Sweden came up very quickly indeed. I almost feel like I haven’t given Finland a fair crack, but I did spend a few days there. The Finnish scenery was mostly forest, comprised of characteristic low trees. It rained for the first half of the day, which never helps a place to endear itself to me!

Before I left I stopped for lunch at a great cafe. The soup special was just what I needed on a cold wet day. It came with strong coffee and traditional Finnish pancakes for pudding! I was offered free seconds, very generous. The shop also had some great souvenirs, particular to that region of Finland and not made in China. They makes a refreshing change!

A local guy told me it was going to rain for the next 6 hours. Maybe it did, but I was long gone by then. An hour up the road the weather cleared up and I had blue skies for the rest of the day. I stopped to take this photo of the bike by the sign for Sweden. Not particularly eye catching or iconic is it?