euro Velo route which circuits the nordic countries.
The Esto Velo website contains a good amount of info in English. I purchased maps of the bike routes from a bookshop and they have come in handy when a sign post had gone astray. These days the routes are clearly marked on the Open Street Maps Cycle Map, which can be downloaded with a bunch of different apps on smartphones.
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Day 1
Train Tallinn to Rakvere
There were a few days spare in our calendars and the weather looked fine so we decided to go on a bike trip. Rakvere sounded like a nice place to visit, so we packed our panniers, grabbed our bikes, and arrived in Rakvere by train in the afternoon. Rakvere is a nice Estonian town with the usual wooden houses and one of my favourite castles. It is partially ruined, and is set against a foreground of green grass over small hills and a moat. I found myself wishing I owned a holiday house in the town.
We stayed in a nice guest house in town. I've no idea how we found it, but I can recommend that friendly and cheap style of accommodation.
Day 2
Rakvere - Võsu 79km
The plan was to follow the number 4 bike route towards the coast and then the number 1 route back to Tallinn. This is not a particularly direct route, but certainly a scenic one. We passed through quite a lot of wheat farming land.
It rained quite heavily around lunchtime, but luckily we were under cover at the Altja Kõrts (like a pub) until the rain petered out. Otherwise Altja was a lovely seaside town with old log fishing cabins.
The road winds along the coast. It was quiet, flat, and scenic. Basically everything one could want in a lazy day of cycling.
We stayed in a campground outside of Võsu, a few metres from a creek (Võsu jõgi). There were no toilets, but otherwise it was nicely set up with an under cover area with a table, and a metal bbq type enclosed fireplace. These both came in handy, as again it rained but while we were under cover. Campgrounds in Estonia are free and comfortable, but they can be hard to find so it's worth doing some research first.
Day 3
101km Võsu - Viimsi
It would have taken a couple of days of cycling to get back to Tallinn if we followed the bike route around the coastal peninsulas. As the weather seemed destined to provide more rain we decided to fast track it home via the highway. On the way we visited a small waterfall, but it was mostly a direct fast and flat ride home. In terms of distance it was the longest day off riding we've done, so a satisfying end to a nice few days away.
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Day 6
No travel
All of the ferries were booked out for this day, so rather than go for standby again we opted to book tickets for the 00:50 ferry at night. This gave us a very long day in Visby. Our plans of spending the day exploring the old town were foiled by a very wet thunderstorm, which included a blackout from around lunchtime. We couldn't walk around visiting the sites, and even our usual fallback when bored travelling, the movies, was out of action due to the blackout. Instead our day was spent hiding from the rain in bars and eating salad (the restaurants couldn't cook anything). The best beer I've had in Sweden was from the local brewery and was stocked in all the bars, so it wasn't all bad. Rather than being an enjoyable and relaxing day it was more of an uncomfortable and boring one. However candle lit dinners (and candle lit trips to the toilet) are always a memorable experience.
Day 7
Ferry Visby - Nynashamn
Bus Nynashamn - Stockholm
Ferry Stockholm - Tallinn
None of the websites indicated that you could put a bike on the ferry bus to Stockholm, but apparently you can if you're lucky, and we were. There were two buses. The first told us definitely no bikes, but the second told us there might be space if we waited. After us, five other cyclists arrived to catch the bus as well. Our driver chatted to the other and between them they managed to fit us all on. I think it's much like catching a plane on standby - if the driver likes you and you're a bit lucky you'll get on. Smile, be courteous, and be there as early as possible.
So we arrived in Stockholm at about 6:00 am and had all day to kill. We started by dropping our gear off in the train station lockers then having a sleep in a park somewhere. After that it was a full day of Stockholm site seeing which was easily filled up. It was actually difficult to find time to fit in a few drinks. The outdoor museum and zoo Skansen was worthwhile and could easily occupy most of a day.
Stockholm is an excellent city for biking around. It has bike paths everywhere which are well sign posted and easy to follow, but it's not crazy busy like Amsterdam. A lot of design effort has gone into making it a safe and easy place for cyclists. There were enough hills to make me glad to have gears, mostly around Gamlastan (the old town), but not enough to be bothersome.
Again we went for the separate cabins option on the ferry on the way home, but this time we were both in rooms with other people. I had a bunch of Russian dudes who weren't bothersome in nature, but were in body odour. I stayed up playing blackjack and hanging around the various bars until I thought my tiredness would overcome the bad smell of the cabin. Still, the ferries between Tallinn and Stockholm have a reasonable enough range of facilities to be comfortable, and after combining that with a sunset over the islands I'd recommend taking it over flying if you can spare the time.
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Cycled ~35km Slite - Visby
Millerine and I share a birthday, and this was it. We awoke fairly early and had completed the 35km to Visby by mid morning. We left the Gotlandsleden and took the shortest route along one of the main roads. It still felt quite safe, and there were no hills even though we passed through the middle of the island.
Visby is a very attractive city with a well preserved city wall around the old town and a bunch of church ruins. St Katrins is possibly the most beautiful ruin I've seen. It was hot and sunny, and perfect weather for walking around exploring, with frequent bar stops. It's definitely a touristy place, but not incredibly overcrowded and was still relatively pleasant.
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Cycled ~45km Stenkyrck to Slite
The first part of the ride was spent searching for breakfast, which is pretty difficult when most places seem to open at midday. I highly recommend BYO breakfast unless you're staying somewhere with breakfast supplied. Supermarkets and even stores are hard to come by outside of the bigger towns, so it's best to carry some emergency supplies. We eventually came across a cafe that was open and had some incredibly satisfying sandwiches. It seems the Swedes enjoy their sandwiches and don't care much for a normal heavy breakfast of porridge or eggs and bacon. However they all seem to provide the most excellent tea.
We continued to follow the Gotlandsleden which turned off the main road pretty early and went along a dirt road following the coastline. It wasn't a terrible road by any standards, but made for slow going compared to the asphalt. Some sections were potholed, but it was generally OK. Along the way we came across a restaurant/B&B with a fantastic beach front, and an Australian waitress who was somewhat excited to see a fellow citizen. We also saw a few small snakes. There seem to be a lot of them out on the road sunbaking and turning themselves into roadkill.
It was another fairly hot day, so our lunch break lasted 4 and a half hours. It included the tallest hamburger I've ever seen, a bottle of wine, and a couple of hours of sleep near the sea.
We finished the last 20km to Slite pretty quickly. Slite is a town entirely based around the cement industry and has the feel of a boring mining town. It does have a campsite, restaurant and supermarket though, so suited us just fine.
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