Some more photos from Helsinki........
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| Pete on the Bridge of Love where I guess you lock your padlock and throw the key into the water below |
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| I would guess the grass wouldn't get this brown too often in Helsinki |
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| I love riding round the streets and seeing what you discover |
Woke to clear skies at 6am which by 8am would be grey and by
9am it was raining. This was our final
wake up call in the tent on our London to Helsinki adventure. It was quite sad to think that this time
would be the last that we would be going through our routine which has been
commonplace for the last three months.
Over to the facilities block for showers – getting in before the rest of
the camp was awake – then back to the tent for jam butties and a coffee before
shedding excess gear that would not be making the return trip home. This included our Bunnings groundsheet which
had served its purpose very well, numerous plastic bags which were very handy
for a variety of uses, the last of the rice, muesli etc, our plastic drinking
bottles, maps and notes that were no longer needed etc etc. The biggest thing we had decided to leave
behind was the tent. It had done its job
well but we had come to the conclusion we wanted a new tent for the next
venture. We offered it to the staff at
the campground free of charge who were delighted with this procurement and we
were 4kgs lighter for the trip home.
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| One of the dog owners wagons...it's double storeyed. Might have to sell the Corvette Toff if you want to compete with the big boys at the World Dog Show. Saw a couple of Bernese at the hotel but they didn't rate compared to all the Bernese we know! |
Next we managed to skype Briana who, after reading the
latest blog post says she needs to have a chat with us about the judgmental
tone and less than PC comments. I told
her she read the watered down version and it was a good job she didn’t read
what her Dad really thought! After a
visit to the supermarket to quell our ravenous appetites (after all it was
9.30am now and breakfast had been two hours prior!), we then began our final
20km journey on the bikes to Vantaa and the Cumulus Hotel, following directions
from the best map we’ve had all trip! Nice
to finally get it right just in time for our Finnish finish. Nice sedate ride – it had to be as I only
had a mild front brake that also started playing up near the end and completely disconnected the rear one to stop it rubbing on the wheel – and arrived
at the Cumulus at 11.50am. They let us
check in early much to our delight, into our Superior room which we had booked
and paid for before leaving NZ. It’s a
good job we did because after three months of penny pinching, we find it really
difficult to part with any money that we don’t need to. For example, we thought 40Euros at the
campground for two nights was a bit steep, so 167 euros per night at the hotel
really goes against the grain. To
compensate, we went to the supermarket to buy our food for the next two days
and then cycled back to the hotel where we enjoyed a fabulous lunch….and plenty
of it! In fact while we were eating it,
Pete commented that he couldn’t wait for breakfast tomorrow morning….I hope the
Cumulus have managed to restock since Friday when we were last here for breakfast.
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| Pete's stack of gear |
Stomach’s satisfied it was over to the shopping mall to
check out the shops. Not too different
from NZ except slightly more expensive I’d say.
Similar stuff, similar format, so we just satisfied ourselves with
buying a few essentials and having a look around.
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| Julia's right pannier |
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| Julia's left pannier |
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| And across the carrier Julia had tent poles and pegs, the air matresses and trusty jandals, |
Got back to the hotel around 7.30pm for dinner and then had a bit of a practice pack to make sure we’re not going to exceed the weight limit. By that stage it was 10.15am and time to hit the hay on our penultimate night in Finland.
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