Conley Finnish Adventures 2: Lapland Trip Part 1

Most Finns take the entire month of July off and spend that time at their mokki (cottage). As Andrew and I are both trying to embrace the Finnish culture as much as possible, Andrew took two weeks off in July and we took a road trip to Lapland. Instead of staying in a luxurious cottage, however, a large portion of the trip was spent in tiny cabins and in a tent.

I was extremely nervous about the tent sleeping situation and the car was packed to the rim with blankets, pillows and sleeping mats. In hindsight, it was a really great idea because we saved a lot of money not staying in hotels, and Maddy says her favourite part of the trip was sleeping in the tent!

The first half of our trip, we went to Kotka, Hamina, Kouvola, Lappeenranta, Savonlinna, and Kuopio. We travelled up the east side of Finland towards the north. All of these towns were on the water, with nice harbours, tons of parks and playgrounds, and lots of fun things to do.

In Kotka, we went to the Maritime Centre Vellamo (like the Maritime Museum), and the Sapokka Water Garden. The kids enjoyed the museum and got to sit in a hovercraft-type machine and push lots of buttons. In Hamina, we visited the old fortress and walked through the streets of the old town.

Our next stop was Kouvola, which was really fun because we spent one full day at Tykkimaki, the 3rd largest amusement park in Finland. As the kids are getting bigger, they can enjoy more rides and it was a really fun day. We stayed two nights at a campsite attached to the amusement park and also took a rowboat out. That was interesting because the boat is so tippy and keeping two little ones grounded is a bit difficult. That, and Andrew rows in an S line and takes a bit longer to get to our destination :)

Lappeenranta was really nice. We did a nice hike on an island and Maddy collected tons of bugs in her bug container. Thanks for the gift, Oma! She got so much use out of that thing. We also visited the harbour where they had giant sand sculptures, and we went to a traffic park. These places are really neat, kids can drive different sorts of bicycles/carts and learn about yielding and watching for pedestrians and stop lights and things like that.

On our way to Savonlinna we stopped in Imatra, to do a hike along the rapids and see their famous hotel. And of course in Savonlinna we saw the Olavinlinna castle, which is just gorgeous! It is the northernmost medieval castle in the world. We also walked through the old town.

After Savonlinna we visited Kuopio and went to the top of the Puijo Tower, which is 235ft tall. We got a very nice view of the town and the surrounding lakes and islands. We also did a couple of hikes there and Andrew got a nice workout cycling up the Puijo Hill.

The first half of the Lapland trip complete! The kids did a great job of keeping up with us, and we were pretty happy to find lots of parks and playgrounds. Naps were usually taken in the car in between towns so that they were ready for action at the next destination.

Super hard to narrow down the photos, Lapland is just so beautiful and we had great weather. But here are some.