The decision to travel to Finland was manifold: Finland is the only scandinavian country we haven't been to, yet. Finlines seems to be the only shipping company allowing dogs at the ferries and within the cabins. On the search for the perfect cottage for rent, we soon found Lomalehto, located in East Finland. That set it :-)
At Saturday night (the very Saturday Madita came out of water...) we boarded the ferry from Travemรผnde/Germany to Helsinki/Finland. The ferry started a 3:00 am, when we were fast asleep. For breakfast we saw already the Baltic Sea.
The weather was decent with no wind or waves. Only Hugo was less excited about the "tree" on deck as expected.....
28 hours later we arrived in Finland. From Helsinki it took us about 4 hours (340km) to get to the house, with a stop at the supermarket for provisioning since the next village would be miles away from our place. (We also practiced making bread at home to be prepared ;-))
Already on the drive to Kiviapaja we got excited about the landscape. When we followed the landlord leading the way to "our" house, we felt even more sure, that this is exactly what we hoped for.
Our hopes and dreams were not disappointed in anyway. For us 5 this was like paradise :-) (And I am sure Hugo thought, that this is the place where we should stay for the rest of his live...)
The house was spacious and very nicely furnished. The very best for me was the fireplace. We spend some wonderful cozy evenings watching movies together infront of it (not to mention the marshmallows....).
The days were full with being out in the nature, for hiking or boat tours.
Many many blueberries and lowbush cranberries grew around the house and in the woods just waiting to be picked.
One day we spent driving around: We visited Savonlinna and it's castle Olavinlinna. After lunch we drove to Kรคrimaki to see Europe's larges church made of wood.
After a short stop in Kitee, we took the way back through the landscape of North-Karelia being already close to the Russian boarder.
The last couple of days we stayed near the house, exploring the neighborhood and finding a hiking trail leading to a wonderful highmoor, where to our great excitement we saw the footsteps of moose :-) So at least they were near the house, even if we did not see they there (The other day we saw three moose on a meadow when we drove by....)
The weather was very well for the whole week, with sunshine every day. When we arrived we had about 10°C. Then there was a little snow at the second day. When we left, the thermometer showed -8°C, which gave the landscape a beautiful icing.
We were all a little sad to leave this amazing place, but also we felt very rested and relaxed.
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