Down through Finland

When we spoke to a few travellers about going into Finland most said that it was a waste of time because there was not much to see, flat mondain landscape with lots of trees and mosquitos. Of course we had to see for ourselves and we are glad we did. Yes, the north is rather flat with many lakes, but still it does not have as many mosquitos as northern Canada. We found the people very friendly, after they warmed up to us and that was sometimes a while but only because they are very shy and keep to themselves. Here is a little fact I found interesting, Finland is the number 1 coffee drinking country. The people there rack up at least 7-9 cups of java a day! I tried the coffee and it is good too!

Savonlinna was a great stop and we needed to stay for a very days so we bought a tourist card which enabled us to take a tour of the town castle, visit the museum, go out to lunch and take a boat tour all for one low price. Not something we usually do but we liked the town and thought we would give it a try. There is also a big opera festival in the castle for the month of July.It is held every year and tickets must be bought a year in advance, we were there the week before, darn and couldn't get tickets. Savonlinna is in the middle of Finland's lake district and is home to a freshwater seal, we didn't see one but we looked very hard. On the night that the Europe Football Championships were on t.v.(Spain vs. Italy) a very nice family came and joined us at our campsites sitting room, they had to see the game and their summer place on their island...("their island" you have to love it)didn't have t.v.. A good time was had by all, no matter who won the game! In Savonlinna we tried a few local treats, one a very large turnover called a "lortsy" that was stuffed with a spiced meat and then folded in half and served with mustard, relish and onions. Yummy! The Finnish love saunas and our campsite had a sauna for our use open between 8a.m. and 10a.m.(the rest of the time you had to rent it). I gave it a try but didn't do the lake swim after like the Finnish do(they go back and forth from the lake to sauna a few times), I opted for breakfast instead.

Helsinki, what can I say! It looked very nice as we rode through the city centre but we didn't stop because we had the destination of Turku and the Aland(pronunced Ouland) islands in mind.

In the southern part of Finland you see many houses made from wood instead of rock and brick. We visited a two of the oldest cities in Finland, Porvoo, founded in 1346 and Turku, founded in 1229. The cities may be the old but its buildings are not, many of their buildings were burnt in the war, many houses have rotted and apparently in the 70's the people thought it was cool to rip the wood houses down and put up the newer concrete styles...boring. But still the old towns were nice to walk around and we enjoyed the narrow cobblestone streets.

We took several small ferries from mainland Finland to the Aland islands, which are located at the bottom of the Gulf of Bothnia in the Baltic Sea. Boy oh boy, do those captains on the ferries have to know how to navigate. We dodged islands and went through channels with only meters to spare on either side of the ferry, and I'm not talking a small ferry here either! We felt like we were on an other sightseeing tour not a transport ferry, the views were amazing. Unfortunately, it's not the same on a photo. The islands have little roads and villages all over them, and many people choose to travel them by peddle bike because they are very flat. The funny thing is the islands are rising 1/2 meter every century because the decreased weight of the glacier ice(that ground them off in the first place)when it melted allowed the islands to resurface. Aland is part of Finnland but the people speak Swedish, it is so unique they are allowed to have their own parliament, flag, licence plate and even their own stamps. We found a great little campsite that rented a double kayak and spent a few hours paddling and enjoying the sights from the water. It's funny, even though the Aland islands are in the Baltic Sea the water is not very salty at all, and they even fish for Pike(usually a fresh water fish). The Finns were swimming like crazy in the water but we found it a little cold for our liking, about 16 degrees, and unfortunately there is a lot of algae in the water which gave me the hebe jebes. On one of the ferries we met an exchange student from Australia,Lu-Wei, and her house family doing a cycling holiday on the islands, what a great family but who would think a Aussie would want to travel to Finland on exchange??? After a few days on the islands, once again however the rain caught up to us and we decided to move on to Sweden, Stockholm to be exact and need I say a hope of better weather. Chasers!!!

The Castle at Savonlinna.

Heather laying in the sun(at last)during a paddle in a kayak rented on Aland Island. We took at little too long a break because the wind blow up and we had to slug it out paddling into the wind all the way back to camp!

Ken tries out a local delicacy at a market in one of the small towns along the way, "muikku" a small vendace lake fish that is smoked and deep fried...he likes them! Finland is covered in lakes, especialy in the north, 10% of Finland is water and they take advantage of this fact as they love to fish and can always be seen with rod. They seldom use a reel because a lot of the fish are small and you do not need a licence if your rod doesn't have a reel.

On the ferry between islands some seadooers caught up to us and were having a great time jumping the waves. John and Sue, you should try this with the Finry Queen.

Aland is an archapeligo with over 6600 small islands, joined together with ferries, and bridges but mostly private transportation.

Along the of the highway at a rest area we discovered this exhibit of clay figures made by a famous Finnish artists, hundreds of them. This part depicted all the yoga stances.

One of the roads they have built to join a couple of the small islands, in Aland. The water is not deep.

Ken holds up a pair of skates they up in Finland in winter. The blades strap onto hiking boots and then they use pole to get around, crosscountry touring skates.

Even though we are camping with the tent most nights this is just another one of our little cabins. This campsite was on an old property, the kitchen and bathrooms were made from the old barn and in the sitting room the floor was so saggy wondered how long the building would last.

Look down, way down! The outhouse in the Savonlinna castle , a small room attached to the tower that let "your business" drop to the ground below. We figured they should have saved it up and open a trap door and let it rip when they were being invaded!

This is as close as we got to getting into Russia, we dedided the visa was too costly for the short amount of time we planned to stay. Semi trucks were lined up for about 6kms waiting to cross the border!

What a great lunch spot, beside the water on one of Aland islands.

The boats docked on the waterfront in Savonlinna.