finland: "must see"-places in mid-country lake area (Helsinki-Kajaani)

negg <[email protected]> wrote:

: We plan a 3week trip to finlands mid-country lake area in august, and we really look forward to
: having 3 weeks of no cities, no stress and nothing else but nature ;-)

The Ecotrip did that area in 2002. They say it's quite hilly...
http://ecotrip.info/history/fi-history.htm . Didn't participate that year though, this year we are
going to do the perpetual flatlands in Pohjanmaa.

: But route planning is a little complicated, as this area is so huge. It would help a lot to have
: some points that we can plan our trip along. Otherwise we could just take a ruler and make a
: straight line from Helsinki to Kajaani ;-)

There is a cycling map over Finland available in 5 parts and
1:200000 scale. Definitely helpful but nowhere near the detail level of Dutch maps. The best
routes are probably made of the country roads with 4 digits in the road number, usually means
little traffic.

: So does anyone know about places along this line (Helsinki-Kajaani) that are really worth visiting
: (nature-wise, culture-wise)?

Uhm, not personally an expert on that, sorry

--
Risto Varanka | http://www.helsinki.fi/~rvaranka/hpv/hpv.html varis at no spam please iki fi

negg wrote:

>
> So does anyone know about places along this line (Helsinki-Kajaani) that are really worth visiting
> (nature-wise, culture-wise)?
>

I would classify Heinavesi as really worth visiting, even though it's out of your way. Also Tornio,
which is north of Oulu.

One thing that IS on your way is Lake Paijanne, between Lahti and Jyvaskyla. There's a ferry that
runs up and down this lake, and it's an all-day trip.

--
Bob Broughton http://broughton.ca/ Vancouver, BC, Canada "When someone beats the **** out of you,
for disrespectful behavior, that'll be lesson #1... Not everyone will tolarate (sic) your arrogance
in real life." mailto:[email protected] , July 14, 2003

negg <[email protected]> wrote:
: So does anyone know about places along this line (Helsinki-Kajaani) that are really worth visiting
: (nature-wise, culture-wise)?

Re-reading and rethinking... There's some places to see in Helsinki Old houses downtown, and
Suomenlinna... In addition to Suomenlinna there are those old castles in some places around the
country. And in Porvoo there is a nice river and an old town that might be worth to see.

May I also suggest a Google search such as "national parks finland". Seems to turn up some good
stuff like a map with the national parks in Finland
http://www.metsa.fi/natural/nationalparks/kptengl.htm

There's the little Valamo monastery that's open for tourists and offers lodging, think it was in
Heinaevesi.

If you need a map of the Helsinki area there's a nice map with street names and all cycle tracks
marked, and it's available for free...

Close to Helsinki there are some quite nice places as well, including camping grounds nearby...
Luukki for example. The central park in Helsinki might be worth visiting too (that means 20 km of
cycling in the forest).

--
Risto Varanka | http://www.helsinki.fi/~rvaranka/hpv/hpv.html varis at no spam please iki fi

I did a very enjoyable 8-day tour of Finland with Cycle Rides in June over the midsummer holiday.
Here's the link to their site, which highlights the itinerary:
http://www.cycle-rides.co.uk/finland.htm. And here's a link to a web page posted by one of the
participants: http://www.grahamc.net/2003cyclingfinland/2003finland.htm