Day 8 - Sunday 13th July

With a round trip of 210 miles to undertake today in what is, in effect, just a van, I was looking forward to a good sleep last night, which thankfully, I got. Nonetheless, I was up pretty early with Olivia, who wanted to swim in the lake before anyone else was awake!

In fact, both Olivia and I were back in our beds for three hours before anyone else even stirred! 

Once the rest were up, it was packing time, as Anna's folks got ready for their return trip to St Petersburg. We left here straight after an early lunch and as we headed south it got very hot outside, with the temperature eventually getting up to 31C for the last 20 or 30 miles as we approached Lahti.

 Anna's dad with Keith, waiting for the train.

Time to board the Allegro.

Bye!!!

The high speed train came dead on time at 3.50pm, and departed after only a minute or two to pick up the Russian contingent, so it was an about turn for us, and we headed back north for the second time in a week from Lahti. We stopped en-route at Joutsa, where we ate at ABC by a beautiful lake, in what was still very hot temperatures of 30C at 5.15pm! By the time we got home at about 6.30pm, I think we were all ready for a jump into the lake and a sauna, so we enjoyed this for a couple of hours. Now though, we're about to sit down and watch the World Cup Final, and we're all supporting Germany :-)

Dinner at ABC Joutsa.