We crossed over the Swedish border in the rain. There seems to be theme on this trip for rainy border crossings. We had decided to head south straight down the West coast of Finland rather than down through central Sweden. We don’t really have enough time to do justice to Finland, but at least it will give us a taste of their culture.
So we raced across Sweden, parking for the night next to a lake (still in the rain). After Norway, the roads were pretty dull – straightish and lined with pine trees. We did see a few reindeer though.
The scenery didn’t change significantly when we crossed into Finland. We parked up in the grounds of a small hotel in Kemi, the first town we came to. After a long day behind the wheel we had a quick spin on the Bromptons and ended up getting a bar meal in the hotel. We noticed straight away how the Finnish dialect is very different to Denmark, Sweden and Norway which are more Germanic languages. Finnish definitely sounds more Eastern European.
Thankfully the weather was warmer and brighter the next day as we headed down the coast.
Our first port of call was a small city called Oulu, just 60 miles south of the Arctic Circle. It was a pleasant city with parks in the centre, a cathedral and a nice central area with an indoor market hall and old traditional wooden buildings in pastel colours that seem to be in all the towns down the west coast. There was an area set up for Ice Hockey without the ice!
After a stroll around and a coffee we continued on for another 200km down the coast to Kokkola.
Here there is an Old Wooden Town district called Neristan. As always, our planning to visit here was a bit off as being a Saturday afternoon everything in town was largely closed. We booked a boat trip to Tankar Island the following morning and found the central campsite was full, so we drove a few kms out of town to a small harbour area where we parked for the night and enjoyed our first Finnish sunset.
Having our usual issues with the truck WIFI not working once we cross a border, this time it really bamboozled us. Our growing selection of SIM cards seemed to work in an iPhone, but would not work in the truck router. We’d called in at a Motorhome store in Oulu the previous day, and a customer overheard Colin’s question and said they were having the same issue and believed it was down to the global IT outage of the previous day. We weren’t sure if this made sense or not but clung onto the hope that it may resolve itself. 24 hours on there was no change, so we tried contacting the router manufacturers help line – toll free worldwide it said. To be fair the lady on the support desk was fantastic – she had to be very patient dealing with two techno-muppets, one of whom was wedged in the cupboard where the router is mounted with a laptop and the other on the phone passing on instructions. After about 45 minutes she had managed to get us back up and running. All the settings on the router seemed to have cleared themselves and there was no way that was down to us as you have to attach a cable to a laptop and log in to amend these settings. She was sure the IT outage hadn’t affected their systems – we’ll never know. High fiving that we’d managed to overcome this issue, the shine was taken off it when Colin discovered the call had cost over £100!
Tankar Island is located about 15km of the coast of Kokkola and is reached by a leisurely boat trip taking 1 ½ hours each way. Even though it was a lovely warm sunny day, we had to find a sheltered spot on the boat to avoid the fresh sea breeze. We were worried the two hours we had on the island wouldn't be enough, but as we approached we realised we could walk right round it in less than 15 minutes. The red and white lighthouse has the brightest light of all of Finland’s lighthouses. There were a handful of old fisherman huts, a small church and a café where the salmon soup is famous. We tried it and can confirm that it is tasty. Visitors can stop overnight in the huts on the island, which we imagine would be very tranquil once all the other boat visitors had left.
Back on the mainland we spent the night in the main campsite where we enjoyed a warm sunny evening, sitting outside which we’ve not manged too often on this trip so far. We also had a tootle around the local area on our Bromptons.
The following day we got on our road bikes to do a longer route. It was pleasant, but we didn’t get the sea views as much as we’d hoped due to the tall pine trees shielding the view. It became apparent that the route we were using had been plotted by someone on a mountain bike as there was quite a bit on gravel tracks, that weren’t too bad to cycle on our bikes, but then we realised the road we were on was a dead end and the only way through (without retracing our steps for quite a few kms) was to go on a rough muddy forest path. A local confirmed this was our only option. It didn’t look like a long section, so we set off pushing the bikes. Within minutes though we were ambushed by an army of viscous mosquitoes. We could feel them cutting through our lycra, sticking to our faces and getting into our clothing. It was hell! By the time we had popped out at the other end of the forest path we had muddy wet feet and were covered in bites and spent the rest of the ride itching.
