Ekenas

• By admin
• June 21, 2016
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Houses in the Old Town

Having hired a bike from the campsite we cycled into the town, in between showers. The old wooden, some very grand, houses in the old part of the town looked straight out of War & Peace. The coastal road along the outskirts of the town was very quiet and with its own cycle path felt very safe. Finland seems a calm country, the towns and countryside are kept neat and tidy and are, generally, very tranquil. The people in the town information centre were extremely helpful and suggested we walked up the water tower to get a better view of the town, in agreeing to this we were handed a key and told how to get there. It seemed such a charming, trusting arrangement and rather summed up my impression of Finland.

Walking to the water tower we noticed the local cinema was showing a George Clooney film later that day and with it being wet and nothing better to do we decided to spend the evening with George & Julia (Roberts). The lady on tickets was very friendly as was the man who collected the tickets on the door. It was a tiny cinema, with hardly anyone watching the film except for Graeme and myself, the lady selling tickets and the man on the door collecting them.

Saturday morning was market day was in the town square. We cycled in, again, dodging the rain to find several market stalls in the square selling wonderful fresh vegetables, fish and breads. The vegetables were all locally grown so each stall was selling much the same seasonal produce; no chance of finding a pepper or avocado. We bought fresh peas and which proved to be the tastiest, sweetest most flavoursome peas we’ve ever eaten