Onward to Turku

We started our “day” by getting out of bed just after midnight to see the midnight sun. As we walked through the shopping area there were lots of people still enjoying the pubs and clubs. A lot of outdoor socialising. One bar had a big screen outside with the Football World Cup showing England vs Panama. We headed down to the river and watched the sun setting on the tree tops, Still a few people around and one group playing Kubb.

Back to bed for our early train. Breakfast at Rovaniemi Station then the first train to Tampere which is a 6.5 hr trip. Like many of the European trains this was a double decker. Most of the view on this leg was trees and the odd lake. As we headed further south there was more farmland and trees. The train had a varied speed but did reach 200km for stretches. In total the trip was 830km so similar distance from Invercargill to Blenheim.

Silver birch trees seem to be the prevalent type here as wildings. There was some areas where the trees have been harvested and waiting for transport. We noticed that all trees here have very thin trunks. Nothing like our robust NZ trees when harvested.

A change of train at Tampere was easy and organised. The air temperature has risen into mid twenties. We are still far enough north to avoid the heatwave that Europe is experiencing.

From Tampere we moved through a farming area. It was obviously a cropping area as there were no stock at all or fences. Each farm appeared to have some sort of grain drying facility which looked like a metal square tower with a small red Swedish cottage perched on top.

It was raining in Turku when we arrived but still very warm. It was a 15 min walk to our hotel across even more cobblestones. Our hotel room is the nicest one yet and super central for our one day of exploring tomorrow. Julie is still feeling like she is on a train and hopefully s good night sleep will cure that.Read more