1,000 miles of Beauty

Wed, Jul 10, 2024

Joutsa, Finland to Asikkala, Finland

miles today 60.5

miles so far 1030.6

feet climbed today 1,900.0

feet climbed so far 34,276.0

Relive video  

Strava link

We left Lamminmäen juhla ja peti after breakfast around 830am.

The weather was beautiful today... temperatures in the 60s and 70s with a light wind.  We had to ride on the highway for a while. 

We crossed the highway and went through a ditch to get onto an access road to go through Joutsa.

I've been seeing this proud Finnish walking man sign for a long time and finally got a picture.

After Joutsa, we had to get back on the highway until it told us to get off...

We met a nice man in Hartola who told us about the route between Hartola and Asikkala. His name is Jussi Tiitinen. Not too many people in Finland have approached us to start conversations, but he did when he saw us at the grocery sstore.he even went into the store and brought us a bicycle map. 

The road to Sysma them Asikkala were much better... quieter and more scenic. 

In the town of Sysma, we logged our 1,000th mile of the trip. I think we have left most of the mosquitoes behind. Now, there seems to be just a normal amount of them.

We also found a bike shop and stopped in to add air to our tires.

As we got closer to Asikkala, we got closer to water. 

It was such a nice day and beautiful views, we decided to eat pizza for dinner at 4pm at a roadside restaurant. 

Per usual, Lynn stopped in the middle of this bridge to take a picture.  There were a lot of people standing around. I noticed a light turned yellow as i went by. As I passed Lynn, I told her she better get off the bridge... to get to the other side of the cross bars.  Just as I say that, the alarm started.  The bars went down just as she ran with her bike to safety. 

We got to Hotel & Hostel Tallukka,which was at the top of the highest hill in Asikkala, around 6pm. It was a good thing we are early because the hotel restaurant closed at 4pm! We had to use a code (which came from the hotel via booking.com) to get into the building,  then another code to get onto a box which had an envelope with my name on it that had the key to our room. I had notified them around 3 that we would not arrive until 6. Anyway,  it's a nice place and breakfast is included for $120. 

We even have a patio with a view.

There is an observation tower right next to the hotel.  We walked over to go up into it... but it was closed (looks like permanently). There is a delapidated tennis court out front.  This place is nice on the inside, but looks like it may have been a bigger deal at one time.