 |
| From Bikin' trip 2010 |
This summer I, together with an esteemed fellow long-distance enthusiast Mr. Ly, Esq, decided to take our bikes to the West Coast, which was relatively unknown for both of us. We also decided to skip the "boring bits", i.e. the Helsinki-Åbo part. Thus we loaded our pushies into the train one beautiful Sunday afternoon, and headed to our Åbo accommodations, graciously provided by Mr. Ly's friend Dahlstroem, right along the Aura River.
On monday we embarked on the 575 km pedalling portion of the trip, our aim, God, weather, our posteriors and pushbikes allowing, the Osthrobotnian capitol city, Wasa.
Here are some of the highlights along the way:
- Naantali olde towne, very pretty. Next to a weird and scary island full of Moomin Trolls!
- The mini Island Route west of Uusikaupunki
- Rauma olde towne, one of the Unesco World Heritage sites in Finland:
- camping in nice 3 or 4 star Camping Sites (or in the woods):
- Pori during the Pori Jazz week. Unfortunately Massive Attack, that Bristolian musical group I have admired for a while now, was scheduled to play a few days later:
- Yyteri beaches, although this must have been the only windy and cloudy day all week:
- Siipyy Open Air Museum with a Camping Site, a beautiful sunset, smoke sauna and a windmill:
- the towns of Kristinestad and Kaskinen (the smallest city in Finland!)
- the Soederfjaerden meteorite crater, "created" about 530 million years ago, these days a wide-open valley, and a haven for migratory birds
- and of course Wasa, a nice city for a visit
...being able to smell ripe wild strawberries, and being able to stop to enjoy some:
... and of course, the open and winding road:
That's it for now; still waiting for Wensworth & Co reportage from the Greek Mountains!
Keep on keeping on, as our colonial cousins would say!
Paddlewick, Esq / Society Pushbike Expedition Organizer / Pannier packer extraordinnaire
