Day 28, Sunday 10/4:

We started the day with cake, courtesy of Eha, and fruit. Today we were to travel to Rouge, where my great-grandparents owned a mill. When Estonia regained independence in 1992, some of the family land was returned to my Oma (great grandmother) who then decided to donate it to the township.

We drove first to Tartu, Estonia’s university city, of which 1/5^th of the population are students. We parked the car in the old town and hopped out to walk around. We stopped in the Raekoja Platz for coffee and to admire the town hall and pretty statue in front. 

We also admired the towns’ churches, university buildings and old hospital, all of which were very attractive. We continued on to Roüge, arriving at ‘Ala Roüge’, my family’s mill that has now been converted into a hotel. The first thing I noticed upon entering the reception was a photo of my Omi and auntie Sonya hanging on the wall, with the owner Lani. Having set up, we decided to try to visit the local council to sort out a couple of loose ends. When my Omi visited the town in 2001, she made contact with a man called Rein Roustic, who was very helpful, taking her on a tour of the area. It was quite difficult to find the place, as it’s tucked away in a back street. By the time we got there it had just hit 5pm and everyone was heading home. We ran into a couple heading home. One of them was able to speak some English and we were able to ascertain that Rein would be in in the morning. We also wanted to meet Karin Kiloman, another person my Omi met with in 2001. Karin went to school, in Estonia, with my great uncle Arne Brauer. They still keep in touch. She is in her 80’s and is a gold medal holder in the Masters Games, last year travelling to Canada to compete. The man knew where she lived and took us there, stopping along the way to ask a lady if she knew whether Karin was at home. As it transpired, she was out, so we parted ways with the man and headed off to do some shopping. As Patsy and I were going into the shop, this lady reappeared and told us that Karin was now home. After we finished the shopping, we went over and introduced ourselves to her. After a bit of explaining, she knew exactly who we were and was able to communicate with Philip in German. We had a good chat over tea and she produced some photos of my Oma and of the mill in its heyday. In 1941, when the Russians invaded Estonia, as a child, she and her family were forcibly deported to Siberia. She was not able to return home until she was in her thirties.

Karin then wanted to take us for a drive to see some of the local attractions. We set off to Roüge’s observation tower where we saw a hut that had been built using traditional methods, with no nails or other ‘modern’ materials. We then went for a short walk to see the town’s hydroelectric systems and some very interesting hydraulic ram pumps. Hopping back into the car, she then showed us where her old family home used to be before taking us back to our car to drive home. Lani kindly let us use the hotel’s kitchen to prepare our dinner.