Scandinavia

When the Tourist Office opened at 8:30 we went there to look for some information about the sights of Turku. They also had an internet PC so we were able to read and send some email. This PC also had a floppy drive so we could upload some pages for our online travelogue for the first time this vacation. From the Tourist Office we went to the famous castle of Turku.

But it was still closed and would not open before 9:30, so we had to wait. Around 9:30 we could enter the castle. It has some exhibitions about life in the castle in the past and there is also a museum about the history of Turku. In one of the rooms of the castle there is a large open model of the castle in which you could see how it looked like in the past when there were still people living in the castle. This is very interesting to see. What Ciska really like in the castle were the prison cells. In one of them there were some lifesize dolls and she wondered whether they were real people or not locked in those cells and why they were put in there.

From the castle we went to the cathedral. Its a very nice one and also a lot of concerts are given there. Right when we were there they were tuning up the organ for a concert. After a short visit to this cathedral we went to our car for the last stretch this day to Helsinki.

There are not many 4-lane highways in Finland. From Turku there is a short stretch and from there until about 30 kilometers before Helsinki only a 2 lane road with maximum speeds of 100 or 80 and 60 through villages with traffic lights. So its difficult to speed. We were warned by someone at the Randboldal camping last week that the police is frequently checking for speeding and the fines for speeding are very high. So we had time to enjou the Finnish countryside between Turku and Helsinki. Hilleke was driving this day, but during the trip she started to feel very sleepy so Arjan continued. When we arrived in Helsinki we had to search for the hotel as we didn't have a map of the city. Arjan had only copied a part of the surroundings of the hotel from a map on the internet. We wandered about, but finally we found Hotel Continental, it only stood at the other side of the road and at most crossings you are not allowed to turn left, let alone turn around. So we first had to turn right into a side-street, turn there and cross the road we were on initially (no turn left, remember) into the side-street on the other side. Turn there again and then we could turn right to go into the opposite direction so we could enter the parkingplace of the hotel. After we had checked-in we parked the car in the garage of the hotel and went to see our room. It was a spacious room at the frontside of the hotel with a nice view over the park and lake across the street. We didn't feel like doing anything strenuous anymore today. But the hotel has a pool at the top floor so we went there to relax and to enjoy the view over the city. After this we went for dinner in the neighbourhood of the hotel as we didn't want to walk a long way. We will see the sights of Helsinki the coming days.