Helsinki - Porvoo - Turku

And our hop-on-hop-off journey continued. Our destination for the day: Turku.

First, however, we headed east. Porvoo, the second oldest city in Finland, was on our travel list. Porvoo is just over 800 years old, so for us, it is quite a young city. But the detour was definitely worth it. There are still many of the classic Finnish wooden houses in Porvoo. Painted in various colors, they create a very beautiful picture. Along the river, they were all red.

In the houses, there are usually small shops downstairs with a very diverse range of offerings, not just souvenirs. If there isn't a shop, there's usually a café inside. Everything is very snygg, as the Swedes say 😁. Swedish is the second language in Finland because Finland used to belong to Sweden a long time ago. Almost all signs here are bilingual. I finally got to use some of my Swedish skills 👍😅.

In addition, there is a 'kirpis' market on Saturdays. In every backyard, garden, and garage, there were flea market stalls. Everything was from private sellers. It was an exciting collection of items.

The old town has the usual very rudimentary cobblestone pavement, and so we fought our way uphill to the 'Cathedral'. A pretty little church with interesting interior decoration. However, we couldn't figure out why there is a unicorn on the pillar.

As a reward, we went to one of the pretty cafés with very delicious cake and more. A wonderful pit stop.

After that, we set off for Turku. There, we were greeted by the oldest Finnish city dating back to the 13th century. Furthermore, Turku is the former capital of Finland.

In the evening, we strolled along the river a bit. On a Saturday evening, many locals do this as well, so it was lively and cheerful, with music playing at every corner.