Medieval adventure

After breakfast in the city of Rakvere, we visited the castle ruins, following a tip from camping neighbours last night. Without them, we would have missed such a fun place for kids because it is not well advertised.

The fortress was built in the 13th and 15-16th century.

When we arrived, a donkey and a horse were just lead out of the fortress, so the girls got to pet them. Unfortunately, the animals couldn‘t be riden because they were sick (hoofs and asthma).

We already dived into the medieval life by using the restrooms.

All staff members were dressed in medieval costumes. Most of them were high school students, talking and performing very self-confidently.

The first thing, we tried out was archery.

Then we made our own bee wax candles.

When we were busy playing a medieval training game for soldiers (avoiding swinging sand sacks), Wilma was suddenly gone. We found her stamping her own coin at the smithy =o)

Every hour, almost all staff members performed some military practice: marching, sword fighting, gun shooting, lancing.

We visited small tours about healing, alchemy (making gun powder), swords, and a torture chamber. In the latter, there was a haunted walk that was pitch-dark with uneven or soft ground.

We were curious to see the Estonian city closest to the Russian border: Narva. Here, we saw the border buildings on the bridge over the Narva river that marked the border. There was a pretty fortress on either side of the river.

We parked for the night on the biggest state-run campsite in Estonia, at Lake Peipsi. We got one of the last spots.

There was already no more sun at the beach, but we still took a short bath in the lake. The sand was very soft and the water not too cold. Surprisingly, everybody enjoyed the wave-hopping. 

There were only very few restrooms for so many camp spots. That‘s why we had to walk about 5 minutes to the toilet – pretty inconvenient.

We didn‘t feel like paying 8 € and going all the way back to the entrance to get firewood. Other campers told us the selling hut would be closed anyway.

So we just used tiny pieces of wood from around our fireplace to make fire. That was unfortunately too small and too far away to warm us. However, we kept it alive for several hours thanks to the efforts of Erna and Magda collecting pieces to burn. Magda was still busy collecting when it was pitch-dark.