It was May 1981 when I first visited Finland. I had taken a job with an industrial company called "Nokia" who at the time no-one outside of the Nordic countries had ever heard of. This was long before their moment of fame with the mobile phone. In fact, Nokia only got into the phone business by purchasing another Finnish company called "Mobira". I was shipped out to Helsinki for 3 weeks for induction training and later that same year, Ann and I spent the best part of 3 months there on an assignment. We said that one day we'd go back for a holiday and having been scorched last year in the deserts of the south western USA, we thought somewhere a little cooler might be a good idea. With between 20 and 22 hours of sun, although the Finnish summer is quite short it warms up quickly and with great timing, we went during a heatwave, although we did experience some cool evenings and wet days but then we were as far north as Iceland.
We decided on a week in a rented cottage in the middle of Finland followed by a slow meander back to Helsinki for a further 4 days calling in at the small town of Savonlinna on the way.
Despite my extreme dislike of flying, there isn't really an alternative now that all the ferry routes from the UK to Scandinavia have been withdrawn. Having flown well over a million miles during my working life, it isn't that I am frightened of flying, more that I dislike airports and all the hanging around. And this is despite usually being able to find a deal and upgrading to sit at the front of the plane...
The flight is around 3 hours duration and with a two hour time difference, it takes half a day to get there. Having collected our rental car, it was a little way north to the town of Jarvenpaa for the first night. The car was interesting - the first time I have ever driven a hybrid and the lack of engine noise when you "start" is quite disconcerting.
Next morning, the journey north started, but not before a visit to a local landmark - the home of probably the only Finn that most people will be able to name - Jean Sibelius. Those who have ever watched "The Sky at Night" or the old "This Week" programmes on the telly will be familiar with his music even if you hadn't previously realised it.
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| The main building, chez Sibelius |
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| ...and the summer house in the garden containing the sauna |
Having ticked this off the list, we pointed the car northwards along this route with a couple of stops along the way.
Our cottage fully met expectations. Rather than being a sterile holiday let, it is the owner's summer cottage that he lets out when not using it and comes with an encouraging note to use it as though it were your own home and just to replace anything that you use while staying there.
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| The main cottage building. The upper floor has two large bedrooms, but a low roof so we just used the downstairs room |
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| Not just a barbecue, but a wooden gazebo with barbecue, hotplate, smoker and a couple of other cooking things like a wok burner and paella cooker. The building in the background is one of the log stores. |
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| Even summer cottages need a "summer house", so here was ours, overlooking the lake. A simple sitting room and a wood fired sauna. |
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| The sitting room in the summer house |
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| And the sauna. We managed around 75 Celsius, but declined the opportunity of a dip in the lake to cool off |
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| The view over the lake from the summer house. We even had our own private beach! |
Next instalment: Our week being tourists around Kuopio.
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