Turku; Saturday, 24 June, 2017

Another really good night sleep, only slightly disturbed by the fact it never properly got dark at any point, and an excellent breakfast set me up for the day.

I already knew that, with the exception of my booked archipelago dinner cruise for the evening there was very little open today. About the only thing that was running was the standard ferry service that runs from the city centre out to a nearby beach and parkland so I headed down to the stop to catch the second service of the morning.

I took the ferry out to its furthest point and had intended to have a wander around the parkland, but just after the ferry left the dock the skies opened and what started as a light drizzle quickly developed into a full downpour. I was able to look around a little of the park, but then had to head back to the ferry dock and find a shelter to sit under for the next 50 minutes or so until the ferry returned.

Slightly damp, and for the first time in weeks – shivering – I re-boarded the ferry and headed back into town.

I walked back to my hotel and got back just as the skies opened again, this time for an even heavier downpour which lasted for a couple of hours.

Given there was nothing open and no point in getting wet I spent the afternoon in the hotel having a very nice lunch and reading my book.

The rain finally petered out about an hour before the dinner cruise was due to leave but the skies were still quite leaden and the wind was brisk and I did wonder if the tour would actually take place – so I headed down to the boat with a little worry of what I would do for dinner if the tour didn’t take place. Thankfully the Finns are used to less than perfect weather and this wasn’t going to stop the tour taking place, but it did mean that rather than eating our dinner in the sun on a small island in the middle of the Archipelago we were going to tie up at the island but stay on board to eat.

The boat headed out from the harbour and sailed for about an hour into the archipelago before we reached the island we were heading to. Everyone got off the boat to have a little explore of the island – which took less than 5 minutes, but it gave the crew time to set up the buffet tables to serve dinner onboard.

Back on board there was a feast of food with at least 8 different types of smoked fish available and way more food that all the passengers could consume. After dinner, there was some onboard entertainment before the ship headed back into Turku.

We disembarked back in town just as the skies started to clear and, at nearly 11pm, the sun broke through so I was able to walk back to the hotel in the sun.