A looong Spa Weekend: March 13-16, Toila Spa

To celebrate Erik’s birthday, we decided to pamper ourselves in a spa hotel together with our friends Eda, Andres and their almost-1-year-old son Märt. We headed to Toila (in the eastern part of Estonia, on the coast of the sea) on Erik’s birthday – on Thursday to stay there for 3,5 days. We had a full package called „Relaxation Package” – accommodation, catering in the restaurant of the hotel and body treatments like water gymnastics, invigorating bath (I took the milk bath) and cryosauna (a cold capsule of -140 degrees of Celsius!).
It was an enjoyable weekend. About 2 years ago, the hotel was extended with Thermae (inspired by ancient Greek bath places) – which means many different saunas, pools, bubbling baths. We could go there all afternoons for 3 hours. Photo: Toila Spa Hotel

Photo: On Saturday with Andres, Eda and Märt in front of the hotel; and on Sunday morning (just me).

Photo: Erik's enjoying the bubble path in Thermae.

Photo: The end of Erik's birthday... Boys are tired!

Photo: Walking in Toila Park. I and Eda.

Photo: I and Erik in Toila Park.

Sightseeing

We also had a „culture program” for us (=sightseeing tour) which we did on Saturday afternoon. We decided to visit the most well-known nunnery (monastery) in Estonia – called Kuremäe Monastery (established in 1891). It belongs to Russian Orthodoxy Church, and probably most nuns living there are Russians as well. It was an interesting place – a small village surrounded with long walls. It had a Russian church (called Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God (built in 1910)), many chapels, living houses, also a guest house.
After that, we drove along the coast of the largest lake in Estonia – called Peipsi Lake. It offers white sand and popular swimming places during summer-time, but right now – in March – the beaches were empty... Only us...
On our way back to Toila, we passed Iisaku – the highest place in eastern part of Estonia (as Estonia is very flat, then the highest point in East Estonia isn’t very high either – only 94 metres!). I and Erik climbed to the top of the watching tower, which was one of the highest I’ve ever climbed in Estonia – but the view was very foggy as it had started to snow. It continued snowing in the evening as well, and on Sunday morning, we woke up to a winter again! We went for a walk along the coast, it was beautiful!

Photo: I and Eda walking in the area of Kuremäe Monastery. On the back, you can see the towers of Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God (built in 1910).

Photo: Eda, Andres and Märt in Kuremäe Monastery.

Photo: The map of the closed area of Kuremäe Monastery. The tourists can walk freely in marked roads, but cannot talk with the mobile, and actually, cannot photograph either... (at least the sign told so!).

Photo: The graveyard in Kuremäe. It doesn't look like an Estonian graveyard at all...

Photo: Peipsi Lake - halfly frozen.

Photo: View from Iisaku watching tower. It was very foggy as it started to snow.

Photo: Can you notice Eda, Andres and Märt? They stayed on the ground while we climbed up to the tower.

Photo: Eda, Andres and Märt and the Iisaku watching tower.

Photo: Sunday surprised us with a nice snowy weather... In the morning, we took a small walk to the beach of Toila.

Photo: The stairs to get down to the beach.

Photo: Erik's longing a little bit warmer weather to sunbath and swim :)

Photo: To be sure everyone knows we were there...

We enjoyed the weekend in Toila a lot – even when it was meant to be a relaxing and slow long weekend, we didn’t have time to feel bored at all: all the time, we had something to do!