1st and 2nd week

Stage 1 from August 20 to 28, 2022

Departure at 10:40 in Liestal in rainy weather. Drive via Mulhouse - Strasbourg -

Karlsruhe to the first overnight stop at Camping Fuldawiese in Melsungen.

On Sunday, continue driving on the highway towards Hamburg. Here we experienced how traffic jams and convoys work in Germany, even on a Sunday, really annoying! We reach our destination in Travemünde via Frankfurt - Kassel - Hamburg - Lübeck. After a city and harbor stroll, we drive to the ferry terminal at Skandinavienkai at 9:00 PM and check in without any problems. Then we wait patiently until we can board our huge ferry, the FINNSTAR, at 12:30 AM. Surprisingly few vehicles and passengers, that's why we leave Travemünde harbor at 1:30 AM towards Helsinki, the exit from the harbor is very impressive. Time passes relatively quickly in a cozy outside cabin during the day.

On Tuesday morning, we arrive at the ferry port of Helsinki at 9:15 AM, the ferry passed the impressive archipelago islands in front of Helsinki. After a few minutes, we disembark and head directly to Camping Rastila just outside the city, we are already on our pitch at 10:15 AM. A few hundred meters from the campsite is the metro station where we take our first trip to the city center. We visit the market and the market hall as well as the cathedral and other sights. We get some fresh chanterelles for dinner, they are sold in liters, like almost everything at the market, and are accordingly expensive. But the chanterelles were very good!!! We spent the second day in Helsinki with various sightseeing tours, including the impressive Orthodox Cathedral with its golden domes.

On Thursday, we continue our journey and enjoy the drive in warm summer weather through impressive landscapes between lakes, sometimes even on natural roads. Our destination for today is Turku, where we stop for 2 nights on the beautifully located Camping Ruissalo just outside the city. We experience a beautiful sunset in another great landscape. On Friday, we actually wanted to ride our bikes to Turku for a city tour, but due to the missing bike computer, we made the trip to the city by bus. The bus stop is located directly at the campsite and the bus goes right into the city of Turku. There we visit the cathedral (maximum 1 church per day...) The weather is a bit overcast and cooler, but clears up again in the evening! On Saturday, we start a tour through the Turku archipelago. This route leads over various larger and smaller archipelago islands, which are connected to each other either by bridges or free government ferries. Very impressive landscapes with water all around, the ferry crossings all work smoothly, the waiting times are practically zero. We stop on the island of Houtskär and settle in on the Camping Mossala at the northern tip of the island. There are only very few motorhomes on the beautifully located campground, well equipped with a restaurant and even its own sauna, which is only for the campers and even free.

Sunday is spent quietly with occasional ESAF reports and doing laundry on the campsite before the journey continues tomorrow, once again with a ferry that starts directly in front of the campsite and takes us to the next island, Jniö.

Stage 2 from August 29 to September 3, 2022

After a relaxing Sunday, including toasting to the new king Joel and evening sauna, we start the next stage of our archipelago island tour after a night with heavy rain showers. At 10:15 AM, the ferry leaves directly from the campsite to the island of Jniö. We are only 2 vehicles on the windy and cool crossing. After continuing with 2 more ferries, unfortunately, we miss the third one that should take us back to the mainland, so we have to wait for 3 hours until 2:45 PM. No problem, we pass the time with coffee and cake in a small cafe. The ferry then takes us back to the mainland at Heponiemi. The journey continues via Uusikaupunki to Rauma, to Camping Poroholma. In the evening, we have burgers on an old sailing ship in the harbor.

On Tuesday, we visit the old town of Rauma, the third oldest city in Finland. In the core, there are many beautiful old wooden houses, including the town hall. It feels almost like the Wild West, absolutely worth seeing and rightly classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Church of the Holy Cross is very impressive and beautiful to look at. So we have already reached our maximum of 1 church per day today... We now drive through beautiful landscapes with lots of ripe grain, bypass Tampere, and via Hämeenlinna and Lammi to Sysmä in the Finnish lake district. We drive on the most beautiful road in Finland, the Pulkkilanharju Land Bridge, just before our destination in Sysmä. A truly unique and beautiful route with a lake shore right on both sides of the road. For dinner, we have (once again...) fresh chanterelles!!! In the evening, we have to use our heating stove in the camper for the first time, as it is getting quite cold at night. By the way, good news: Esthis e-bike computer has reappeared... the vacation is saved...

On Wednesday, we leave Sysmä and drive to the island of Päijätsalo in the Päijänne National Park and take a nice circular hike between blueberries and lingonberries to a wooden observation tower from which you have a beautiful panoramic view of Lake Päijänne. The further journey leads us along numerous small and larger lakes to Mikkeli, the capital of Eastern Finland. We are the only guests on the huge campground, so the restaurant is not open, but it doesn't matter, we have supplies... and drinks anyway!

On Thursday, when we get up, we find that the toilets and showers have also been locked overnight, apparently this place is closing, well, it's not that bad, we actually have everything we need in the camper... We drive to the city of Mikkeli for sightseeing and shopping for warm clothes, as it was 9.5 degrees in the camper when we woke up and 7.5 degrees outside. We continue our journey eastward through the Finnish lake district. We drive along the border with Russia near Ruokolahti and Parikkala, but since there is no border crossing there, we didn't notice anything special. We drive over the beautiful ridge called Punkaharju, with clear lakes on both sides of the narrow road. The detour to Kerimäki takes us to the largest wooden church in the world, very impressive from the outside, unfortunately we couldn't visit the inside as it is closed from August 30th. The chosen campground in Savonlinna is also closed, so we take a side road into the forest and set up on a level spot, cook our dinner, and start our diesel heater.

On Friday, we go to Savonlinna to visit the impressive Olavinlinna Castle, then we visit the Uusi Valamo Orthodox Monastery and then drive to our destination for the day, Kuopio. The camping site is open, but here too, there are very few guests. The weather remains changeable and cool, our electric heater does its good service.

On Saturday morning, a marathon starts at the camping site - without us. We drive to the city center of Kuopio to take a stroll through the obligatory market... The wooden market hall has its own charm, the cathedral also gets a short visit, and that's it for today! Actually, we wanted to visit the Koskeakoski waterfall on the way, but unfortunately, to our shame, we simply couldn't find it, so it was more of a river than a waterfall... The onward journey in windy, rainy, and cool weather takes us via Iisalmi and with a ferry (Lossi) to the island of Manamensalo where we settle in on Camping Leirintäalue. We still book a private sauna for 6:00 PM to warm up properly. We really enjoyed it!