Viljandi day out · KATKO Simuna

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Viljandi

   Viljandi is built around a lake and a castle, and it makes a pleasant job of both. The town sits on steep slopes above Lake Viljandi, a long narrow lake that fills a glacial valley, and the ruins of the Order castle, built by the Livonian Order in the thirteenth century, stand on the hill above it. A footbridge, a graceful suspension bridge built to look like the one that once stood here, crosses the valley between the castle hills, and from it you can see the old town, the lake and the church spire in one view. With about twenty thousand people, it is a university town of sorts, home to a well-known academy for traditional culture.

   Read the complete Viljandi write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Viljandi is where the day begins. Next is DORPAT Tartu Observatory.

2. 2. DORPAT Tartu Observatory

   The old observatory in Tartu sits on Toome Hill, a leafy mound in the middle of the town beside the river Emajõgi, and it was once one of the most important scientific instruments in the world. The university was founded in 1632 by the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus, and the town was then known by its German name Dorpat. In the early nineteenth century the astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve built the observatory here, equipped with a remarkable refractor made by Joseph von Fraunhofer in Munich, which was the best telescope of its day. Struve used it to measure double stars, and he also led a great surveying project that ran a chain of triangulation points from the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea.

   Read the complete DORPAT Tartu Observatory write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   DORPAT Tartu Observatory comes up about 77 km into the recorded legs. Next is Struve Geodetic Arc.

3. 3. Struve Geodetic Arc

   It sounds like a dry thing, a surveying line, but the Struve Geodetic Arc is one of the great quiet adventures of nineteenth-century science. Between 1816 and 1855 a team led by the astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve laid out a chain of triangles stretching about 2,800 kilometres from Hammerfest in Norway to the Black Sea, measuring the angles between hilltops with tremendous care so that the shape of the Earth could be calculated. In the flat, forested north of Estonia, where hills are rare, the surveyors built stone cairns and wooden towers to serve as sighting points, and some of them survive as marked sites along minor roads.

   Read the complete Struve Geodetic Arc write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   At least about 175 km into the recorded legs you reach Struve Geodetic Arc. Next is WOIBIFER Võivere.

4. 4. WOIBIFER Võivere

   Võivere is a village in the middle of the Pandivere upland, and it gives its name to one of the old triangulation points of the Struve Arc, which Struve's team knew by the German name Woibifer. Today the spot is quiet, a place of fields, farm buildings and a small marker explaining what happened here two centuries ago. The surrounding landscape is the real subject: an open plateau of limestone and glacial deposits, where the ground is just high enough to see across the plain and where villages are strung along the road at generous intervals.

   Read the complete WOIBIFER Võivere write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   WOIBIFER Võivere, about halfway. Next is KATKO Simuna.

5. 5. KATKO Simuna

   Planning note

   KATKO Simuna sits at 201 km, about halfway. Next is back through WOIBIFER Võivere.

6. 6. back through WOIBIFER Võivere

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete WOIBIFER Võivere write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through WOIBIFER Võivere comes up about 186 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Struve Geodetic Arc.

7. 7. back through Struve Geodetic Arc

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Struve Geodetic Arc write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 187 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Struve Geodetic Arc. Next is back through DORPAT Tartu Observatory.

8. 8. back through DORPAT Tartu Observatory

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete DORPAT Tartu Observatory write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through DORPAT Tartu Observatory, late in the day. Next is Viljandi.

9. 9. Viljandi

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Viljandi write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 360 km.