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After 2 rest days, the cycling adventure continues. Cycling with Simke, we followed the coast passing many cute little bays and beaches. Alone, I continued in the sun through the fields and forests to Tammisaari.

Day 24. 119km. Helsinki – Tammisaari. Map and gpx.

Simke (here is his blog) cycled from Delft to Helsinki to visit his girlfriend, and stayed over with Thomas (@dvlrnr) in Turku. He joined me for the first 40 km on my way towards Turku.

The road twisted and turned as it followed the fractal Finnish coast. Up and down, in and out, we discovered beautiful bays and beaches, twinkling in the sun.

After 40km Simke turned back towards Helsinki and I went on. The road was pretty but quite tiring. It is constantly up and down and up again, against a fairly contant head wind. Through fields and forests with pretty clouds as a backdrop.

A woman commented on my Teva sandals at lunch, and we started a conversation. She was going to stay in a summer house with her daughter for a week, about 20km from Tammisaari. She invited me to stay in their spare room. Quite inviting but, it turned out to be a bit too far, and not really on my route.

I passed a lovely little village called Snappertuna with ruins of an old castle. They just appeared out of nowhere.

On cycling through this region I saw that I really have passed a language border. Swedish is the main language. I can actually order things in the local language again. Wonderful after all this time saying, ‘sorry, I don’t speak language x’.

I am at a lovely camping ground at Tammisaari with a beach sauna. Quite standard in these parts, apparently.