Finnishing With Scandinavia
Although it’s less than two weeks ago since we arrived in Turku in western Finland, it feels a long time ago. We’ve now left Finland and, rather than head south into the Baltic States, we’ve changed our plans and gone elsewhere. Such is the pleasure of having no fixed plan and plenty of time to facilitate changes. But there’s a story to tell around this…
Our night ferry crossing from Stockholm to Turku was a real pleasure - comfortable bed, room to spread out and wander straight from bed to the shower and vice versa. The knock on the door and a crew member coming in to wake us up at 6:30AM (that’s 5:30AM Swedish time) in the morning was a bit a a rude awakening, though. Getting off the boat in the early morning, we cycled along the river into the Turku town centre. Although after 8:00AM, the city still seemed to be asleep. We did manage to find a cafe that provided a two-course breakfast deal (+ filter coffee) which we enjoyed outside in the sun. The rest of the day was spent mooching around the city, which seemed low-key and pleasant. I spent some time finishing off the previous blog post, while Julie explored shops. This also included a haircut for her - after trying a couple of salons who couldn’t take a booking that day (despite the absence of any sign of other customers), she ventured into a barber’s shop and got a cut on the spot. Later in the afternoon, we biked back to the port to find our accommodation for the night - Julie had booked us into a moored ship hotel - the SS Bore - re-purposed from its previous life as a trans-Baltic ferry between the 1960s - 80s.
Before setting off the next morning, Julie made coffee in bed - a simple pleasure we haven’t had since we left London. The day’s ride was in windy conditions, although not quite the red-alert conditions our fellow hotel guest had warned us of. Thankfully, the wind was mainly at our backs, so we made good progress. Stopped off at a town for morning tea and, if anything, the cafe was even more soulless than yesterday’s - more like a factory canteen than a cafe. The coffee tasted almost as soulless as the ambience. We were the only two customers on arrival. The day’s route was a mixed bag - some initial cycleways, then on the verge of a busy road, then a nice quiet smooth dirt road, but most of afternoon on a busy road with some sketchy manoeuvres by overtaking cars. The night’s accommodation was very average - beds weren’t made, despite the (unseen) fine print of the booking page indicating it was 10 Euro per person for linen supply, with bedding in a cupboard looking (and smelling) like it had come from a second-hand shop. We ended up sleeping in our sleeping bags and refused to pay the linen supplement.
We’re getting the impression that Finland is much like our experience of Sweden, but with Euro and more umlauts. And less restrictive alcohol licensing laws. The towns have been few and (very) far between, almost completely lacking in life. And soooo many trees - I won’t miss the boring boreal forests. One thing we saw a lot of was industrial premises and factories in varying states of decay. Even many of the shops in towns seem under-utilised and only marginally viable.
The following day saw our last day of cycling in Scandinavia. We stopped in the town of Lohjo for a coffee and pastry - very French-style glazed pastries/sweets on offer, including liquorice cake (which remained untried). Julie had a good chat with a waitress, who suggested we should visit the local attraction of a large quarry excavation - although a local herself, she’d never been, but thought we should see it…
The day’s ride was much like the previous afternoon - on the verge of a busy road, or roadside cycle path. At the next main town, we stopped for supplies and a break. When Julie found out the facilities comprised nothing more than two adjacent supermarkets, there was a period of wailing and gnashing of teeth. There were (understandable) comments about the lack of anything but trees in the country, peppered with a few expletives.
I feel I need to make reference here to Finland being the happiest country in the world. We saw very little overt evidence of it from our time in the country, which was intriguing. We spoke to a number of Finnish people about it and they seemed a bit bemused by it too, unable to give us an explanation. From my empirical observations over a full week, I’m going to hazard a guess that a lot comes down to being happy with your lot. Finns certainly aren’t flashy people, but they seem content with what they’ve got. Clearly they’ve got strong social institutions and a great eduction system, even though we saw some people who had slipped through the net. I suspect there’s also a feeling of “At least we don’t live over the other side of our eastern border”.
Our final three nights in Finland were spent at a sweet little studio flat in an old wooden building near Helsinki’s city centre. The day after our arrival, we took a two-hour ferry over to Tallinn for some sightseeing. The old walled town proved utterly charming - providing us with exactly the sort of cultural history that we failed to see much of in Sweden or Finland. It was once the hub of shipping in the Baltic, providing a wealth that was translated into its stone buildings, most with red tiled rooves - now the best preserved medieval city in Nordic Europe - inevitably, now designated a World Heritage site. It’s filled with interesting old building and nooks and crannies. I loved it. Julie showed me the tiny red house, just off the main square, where she stayed for a long weekend several years ago with Hannah, Alison and Terry. An unexpected fun activity proved to be watching tourists deal with a heavy downpour - while we sheltered under the arches of the Town Hall, we enjoyed seeing tourists using different tactics in the rain and puddles - seemingly some had never dealt with rain before and provided comedy walks across the cobbled square for our entertainment. Because it was Tallinn, we both made purchases - I am now the happy owner of a ‘mosaic’ wooden butter knife, along with a carved wooden spoon, while Julie bought a linen towel. And then another one. It all proved to be a most enjoyable day out.