We continued our route south along the coast in Lo11y with a couple of diversions. The first was to a popular beach called Lillsand. The roads and car parks were heaving all around it. Today was the hottest day so far in this part of Finland this year so it looked like everyone was making the most of it. With huge queues for ice creams there, we continued on to another small town and found a kiosk. The Finnish towns all seem to have lovely manicured parks and outside space areas which must contribute to peoples general feeling of wellbeing.
We headed out to an archipelago which took us across the longest bridge in Finland (1,045m). We ended up at a beautiful parking spot overlooking a lovely marina. There was a small beach area next to it and children jumping in and out of the water all evening.
The following day we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast outside before jumping on the Bromptons for a cycle to an old fortification area which was put into place by the locals in 1940 to protect the waterways here in WW2. There is a nature trail area her too. We cycled back to the other end of the estuary – the sound of silence here is something to behold.
We continued on towards a town called Pori. We’d seen the best of the weather as clouds rolled in and the rain started. We drove onto another set of archipelago islands. These weren’t as attractive as the last ones, and we ended up at a campsite near a small town of Reposaari. We cycled round it and couldn’t find anything of interest, although the weather probably didn’t help. Back in the campsite Colin found a local guy virtually under Lo11y taking photos. He was so excited to find out more about her. He said he was a lorry driver gritting the roads in this area, so we guess he didn’t have much to do at this time of year.
Our next destination was the Unesco World Heritage old town of Rauma, famous for having
the largest preserved wooden town area in all the Nordic countries. Before we visited the old Town we called in at the first launderette we’d seen in Scandinavia in a shopping centre. It’s amazing the things that excite you on the road. Washing machine loaded, we couldn’t get it to work. There was a help line to call, so when I rung it was answered by a real person straight away, who in perfect English, asked which branch I was in, which machine I was using and talked me through how to reset it – all done in one minute. I can’t remember the last time in the UK we could solve something so easily on the phone.
Back at Lo11y we got talking to the couple in the motorhome next to us. He was Finnish and she was from Essex, although she stressed that she had left the UK when she was 19 and had never been back to Essex. They gave us some good information on where to visit for the rest of our time in Finland and in Sweden.
It was just a 5 minute walk to the old town from here. We passed an area by a church where young girls were doing a show jumping competition on their hobby horses. The Old Town was lovely. Beautifully maintained pastel coloured houses, with the main streets full of arty shops, boutiques and cafes. Beyond the main market square there seemed to be an international food festival on where exhibitors from over 30 countries were selling their produce. We passed the UK fish and chips, fudge, and porcelain stalls. We later learned this was part of a wider programme of events laid on for the towns Lace week.
The weather was warm and sunny, so we decided we’d find somewhere to park for the night here rather than drive in such perfect weather. We found a good spot in a car park near a harbour area and next to a beach. We had our usual recce of the area on our Bromptons.
The following morning was still sunny, so Colin did some yoga on the beach before having a quick dip in the sea.
It was just under a 100km drive to Turku, Finland’s second city. We parked up in a car park near the port area and caught a bus into the centre. We had visited here on a cycling holiday we think 20 years ago, but bizarrely neither of us could remember anything about it. We visited the central indoor market, one of the main visitor attractions and had no recollection of seeing this before. We went on to the imposing cathedral – again no memories – I wonder what the heck we did see on that trip? We’ll be pulling out the old photo album when we’re home. The weather was much better than forecast and we enjoyed a leisurely amble back along the waterfront. We jumped on the free orange ferry that shuttles people across the water. Then a bit further on from here we jumped on another boat shuttle service that we had no idea where it was heading. It took us past the main port area, then onto a couple of stops at a nature park and a high end looking marina before bringing us back to town. It was a nice diversion for €3.
