Day4 - from Helsinki to Rönkönvaara

We're kicked out of the boat at 8h00 and start riding on Finnish roads. We immediately notice the "beware of moose" signs, so we keep our eyes open and camera ready. Instead, the only example of life out of the Finnish forests was captured in the picture below.

The sun is hot, the sky is blue and for 200 km we cook under our clothes. We then reach our first waypoint: a traditional farm restaurant (Ravintola Wanha Peltola). We are a bit too early (remember, we were kicked out of the boat) so the owner welcomes us and invites us to visit the animals and have a swim in the lake behind the house.

After a refreshing swim, we enjoy the menu prepared by our hosts and have the privilege to taste the home-made beer.

Our 30 minute break turns into 2 hours and with full stomachs we continue our road, full of lakes, forests and moose signs to our second waypoint: the Olavinlinna castle.

There, we plan to take just a couple of pictures of the castle, but we’re offered the deal of the week: a visit to the summer-hosted Opera “behind the scenes”. We cannot refuse, and together with an obligatory historical guided visit, we end up following a very interesting 2 hour tour.

With a lot of delay, we attack the last 100km towards Rönkönvaara. One hour later we reach our final destination: Gunnar's neighbor's summer cottage. But then our friend Gunnar waves at us from behind the trees, making us realize that we are wrong. We drive accross the forest once again and finally make it to our real final destination: Gunnar's summer cottage.

Gunnar, Jörgen, and Eric warmly welcome us, but there is no time for that as we are immediately initiated to the Finnish customs: hot sauna, lake swimming, cold beer and mosquitoes. Pictures of that episode are censured, but here are some pictures of our wonderful dinner instead! Thank you all!

Just before going to bed we are invited to a sun-set-boat-tour (23h00 !)... just beautiful !