We Bloody Made It (after 4 of the craziest days ever)! 2450km from Lille to Helsinki. We are Legends.

 

See how happy we are!?!?!  We're pretty bloody happy!  We made it.  OMG, I still can't believe it.  We rode 2450km from Lille to Helsinki, we are still in one piece, we are still married, we still have smiles on our faces, and we still can't believe what we did.  Especially after the last four days.

Without boring you with all the dark dirty details of pouring rain, lightening and thunder storms, massive wind gusts, changing route due to too many big trucks rushing past our elbows without any verge, crazy off-road routes to avoid traffic and get us to our destinations, and rollercoaster-like ups and downs all the way, we had four insane and intense days of riding.  And we made it.  We almost didn't.  It was touch and go there on day 3 when the rain just wouldn't let up, and had decided to train it to Helsinki for the final leg, but the sun came out and tricked us into believing it would all be good for the afternoon's ride.  That afternoon we spent an hour under a bridge waiting for the rain to ease, again.  But we loved the trick, it save us, because it got us here under our own steam, all the way.  Woohoooo!  I'm feeling pretty bloody chuffed with myself.

And you can see why on the map (the red is from our trip 2 years ago, the blue is our current adventure)!  LEGENDS.

Here's a quick rundown of the last four days:

Day 1: Wednesday - As in past experiences we were on fire when we left Turku, the first 20km felt like 5km, then of course things got tricky, rain, traffic, waiting out the rain at a supermarket, then later in the day standing in a bus shelter for half an hour waiting for things to clear again, and of course gorgeous farmland scenery.  We had left Turku full of excitement and vigour to enjoy our last few days on the bike, and had been planning to take the coast road, but as we finished these 60km into Salo, we could feel our weariness and knew we were ready for a break, so we had a heart-to-heart in a bus shelter (bus shelters are our friends) and decided to change plan and take a shorter more direct route to Helsinki. We spent the night in a bizarre hotel that included a Panic Room business and Ten Pin Bowling centre (totally random) and had dinner at the Finnish version of McDonalds, Hesburger.  It was ok.

the bus shelter to wait out the rain (it had wild raspberries in it!)

Dinner

Day 2: Thursday - we went in search of brekkie and found a fab little place with a very big heart.  Such yum food, full of locals, and the owner explained all her magical goods to us, we took a selection which was FANTASTIC, and while we ate had a great chat about life, the universe and everything with the owner (with red hair below), before we left she wanted to take a photo of us to send to her colleague who has his own cafe and they compete for who has the most exotic customer - apparently being an Aussie was a big winning card!  She also asked for a hug before we left, which we've found unusual for the Finns.

Then we hit the road.  And it was a long long long day.  Our plan was to follow the same minor road towards Helsinki, but after 5km we realised we were in trouble.  Traffic trouble.  The road was packed full of cars and big trucks, and there was no bike path or healthy verge to rely on, so again, another heart-to-heart.  Mike found an alternative route, and we decided to try it out and if it felt as dangerous as this one we'd head back to Salo and get the train to Helsinki.  So, off we went.  It was a beautiful road, but alas, there were some cars, not near as many as the first road and only the odd truck, so we stuck with it for about 25km where we stopped for great pizza in a tiny little cute town en route.  While eating, Mike found an off-road route for us which magically sprung up, and as I was pretty tense from the traffic was eager to try it out.  And I'm so glad we did.  It was incredible - really really challenging, mostly gravel with insane ups and downs, but so fun, and virtually no traffic, it was only local cars for people to reach their holiday cabins or farms, so I think about 5 cars and 1 tractor passed us in 25km.  I pedalled hard, up and down, up and down, the scenery was majestic, we passed two gorgeous lakes and glorious holiday cabins, and we finally got onto a road again to get us the 5km to our even whackier hotel, in a tiny little place near Sammatti, that looked and felt like a mental health institution (campgrounds were nowhere to be found, and hotels were very thin on the ground). 

Our very strange hotel

Day 3: Friday - I have to say we were getting wearier and wearier as the days passed.  Would there be rain?  Bad traffic?  More big hills with rain and traffic?  Wind gusts with rain and traffic?  And hills?  And we had most of them.  As we headed out on our journey we knew there was a town up ahead for brekkie - and we stumbled upon the cutest place in an old wooden building with white tablecloths and doilies everywhere - and the food...mmmmm....so delicious, and sooooooc cute.  We ate buns of course, then headed off all filled up with goodness.  

Then the rain came.  With the hills.  But like I said, we were lucky the sun came out as we finally passed through the town with the train station and decided to press on.  Yay!  But we still spent hours waiting out rain.  However, we did have a huge win - we couldn't find anywhere to stay this night, and at 3.30pm, still out on the road and before the final rain storm hit, I put in a call to the only hotel in the area (20km away) that said it was fully booked on-line, and asked for a room - they had one room left, and it was ours!  Woohooo!  So, off we went, with a half hour stop under a bridge to wait out the rain, and light rain most of the way to our glorious hotel with an amazingly comfy bed, a great view of the woods, and a big sauna and spa thing going on.  So, we did the Finnish sauna thing - and LOVED IT!  That hotel saved our life.  We were looking at wild camping in the wet if these guys hadn't had a room for us, and no-one wants to do wild camping in the rain on their last night of their big adventure when they could be in fluffy robes having a wonderful sauna and swim.

Rain stop 1

Rain Stop 2

Just as a quirky thing - we started meeting these things on some of the bike paths - they are little delivery drones from the local supermarket.  One had to stop to let us go past. Weird.

Rain Stop 4 under a bridge - no photos of Rain3 because it was POURING and there was lightning and thunder and we were standing under trees on the side of the road for ages and I wasn't in a very photo-taking mood.  But as you can see Rain Stop 4 has us smiling because we now know we have a bed for the night.

We finally made it to the hotel - we left at 8am that morning, and arrived at our destination near Masala at 6pm - that's  a lot of time on the bike for 60km.  

I was so freaking happy to see my name on the envelope at reception.  I made Mike take a photo.

Ready for our sauna.  Still smiling!

Day 4: Saturday - The Final Day - GREAT NIGHT.  GREAT BREAKFAST AT THE HOTEL.  TOTALLY PUMPED FOR OUR RIDE INTO HELSINKI.  ONLY 30KM.  I was so excited I made Mike take another photo just as we were leaving...

The sun was out, no rain in sight, and the route promised mostly bike path all the way.  It was Saturday morning,  so we met lots and lots of cyclists on the way, a lot of them families with young ones on their bikes, and we even saw a family riding where the Dad was on his bike pushing his third kid in a pram with one hand!  We were happy, tired, excited, a bit sad too I think coming to the end of this adventure, pensive, and pretty bloody pleased with ourselves.  

My pannier's Aussie sticker made it the whole way, with a bit of tape to help it out.

Helsinki

Caviar in the old Town Market

Reindeer or Bear Pate anyone?

We have been happily ensconced in a lovely apartment in an old Helsinki building enjoying the delights of walking around the city.  I have visited old places I loved last time I was here, and we're exploring new ones.  Helsinki is a fabulous city, cool but comfortingly daggy, international but local, spacious and light, and the cardamon buns do not disappoint.  So, where to now? I hear you ask.  We are hopping a ferry to Tallinn tomorrow and after that we're not totally sure, possibly a train pilgrimage back to France with some interesting stops on the way.  I'll keep you posted, Sportsfans.  

I had to end with this pic - it's the bike storage at our apartment - Mike was in heaven when he saw it - and it's a fitting end to this part of our adventure, we going to hang up the bikes for a while as we decide on the next adventure.