We went on to visit Turku Castle which was just behind where we’d parked Lo11y. We made it in time for a free guided tour of the outside areas of the castle which was really interesting learning about the family shenanigans of those living there over the years.
We’d booked a table in a nice waterside restaurant for the evening, so we got scrubbed up and put on our ‘going out’ clothes (same as our daytime ones, but less grubby) and strolled back down the waterfront. With the rain still holding off, we dined on the rooftop terrace. The service and food were terrific – what a treat.
The next day we had a ferry booked to take us to the Aland archipelago of islands. The ferry terminal at Naantali was a short drive from Turku. The ferry felt more like a cruise ship compared to the ferries we’re used to from the UK. There were nice outside sitting areas, spacious sitting areas indoors and even a spa and yoga studio area (at extra cost). We glided past little islands for most of the 4 hour journey.
We had booked a campsite in the main island town of Mariehamn. It wasn’t the nicest site but was convenient to get on our Bromptons and cycle into town. The Tall Ships Race 2024 was in town which had started in Lithuania, and had already visited Helsinki, Estonia, Turku, and after Aland was finishing in Poland. We were able to go on board two of the ships for a look around the decks. One was a Polish ship and the other was from Ecuador. The waterfront was buzzing with visitors and other smaller boats that were part of the event. We enjoyed a drink in the harbour area, then had a meal in town before heading back to the campsite.
The following day we got on our road bikes to explore the southern areas of the island. The roads were nice and quiet and we passed some lovely properties. We called in at a terrific coffee/craft shop. The owner has opened her gardens to visitors and had used all sorts of old bric-a-brac in her planting schemes to great effect. The coffee and homemade chocolate cake were some of the best we’ve had on this trip. When I told her the chocolate cake was the best she replied ‘I know!’
We drove further north on the island of Aland to a small harbour area which had motorhome parking and moorings for visiting boats. We were given a warm welcome by the Finnish/Italian couple who were running the complex. They got us parked up on a grassy area right by the water. It was a fabulous spot, with great facilities including a sauna and serving good local food and drinks. We made the immediate decision to spend two nights here. It was a beautiful calm evening. We were joined by a German Landrover camping vehicle. After dining there we enjoyed a beautiful sunset.
We woke early to a stunning sunny morning the following day and sat outside soaking up the beautiful views and the peace and tranquility – the only noise was the sound of jumping fish. We got out on the road bikes for a 50 mile bike ride. This time we weren’t caught out in mosquito infested forests and enjoyed the generally quiet roads and nice scenery. Back at the harbour we had our first sauna of the trip. There are an estimated three million saunas in Finland (both public and private) for a population of just 5.5 million meaning Finland has more saunas per capita than any other country in the world.
In fact, the relaxing properties of saunas are cited as one of the factors behind Finland regularly topping the world's happiness index. Colin's further facts on why Finnish people are happy are:
Their close connection to nature – lush parks in cities, cottages in the many Finnish archipelagos, thousands of lakes, National Parks near the cities, not to mention some of the cleanest air in the world.
Even with many months of darkness in the winter, their world is lit up with the Northern lights, and they certainly make the most of the midnight sun in the summer.
Finland is one of the richest countries in the world (top five) due to it's tech industries.
The weather had turned the next day with the wind picking up and no more sunshine. We had a ferry taking us to Kapellskar in Sweden (just north of Stockholm) in the afternoon. We called in at Kastelholm Slott (Castle) which we’d cycled past the day before. It is a Swedish built castle originally dating back to the 14th century. As with all such historic places it had an interesting history, and had been used for holding and executing ladies deemed to be practicing witchcraft.
We had another smooth comfortable ferry crossing. At last a border crossing with no rain. We had an easy 150km drive to reach Gnesta, where we were staying with our friends from the UK, Kate and Karl, who own a holiday home in the countryside here.
Although we've only had short taster of Finland we thoroughly enjoyed it. It may not have the wow factor of Norway, but the fresh air and nature are a real tonic. We look forward to seeing more of the country in the future.
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