Ylönkylä, Southern Finland - Friday, 16 September

Geoff
Getting up quite early, I went for a stroll before breakfast, walking along the waterfront parallel with the street Läntinen Rantakatu, passing under two road bridges busy with morning traffic. I could have gone much further but needed to cross the river so went across on a pedestrian bridge. I then followed the waterfront path alongside the street Itäinen Rantakatu, going past where the camper was until I came to the passenger ferry. This runs every day from 6.15am to 11pm, back and forth endlessly. It only takes a couple of minutes. By the time I arrived back at the camper, all the parking spaces either side of it were filled. The city had come to life again and was quite busy.

We went to the maritime museum hoping to find free wifi but there was none. We took the opportunity to have a closer look at the castle, which was open but we had no particular inclination to go inside and shall find out more about it later. Here is what Lonely Planet has to say:

Founded in 1280 at the mouth of the Aurajoki, mammoth Turku Castle is easily Finland’s largest. Highlights include two dungeons and sumptuous banqueting halls, as well as a fascinating historical museum of medieval Turku in the castle’s old bailey. Models depict the castle's growth from a simple island fortress to a Renaissance palace. Guided tours in English run several times daily from June to August. Swedish Count Per Brahe ruled Finland from here in the 17th century, while Sweden’s deposed King Eric XIV was imprisoned in the castle’s round tower in the late 16th century. He was moved to several prisons including Åland’s Kastelholms Slott to prevent his discovery by rebels. Today most Finns recognise its distinctive architecture as the logo for Turun Sinappi (Turku Mustard).

We set the satnav to help us exit the city. As the route took us past tourist information, we went in to take advantage of their wifi. Having missed the entrance to their car park, I went in through the "no entry" exit, no problem.

Having found Sweden such a meticulously clean country, Finland is a bit more like the UK, judging by what we've seen in Turku.

Once we left the city's environs, the countryside we drove through was really attractive. Many fields where grass had been cut or arable fields ploughed and the rest was forest, but all quite open and not at all oppressive. It came as something of a shock to see that Autumn has arrived here. The silver birch trees had turn a golden colour and were beginning to shed their leaves.

Our Camperstop book provided details of our overnight stop, where we arrived early afternoon. It is a slightly odd place, close to a road junction where we have been very aware of traffic noise although we son got used to it. There is a cafe here where we went in to pay. The food smelled delicious but we were not aware of any customers during the day. We are the only camper van. There are three touring vans which are unoccupied and seem to be permanent. There are showers/loos and also what was described as a summer kitchen. This is a part open sided building with full cooking facilities but rather on the shabby side. We were told that some workers (who were at work) were using it and inspection showed this to be the case. I remarked that it looked as if they had been abducted by aliens as food and all sorts of things were left out as if they had left in a hurry. There were pans with cooked food in them and, notably, a whole salmon, minus its head but still quite large, marinating.

We took a short walk to see what there is of Ylönkylä and the answer is, not much. A few houses, a church that doesn't look like a church and a monument, with no indication of what it commemorates. It is a rough red granite monolith some fifteen feet high, with probably machine made scores on one side.

The workers, maybe up to six in number, returned from work around 6pm. Apart from being manual labourers, judging from their three VW pickups, have been very quiet and spent the evening in the summer kitchen.

Amanda

It was an entirely peaceful night after all, and I slept very well. We went to bed with empty parking spaces all along the Strand in both directions, and emerged this morning with them all full. Free all day parking for people working in the City!

Before leaving Turku we did a circumnavigation of the fortress, on foot. It was worth seeing properly from the outside, very similar in style to other castles we have seen, but much bigger. Although it has

grass and some trees around it, it is basically surrounded by the Ferry Terminal! Imagine building a full-scale Ferry Terminal all around Bamburgh Castle!

A quick visit to the TIO, and we left the city behind and set off to explore the countryside towards the coast between Turku and Helsinki. First priority for tonight was much needed showers and electric hook up, so we headed for a Camperstop which had these. Our Camperstop book has been of limited use since we left Denmark, and has only two pages of entries for the whole of Finland.

The countryside is a huge change from the blue-green of Sweden. More open fields, and the wooded parts have a lot of deciduous trees. The trees are beginning to change colour and it is looking autumnal, but it is still warm and sunny. So with the colours of the trees, the brighter green of fields mixed with some harvested fields and the sun, everything looks very golden.

Our stopover has proved adequate for our needs; in the car park of a roadside cafe place, it is not dissimilar to where we spent our second night in Sweden all those weeks ago where we had to decamp! It is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, at Ylönkylä, although the road is quite busy. There is a 'summer kitchen' which we can use if we wish. Inspection showed it to be a building with large unglazed windows, looking as if it had been deserted in mid meal. There were pans of food on the stove, a large fish marinating in a saucepan and various foodstuffs and piles of kitchenware stacked up. We had been told that it was used by 'workers', people who lodged there but were out at work all day. We think we will give it a wide berth.

We had a walk into the "village", which consists of a wooden church which just looks like a house, a 'monument' which gives no clue as to what its purpose or claim to fame might be, a monstrosity of a modern house with some menacing black cars parked outside, padlocked gates, and signs warning of security cameras, and a very few other dwellings. A very strange little place.

Fortunately we had found a good supermarket on our way here, and have a nice supper of some fresh fish, and the lovely fresh tomatoes we bought yesterday,cooked with fresh herbs to look forward to. When I can stir myself to prepare it!