Cloudy, windy and cold…what happened to Savonlinna blue?
We woke this morning to a cloudy and windy day, with an outside temperature of barely 13°C. What happened to our Savonlinna blue? I guess we can’t have perfect weather every day… Despite the chill we still wanted to explore a bit more of this beautiful lakeside town, so we had a hearty breakfast, rugged up and went out exploring. We walked into town and all around the main island of Savonlinna (not hard as it is only 5km around). On our way around we stopped to watch as the main bridge onto the island opened to let a number of tall-masted sailing ships through. It’s a feat of engineering seen all over the world, but an impressive one to see up close none-the-less.
Watching the bridge rise to let tall masted sailing ships through.
“Now that’s one impressive act of engineering.”
Once the bridge had lowered once again we were able to continue our walk and decided to cross over onto Sulosaari Island – a tiny forested islet just North of the main part of Savonlinna (see map below).
A map of Savonlinna. The blue star marks Sulosaari Island where we went hiking.
As we walked around Sulosaari Island as saw lots of boats sailing past, and a few moored in sheltered bays around the island. Seems sailing is a popular summer sport here in Finland; not that you can blame them – with so much flat, navigable water everywhere, it seems like the perfect way to spend a summer’s day. Especially as the day was gradually warming up (to a balmy 19°C)and we even got a little bit of sunshine!
“Look at all this natural wonder!” Shane enjoys the serenity of Sulosaari Island.
Wishing we had a way to get this camp fire going…
Looking back towards the main island of Savonlinna as the sun showed itself.
As we walked back to Savonlinna, the sun really began to shine and the beauty of the lake became even more obvious.
After our exertions, we decided to head back into town for a coffee and a nice warm lunch. We found a stall at the waterfront markets that sold lortsy (translation = a type of traditional Finnish pie or turnover). They were available in both sweet varieties (e.g. raspberry, strawberry, cloudberry and apple) and savoury varieties (e.g. mince beef, salmon, smelt*). We each had a liha-lortsy (meat turnover), which was very tasty and filling, but obviously not that filling because we also managed to share an omena–lortsy (apple turnover) over coffee.
*Smelt – a type of small fresh water fish found in the lakes here.
Fresh lortsy! Get your liha-lortsy, kasvis-lortsy or omena-lortsy here!
Shane tucking into his lortsy. Not a bad setting for lunch hey?
Unfortunately not long after lunch, the skies darkened with rain clouds and we hurried back to our hotel just in time to avoid being cold and wet. The rain has set in for the afternoon so we’re tucked in, warm and dry, in our little apartment watching movies. Not a particularly exciting day in the end, but it’ still nice being here and being able to enjoy the uniquely Finnish summer weather. Hopefully tomorrow will bring some warmer weather and we’ll be able to share some more adventures with you.
Categories: Finland
Wandering Soles 