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Merv-IOM
Subscriber
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2011
- Messages
- 2,284
- Points
- 113
- Location
- Isle of Man
- Member No
- 2,034
- RV Type
- A Class
- Model
- Winnebago Journey DL 34 HD
- RV Experience
- Since 2011
Rovaniemi to Helsinki
The run down through Finland was jolly pleasant to say the least. 'Allmanstratt' was used to it's fullest and we stopped where we could and wanted. One day it was a remote Hamn (harbour/marina) at Ii, next was a town park laid out for Nordic Skiing (beautiful & peaceful) at Siilinjarvi, a picnic area beside the road (in the middle of 2 lakes) at Sysma and finally a tiny hamn at Sturjan, on a little island right at the very bottom of Finland (Pellinge Island we think? South of Porvoo). Folks there live on hundreds of tiny islands and Sturjan is the port of call for them to get their post and park their cars. They were baffled to see us roll up and stay the night! I imagine we were the first and most likely will be the only RV to ever go there........
I wrote this at Rastila City Camping in Helsinki, bags of room for bigguns and right next door to the Helsinkin metro. 2.50 euro's each got us into the middle of town for the usual city visit (has to be done, although we prefer countryside & small towns to city's). First on our list was the Olympic Stadium as the tower there offers the best views of Helsinki. From the metro it was probably a 2km saunter to the stadium, up the tower for the photies and back down again. It was at that time we felt a tad peckish, so we sniffed our way to the bargain of Scandinavia!! The cafteria in the stadium complex does an all you can eat, 3 course dinner, including water & coffee for 10 euro's each!!!!!!!! Of course we made the most of the opportunity and gorged our way through several platefuls apiece. Not such a good idea when we came out as we were stuffed to the gunnels and could barely walk, so we shuffled slowly back down town. We managed to view a few more sights along the way but decided to head back to 'Arvey for some sunbathing whilst digesting the mountain of grub we'd scoffed.
We're off to Estonia on Saturday 28th June on the Tallink ferry (246 euros) so will be bidding Scandinavia farewell.
A couple of observations so far. The cheapest diesel was in Belgium, of course, but surprisingly Denmark was 2nd, Germany 3rd, then Holland, Finland, Sweden with Norway last by a long way (the whole country is so bloomin' expensive). Finland was actually reasonably priced for most things, which was a pleasant surprise. We both agree that Finland and Denmark are the prettier of the 4 Scandinavian countries. Finland has smoother roads....with gentle bends and a few hills – Sweden (especially up north) is all straight bumpy roads, endless trees with the odd lake. Finland is 'curvy', undulating with more lakes to break up the tree lines. Amazingly, from when we entered Denmark right round until we got to Helsinki, the highest we climbed was a mere 543 meters above sea level (lovely for fuel consumption!)
Oh and yes we did eventually see a Moose! The Reindeer we saw were a doddle as they calmly sauntered, en mass, across the road without batting an eyelid. The bloody Moose, however, is bonkers! They're as big as a horse and dash across the road without any warning. We barely missed one on our way down, it was dithering on the edge of the forest beside the road before deciding to try and dart across in front of us. Thankfully the eagle-eyed Sandra spotted it and yelled out to me and the noise of 'Arvey doing an emergency stop was enough to scare the bugger back into the forest from whence it came. By the way, our ABS works fine....and so do our horns!:biggrin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnPWapJgCs0&feature=youtu.be
Merv & Sandra
The run down through Finland was jolly pleasant to say the least. 'Allmanstratt' was used to it's fullest and we stopped where we could and wanted. One day it was a remote Hamn (harbour/marina) at Ii, next was a town park laid out for Nordic Skiing (beautiful & peaceful) at Siilinjarvi, a picnic area beside the road (in the middle of 2 lakes) at Sysma and finally a tiny hamn at Sturjan, on a little island right at the very bottom of Finland (Pellinge Island we think? South of Porvoo). Folks there live on hundreds of tiny islands and Sturjan is the port of call for them to get their post and park their cars. They were baffled to see us roll up and stay the night! I imagine we were the first and most likely will be the only RV to ever go there........
I wrote this at Rastila City Camping in Helsinki, bags of room for bigguns and right next door to the Helsinkin metro. 2.50 euro's each got us into the middle of town for the usual city visit (has to be done, although we prefer countryside & small towns to city's). First on our list was the Olympic Stadium as the tower there offers the best views of Helsinki. From the metro it was probably a 2km saunter to the stadium, up the tower for the photies and back down again. It was at that time we felt a tad peckish, so we sniffed our way to the bargain of Scandinavia!! The cafteria in the stadium complex does an all you can eat, 3 course dinner, including water & coffee for 10 euro's each!!!!!!!! Of course we made the most of the opportunity and gorged our way through several platefuls apiece. Not such a good idea when we came out as we were stuffed to the gunnels and could barely walk, so we shuffled slowly back down town. We managed to view a few more sights along the way but decided to head back to 'Arvey for some sunbathing whilst digesting the mountain of grub we'd scoffed.
We're off to Estonia on Saturday 28th June on the Tallink ferry (246 euros) so will be bidding Scandinavia farewell.
A couple of observations so far. The cheapest diesel was in Belgium, of course, but surprisingly Denmark was 2nd, Germany 3rd, then Holland, Finland, Sweden with Norway last by a long way (the whole country is so bloomin' expensive). Finland was actually reasonably priced for most things, which was a pleasant surprise. We both agree that Finland and Denmark are the prettier of the 4 Scandinavian countries. Finland has smoother roads....with gentle bends and a few hills – Sweden (especially up north) is all straight bumpy roads, endless trees with the odd lake. Finland is 'curvy', undulating with more lakes to break up the tree lines. Amazingly, from when we entered Denmark right round until we got to Helsinki, the highest we climbed was a mere 543 meters above sea level (lovely for fuel consumption!)
Oh and yes we did eventually see a Moose! The Reindeer we saw were a doddle as they calmly sauntered, en mass, across the road without batting an eyelid. The bloody Moose, however, is bonkers! They're as big as a horse and dash across the road without any warning. We barely missed one on our way down, it was dithering on the edge of the forest beside the road before deciding to try and dart across in front of us. Thankfully the eagle-eyed Sandra spotted it and yelled out to me and the noise of 'Arvey doing an emergency stop was enough to scare the bugger back into the forest from whence it came. By the way, our ABS works fine....and so do our horns!:biggrin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnPWapJgCs0&feature=youtu.be
Merv & Sandra
