Estonia and Finland 2024

We were up early to catch the 9.16 train back to Helsinki.  It was another beautiful morning and the wind had dropped so we walked the 1 mile to the station.    View from our room this morning The train arrived half an hour before scheduled departure as it is starting from here in Oulu. We had booked upstairs seats in the quiet carriage where we have complimentary tea, coffee and water. The journey was not as spectacular as I imagined it would be.  For the first 4 hours it was mainly trees - millions of them.  Lots of silver birch and pine trees. The landscape is very flat so no hills or mountains.  There were a few breaks in the trees for arable farmland or small towns and villages where the train stopped.  Also a few lakes and rivers but if you blinked you woukd miss them.     One of the few photos of a river that I managed to get  as we pulled into a small town.   The scenery got better as we approached Tampere where there were...

After a very tiring previous day we had a lay in and a late breakfast.  It was glorious sunshine again today so we went to walk along part of the parkrun course as it had been really pretty.  The area is called Hupisaaret (Islands of Fun).  Although I had the Strava map of where we had run, it was difficult to retrace as there are just so many bridges.  We ended up doing the route in reverse with lots of diversions.  It was very cold but lovely in the sun.   Goosander     Goosander ducks on the water near the hotel   Squirrel in the trees   Squirrel in the trees video We then went back into the town centre as there were some sites that others had found that we missed.  We first warmed up with a coffee in a cafe in the city centre and then walked to the Market Hall which is closed on Sundays.  We found an "Auto Pizza Vending Machine" .  You chose your pizza from a limited menu, pay by card and it automatically delivers it i...