Our last full day in Helsinki was spent sightseeing there. We biked down to the market square by the harbour and then wandered the streets. Lots of imposing buildings, but not very attractive. Something I hadn’t previously known was that Helsinki was effectively a new town - created in the 16th Century in an attempt to challenge Tallinn’s pre-eminence as the centre of the Baltic. We did enjoy the central railway station - looks to be dating from the 1920s, with a grand central concourse. Of course, when in Helsinki, one has to go to the Marimekko store - turns out, even at its home base, it’s still wildly expensive. We enjoyed an early evening meal of salmon soup and beer at a stall in the old market hall, then biked to our final touristy activity in Finland: an evening sauna. The Loyly Sauna was built about 10 years ago on an old industrial site in the port area. Having won a number of architectural and sustainability awards, Time magazine has deemed it “one of the greatest 100 places in the world’. Expensive, but when in Helsinki… Was a fun experience, with three separate saunas - two of which had views over the sea. We were given a towel, locker key and a ‘sitting cloth’. It was nice to see a group of local women on a girls’ night out together.
We were able to have a leisurely start on our departure day from Helsinki and Finland, albeit in drizzle. We had a ferry to catch for 3:00PM departure on the outskirts of Helsinki, so it was an unhurried breakfast, packing of bags and tidying of our home for the previous three nights. While putting bags on the bikes, an old lady stopped to talk to Julie - clearly lonely and enjoyed the interaction - gave us both a hug when we left. After we’d cycled the 16km to the port, we checked in and chatted under a shelter to a couple of German cyclists in their late 70s. They’d been on e-bikes for three weeks doing a big loop up to northern Finland. They’d also got tired of nothing but trees, with the added stressor of almost continual rain and were clearly looking forward to getting home. We were joined by a younger German cyclist who’d just finished a tour of the Baltic States, referencing the very busy and scary roads - we’re feeling vindicated about our decision to change direction. The decision we’d made was to take an overnight (31-hour!) ferry from Helsinki to Travemunde in northern Germany, near Lubeck. From there, another train marathon down to Switzerland, to cycle down the Rhine to Rotterdam (where we started our European trip).
Once we’d boarded the ferry, we dumped our gear in the cabin and settled in for a long journey. Julie had seen some quite poor reviews of the journey, but we found it absolutely great. We’d bought the meal package: “superior dinner, brunch and dinner”, which did not disappoint. It was all buffet-style and the “superior dinner” including help-yourself beer and wines on tap. We had an interesting chat with an Estonian waitress, who was also finishing a Masters degree in Geography (thesis on the evolution of name changes of Estonian farms). She works 15 days on, 15 days off and loves it. I spent quite a bit of time in the cabin reviewing a (former) colleague’s draft conference paper. Being an inside cabin without windows, we slept in almost complete darkness, waking a 7:30AM - the longest sleep of our trip. With brunch not until 9:30AM, we ambled upstairs to see the morning view - grey sea, grey sky, some other ships and occasional distant low-lying land. Back in the cabin later, I confirmed the visible land was southern Sweden on one side and the island of Bornholm on the other, so we were passing by the area we’d previously cycled several weeks ago. Once arrival at the breakfast dining area, we were offered sparkling wine with a “Why not?” from the waitress - why not, indeed. By mid-afternoon, I was going a bit stir-crazy on the boat - there was little to see, although offshore wind turbines reappeared around Denmark, which we hadn’t seen while in Sweden or Finland. Coming into Travemunde was quite surreal. The port was within the Trave River and the ship nosed in with a bathing beach on one side and apartments on the other. We were almost looking straight down through apartment windows. Just before berthing, the ship did a 180-degree turn with very little space at either end of the 200m-long vessel. Our hotel was only about five minutes ride from the hotel so we were quickly settled in for the night.
Our first day back in Germany was a very long, exhausting one, filled with highs and lows. First stop out of Travemunde was the train station at Lubeck, where Sabine (with her “I hate people” coffee mug) helped us get tickets to Zurich for us and our bikes. As usual, the latter proved a significant complication, and there was a deal of huffing and tutting from Sabine, but she got there. Mostly. She wasn’t able to secure a bike reservation from the final leg from Basel to Zurich, suggesting we could just chance it. Anyway, several hundred Euro lighter, we had the all-important tickets, so went into Lubeck to explore. Another gorgeous old town which we wandered around, marvelling at it all. I’d known the name Lubeck, but nothing more. Turns out it was a capital city of the Hanseatic League, now renowned for its medieval walled old town on a river island, filled with brick (rather than stone) Gothic buildings - a World Heritage site, of course. It’s known as the city of seven spires for the tall spires on the five main churches. And for marzipan(!). Notably, many of the old buildings were damaged or destroyed by Allied bombings and subsequent fires during World War II; subsequently, much has been restored. It lay just inside West Germany after the country was carved up during post-War years.
