Jyvaskyla 2014: Day 3 - Tuesday 8th July

There's a way I always know I'm in Finland. I sleep well. It's a difficult thing to describe to folk who haven't been here, but it's so absolutely removed from everything in Scotland (work, pressure, things to remember) It usually takes me a couple of days to switch off once I arrive, and sure enough, this morning I had imagined I'd get up at around 6.00am to take a walk and some photos, but in fact I slept longer than at any other time over the past year - well, since the last time I was here in Finland- and
only woke up at 8.10am!

Looking back to our cottage from the lake, about 50m out from the shore, using Sandy's waterproof camera.

Ice creams in Jyvaskyla this morning.

Sandy diving into the (much warmer) lake.

Keith swam for hours today!

It's really wonderful here.

Keith, me and Sandy, about 50m out.

Cousin Arnold gains confidence in the water.

When I did get up, the first thing I checked was how warm it was, and I wasn't disappointed. The sun was beating down again, and the temperature was rising rapidly. In fact, it rose as far as 29.9C here at the house, but out in the car, on the way back from Jyvaskyla this morning, it actually said it was 31C! All this heat has continued to have a very positive effect on our lake's temperature, and this evening when I checked the thermometer in the water, I could see what I already knew from all the swimming I have done today- the temperature had risen noticeably from 21C yesterday to almost 24C :-)

So, we spent some time shopping in the centre of town this morning, having ice creams before returning to enjoy the heat and the lake in abundance this afternoon. We swam for hours, interspersed with repeated trips to the sauna, and small breaks for drinks and food.

Olivia diving, then resting with Keith.

At the public swimming beach about 5 minutes drive away.

Leaping from the diving boards, me above, and Olivia below.

The sauna, back home.

This evening, we drove along to another lake nearby where there's a public swimming beach and some diving boards. There we swam, and Olivia and I leaped off the diving boards into the warm lake. Keith has loved the swimming today, and has basically been swimming since early afternoon until about 8.45pm here, enjoying many trips to the sauna in between. He is talking about staying up to watch the World Cup semi-final between Brazil and Germany, but as that only starts at 11.00pm Finnish time, I suspect he might be asleep before then! We will see!