EuroTrip - Day 9

And a Day on Cycle

Finally HotTiii's wish for doing a cycle tour was about to get fulfilled. As per our plan, Turku was meant for a cycle tour in a city. A very old cathedral, a castle and a couple of museums - that's what we had planned to visit in Turku.

After an early morning breakfast of green apple, we waited at the railway station to meet Pissu and Kiddu. They were coming from Helsinki. The best part of this EuroTrip is that there are so many of us here that we can meet and travel with a new set of people everywhere we go.

Again, a visit to the tourist information center marked the start of the trip. We were impressed by the person there who did not hesitate in telling us that the Turku City Travel card that he is supposed ti promote might not make economic sense to us. He also showed us way to a competitive bike lending place which could give us bike on a cheaper rate and for just around 6 hours.

The cathedral is very close to the tourist information center and is situated close to the river. An old majestic building, this cathedral has a long history to boast of. I cannot take the freedom to bore you with the historical trivia so let me directly move to the best part about the cathedral. They have a nice and big organ that plays very pleasant music. The look of the instrument itself is very exciting and generates a lot of curiosity. So do visit this place if you get a kick out of listening to some live music.

After borrowing cycles from a bike rental company (at around 5 euro for 6 hours. These geared bikes are well maintained and come with helmets and other required gears), we headed to a city tour with the castle as our first stop.

The pleasure of driving on the narrow lanes next to a beautiful river is unmatchable. Turku has done well to offer one such exciting experience.

The town market is a good gathering place as well as a center to buy fresh fruits and vegetables. There are also many temporary on-the-move restaurants that make their base here. Incidentally these van restaurants are present in the town markets of the most of the cities we have visited so far.

If looks can be deceptive, then Turku Castle is a prime example of it. The almost tired-but-not-dead outward appearance is a total contrast to the rich cultural and architectural features inside the museum. The museum does not give any student discount - that's the bad part about it.

Our next stop was a subway for our lunch. You might wonder that this place is becoming part of our daily life. And let me tell you that it is true. We are loving the subway culture. :-)

As there were none who was really interested in going to one more museum (the maritime museum) so we decided to explore the city further. HotTiii and Pissu led our way to Runsala island. It's around 12km journey one way and leads you to an island which hosts a nature's park (or was it a wildlife sanctuary) as well as one of the most beautiful camping site in Turku. Sadly some of us got really tired midway and had to stop Others went ahead with their ride while I waited at a nice wooden watch point overseeing the sea. It just took a couple of seconds to doze off in an environment filled with clean air, a cool breeze and some soul touching music. What a peaceful nap it was!

Alas the passing drizzle woke me up and forced us to start our journey back. Cycling with winds against you is very tiring, And that you have been walking/cycling since early morning does not help you either. Somehow the tired legs pulled us to the city where we did the usual buying-the-food stuff.
And then boarded our cruise to Stockholm. Turku - Stockholm is not as luxurious a journey as our previous cruise, still it was a cruise nonetheless.
Some more window shopping and perfume testing marked the end of the day. A hot water bath made sure that I get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow I will wake up in Sweden. :-)