In the afternoon, we took the first of four trains - to Luneburg, on Sabine’s advice. Yet another superbly preserved old town. We were being overwhelmed with so much cultural history around every corner after being starved of it for so long in Sweden and Finland.
After a disappointingly indifferent doner kebab meal, we sat at a riverside bar in the evening warmth, whiling away some time before heading to the station for the second leg of our train journey. This time, the train was departing at 3:51AM, so we spent a long and unpleasant late night and early hours at the station. We’ve come to recognise that train stations draw in the local down-and-outs at night, where they can search rubbish bins for plastic bottles and cans (which attract refunds in many northern European countries) and get some free shelter. Our low point was when a local vagrant drunk spent several hours in the concourse - initially, stumbling around mumbling to himself, then curled up asleep next to a cash machine, then half-sitting on a bench next to me. Inevitably, he fell asleep, toppled over and cracked his head on the floor, cutting his forehead. We couldn’t get out of there fast enough, vowing that would be the last night train we take.
Thankfully, the train was on time and we got underway again. We had the usual lumping of bikes up into the train, then had to remove all the bags and hang them on a rack. Three hours later, we arrived at Fulda, where we had a quick coffee and pastry, before repeating the process for Train No. 3 to Basel. The final leg from Basel to Zurich was undertaken with some trepidation, with no bike reservation. As it turned out, our tickets did get checked by the conductor (for the first time on the journey). I passed over two of the many pieces of paper issued by Sabine. It seemed to be sufficient, our tickets got stamped and Julie promptly cried with relief. Once at Zurich, we were finally able to travel independently. We cycled out of the city to a campsite about 15km away, in the Sihl valley. On arrival, a blackboard notice announced it was full. Fortunately, a sub-text stated that there was only space for small tents. Phew! After an enjoyable chat with the owner, we put our tent up on a nice grassy spot and went straight back to the reception area for a well-deserved and much-needed beer in the outside cafe area. The evening was a blur - I think I fell asleep in my camp chair three times while trying to drink a cup of tea. It was definitely an early-to-bed-night after a physically and mentally challenging ‘day’.
We’d checked-in for two nights to allow a day of recuperation and we made the most of it. We didn’t wake until 8:30AM and had a very slow start - we didn’t eat breakfast until about 10:00AM. Apart from a few chores, the day’s main activity was walking back to the nearest town to get some groceries. Then back for another beer in the shade at the campsite, before an early supper of beefsteak tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, salad and bread. In the evening we chatted to our neighbours in a campervan - two young Welsh girls and an older English woman - all over to watch the England - Wales game in the women’s Euro football competition. They’re the first Brits we’ve encountered since we left the UK.
The reason for specifically coming to Zurich has been to see Julie’s niece, Sophie, her husband, Chris, and their 5-year old son, Jimmy. They live just along the lake in the village of Altendorf. It just happened that Julie’s sister Sue, husband, Stephen and mother, Pam, were visiting for the weekend. We’d surreptitiously been in cahoots with Sophie to surprise them by turning up unexpectedly. After our day of rest, we set off to meet them at a winery restaurant for lunch. The ride featured the longest climb of our trip so far, out of the Sihl valley, before dropping steeply down to Lake Zurich. We arrived at the restaurant early and Julie was almost beside herself by the time the family arrived. It was indeed a lovely surprise and we enjoyed a delicious meal on a sunny afternoon, on a balcony overlooking the lake and surrounding mountains. We’ve now replaced the other visitors at Sophie and Chris’s place for a few nights.
Yesterday, we took a train trip to Lucerne for the day - unencumbered by bikes - yay! We made a specific stop-off en route at Zug, where the father of our NZ friend, Anna, hailed from. We’d last been there about 20 years ago, where, by chance, Anna was visiting and we had a memorable day cruise on the lake together. Lucerne was a place we’d previously stopped at briefly while cycling many years ago and I was keen to go back for a better look around. It didn’t disappoint. It must be the quintessential chocolate box city in Switzerland, notable for its Chapel Bridge across the lake outlet, dating from the 14th Century. While there, we went to the Victorinox shop where, amongst a couple of other purchases, I had the long-broken spring on the scissors of my 35-year old Swiss Army knife replaced, free of charge. Very happy about that!
After a lovely time with Sophie, Chris and Jimmy, we’ll be back on the road tomorrow, heading north towards the Rhine River at its outlet from Lake Constance, with a plan to cycle its length to Rotterdam.
Wow, Ian & Julie, what a mission! Loving your writing and photos. At least you are now on a downhill trajectory by following the Rhine downstream. Looking forward to the next instalment.
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