Finland - 1100 km

Wapping

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We don’t often see stuff for Finland, so this from Tourenfahrer magazine 6/2021 might interest some.

https://www.tourenfahrer.de/tour-datenbank/tour/tausend-seen-und-ein-baer-1062/detail/

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If I wanted to go somewhere cold and flat, I'd go to Norfolk!

we had a trip pencilled in for Finland for the MotoGP but Covid put paid to that for the time being and, perhaps, indefinitely if they never the get the circuit established. It's a long way away, but with various options for ferries to shorten the riding time if required.
 
Definitely of interest to me thanks. :thumb2 It’s another of those places I’m planning to go on the bike once it’s all sorted. Ta. :thumb2
 
More lakes than Norfolk.

I’d recommend the ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki. A commodore cabin is the same price (or was) as a flight between the two cities and a hotel room.
 
Finland is a rather strange place, it's filled with quirky people. Who if asked for an opinion will tell you....

strangest bit was stopping in the middle of a forrest and thinking who the hell is using flash floor cleaner all the way out here....

worth a look just to tick it off the list... :)
 
What the blurb in foreign, says:

In the border area between Finland and Russia, numerous brown bears are said to live in the wild. Ralf Schröder (text & photos) and Birgit Bock-Schröder (photos) set out to get one of them in front of the camera lens in the lonely Finnish part of Karelia.

Travel information

Accommodations

Hotels in Finland are affordable in the summer compared to Sweden and especially Norway, except for tourist hotspots like Koli. A double room is available between 90 and 130 euros. At campsites you can often rent a hut (50 to 120 euros per night, usually good infrastructure).

Maps

Road map Finland, scale: 1:650,000, Hallwag Kümmerly+Frey, 2018, ISBN: 978-3-259-01160-7, 11.95 euros.
Cartridge kiss of GT Tiekartta / road maps, Pohjois-Suomi (Northern Finland), scale: 1:400,000, 2018, ISBN: 978-952-266-385-6, approx. 17 euros.
Cartridge kiss of GT Tiekartta / road maps, Itä-Suomi (East Finland), scale: 1,250,000, 2020, ISBN: 978-952-266-670-3, approx. 17 euros.
Cartridge kiss of GT Tiekartta / road maps, Etelä-Suomi (southern Finland), scale: 1:250,000, 2020, ISBN: 978-952-266-669-7, approx. 17 euros.
Cartridge kiss of GT Tiekartta / road maps, Länsi Suomi (West Finland), scale: 1,250,000, 2018, ISBN: 978-952-266-554-6, approx. 17 euros.

Riding a motorcycle

In a country that is at best slightly hilly, the overland roads for long-distance traffic are broadly developed, so boring to ride a motorcycle. As a rule of thumb, roads with a low number of thumb can be large and rather wide. Three-digit road numbers are country roads that are often nice to drive and usually asphalted. If the road number becomes four digits, they are small small roads, some of which are not asphalted. Such natural roads can usually also be driven with road tires, but can be greasy in the rain. One should pay attention to the tank size and the range of the motorcycle. Finland was one of the pioneers in Europe in unmanned tank vending machines. Payment can often only be made with a credit card and PIN.

Watching bears

There are several providers who offer bear observation in the wild in Karelia. Usually they are so-called "hiddens": small huts, usually without electricity, without heating and without running water. A bunk bed and a dry toilet are all you can expect in terms of comfort. The advantage: The hides have no windows, but hatches through which you can photograph without a window in between. Price per night from approx. 130 euros. The described comfort hut with double bed, panoramic windows, air conditioning and fully equipped bathroom is much more expensive, it costs 890 euros per night online.
 
and unexpected, deep nose scratching/ picking....
 
them initially.... but after him rooting about in his schnozzer.... I thought it must be ok to pick my own bogeys....
 
We rode from Helsinki to the top of Finland and into Norway, via the Baltic coast in 2017. It’s really nice and we enjoyed our week or so there but nothing really inspired us and it was only after we left the country that we realised neither of us took a single photo. Which sort of says it all about the scenery. Finland makes Germany look scruffy. Really god English everywhere and all the Finns we met were proud of their country and ever so keen to help.

For meals look out for “Launas” ( or something spelled very similar). It’s an all you can eat buffet in a pub or cafe. The ones we had we were mostly traditional- ish Finnish food and cost us about €12 to €15 a head. Stuffed for the rest of the day 😁. Otherwise Finland was relatively expensive. On campsites, as in most of Scandinavia a hut wasn’t much more expensive than a camping pitch. Most sites have saunas at a modest extra cost and well worth at least one go. They like them hot though. I’d go back for sure not least to get some pics.

Avoid the Arctic circle/Father Christmas experience place. It’s commercialised crap.
 
More lakes than Norfolk.

I’d recommend the ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki. A commodore cabin is the same price (or was) as a flight between the two cities and a hotel room.

Now there’s a thing, I used the ferry from Kapellskar to Turku and at the time it was about half the price of the Stockholm to Helsinki ferry and included dinner and breakfast of the all you can force down your neck variety :D

It’s predominantly aimed at trucks so you need to carry your own ratchet strap unless you want to use a chain but you don’t need to ride into Stockholm and if you’ve got limited time you can go from the Hook to Frederikshavn in a day, get the ferry across to Gothenburg the next morning and get to Kapellskar that evening and catch the ferry. When I used it I was in Helsinki before lunchtime, decided the weather was crap so jumped on a ferry to Tallinn.

I’d certainly use it again and it’s the way we’d planned to go to get to the MotoGP before it was cancelled.
 


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