We stopped for a few hours at a Russian Orthodox Convent in north eastern Estonia, it is home to over Orthodox 150 nuns an  the only one in the country.Within the  high convent walls are several small wooden churches as well as the large stone church you can see in the photo above.

According to  legend local  peasants saw a miraculous epiphany and later found a holy icon at the foot of an oak tree. On that basis a  small chapel was built whcih later developed into the convent. Apparently "puhtitsa" means  holy place.

When we visited there were a lot of Russians visiting. Sheila queued at the little kiosk for a good while to pay (subsequently found it was free entrance) but the nun behind the counter had to get her calculator out to show her the price in euro and Sheila got the impression that everyone else was paying with roubles.  At this kiosk you could buy empty plastic bottles to fill with spring water which presumably has some healing powers but if you know us you know that we rely on the healing powers of red wine.

What particularly impressed us here were these giant woodpiles, they look almost permanent and we never worked out how you took a few logs out without being in danger of killing yourself.

We did not camp here but there is a very large car park nearby  so no problem parking  even the largest of motorhomes, who knows but out of season (if there is one) you might be able to park overnight.

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