Jeff: Turku

Next morning we headed to a district North of Helsinki called Vantaa mainly so we could visit a particular shop which had some good tank cleaning tablets for our shower tank and also to do our clothes washing at a self-service laundromat (Rockstar lifestyle!). On our way out of Helsinki we came across the Fazer factory. Fazer are a big food maker in Finland known mainly for their chocolate. Most of their stuff includes milk but they do a oat chocolate bar so we decided to take a look at what they had. We stumbled across some chocolate eggs made from Almond Hazelnut Nougat which appeared to be vegan although bizarrely the egg was contained within a real eggshell. The jury is out as to whether these are vegan however they tasted amazing!

We were on our way West to Turku and decided to stop halfway to enjoy and afternoon/evening by the lake to do what all the locals do which is Sauna! For 3 Euros each we were raring to go. I (Rich) couldn’t resist the diving board by the lake however. They are only about 7/8m high but when your up there it feels very high! With a lot less hesitation then the first diving board we came across I was in. This Sauna was mixed which is unusual but a nice change although it made for a tight squeeze. It got busier as the evening went on an by the end we were all cheek to cheek which made it warmer and more entertaining. 4/5 rotations of Sauna and lake and we were done so we got back to the van for a peaceful nights sleep.

Next Morning I dragged Catherine for another 10k run before we headed closer to Turku. We stopped off at this park up where there were meant to be highland cows however we couldn’t spot them. It was a nice spot though so we decided to stay put as we wanted to plan and prepare for a long bike ride next day through the archipelago islands of Turku. It’s a well-known cycle route which at its fullest is over 100km one way but as a day trip we planned to do 3/5 of the islands making it an 85km round trip. A 6am start and we drove to our starting point – Pargus. A 6.5km ride took us to our first ferry shuttle over to Nagu. We then had a long 28km ride on Nagu, mainly on the road which was ok as there was very little traffic. The island was pretty with good views from the bridges and with deer in the fields. There was relief when we finally got to the next ferry port for our next ferry shuttle to Korpo. Once on Korpo we checked Catherine's bike battery and decided we had enough to get to the main town to check out the church. Being a Sunday there was a service in the church so we couldn’t go in but we did peer in through the doors as it is believed to be one of the oldest churches in Finland and built in the 15^th century. We then headed over the road to a grocery store where we bought a banana for me and three magnums (it was cheaper to buy a pack than to buy 2) and I had two and Catherine had 1.

We then jumped back on the bikes and started the route back the section on Korpo and back to the shuttle was fairly flat and easy but the section on Nagu had lots of hills so was a lot harder. About 14km across the island (halfway) there is a small town so we decided to stop and have some lunch and cheekily ask if we could charge the bike battery a little, which they happily allowed. We relaxed and ate for about an hour and then it was difficult to get up and get back on the bikes for another 20 km which we knew was all going to be up and down. We got to the final ferry stop and had to wait for 20 minutes for a ferry and I’m not sure these breaks help at all because they just make it worse when you get back on the bike. Eventually we crossed back onto Pargus and drove the last 6km to Jeff before collapsing. We had started the cycle at 8.30 and finally finished it at 3.30 so it had been a long day.

We decided that we deserved another sauna after all of that so we headed to another small public sauna which this time had split men and women and was a naked sauna. This is a little bit of a pain as it means every time you want to go in the lake you have to put your swimwear back on but nevertheless we embraced it. Again this one got busier as the evening went on and we did around 3 or 4 saunas followed by swims in the lake but there was no dive tower on this one to jump off.

We decided to stay next to the sauna for the night as we are just south of Turku and we plan to head there tomorrow and the location of the sauna is nice and quiet and boy did we sleep well.

The next morning we headed to Turku fairly early and parked a short distance outside the town. Now I know we are crazy because we got the bikes out and rode the short distance into the town centre. Our plan was just to explore the centre and then head out to some of the sights outside the centre so we found somewhere central to tie the bikes up and headed into the main square where we saw an old roman church and some of the shops before we headed over to the cathedral which is a medieval building. After this we headed to the old market hall to have a look at their stalls and noticed some nice looking vegan treats which we would come back later to buy.

Having explored the centre a little we decided to head out on the bikes to see the castle which is about a 5 minute ride down the river. We tied the bikes up again and walked around the castle before jumping on the bikes and heading to a funicular which was due to take us up the hill to the old prison. We found the funicular fairly easily and soon realised we could also take the bikes up (as there was already someone in the queue with their bike) so we waited patiently at the bottom and once it arrived all piled in. Catherine came in last and struggled a little to get it in which probably annoyed the locals who appeared to use this regularly. Eventually the doors shut and up the hill we travelled. It was only as we were going up that we released how small the hill actually was and that we could have ridden up it easily (well not as easily as usual given yesterdays ride). Once up at the top we cycled around the former prison which has now been turned into apartments, a hotel, spa, restaurants, bars and other various things. We then headed back down the hill on the bikes and rode back into town to get a late lunch from a vegan buffet place where we ate like kings for a very modest sum. We then made a quick detour back to the market hall where we bought some doughnuts (and quickly ate them) before heading back to the van, via a small little shuttle ferry, and out to a lake we are staying at for the night as we have big plans for tomorrow.