This Summer’s Interrail adventure took us first to Bergamo in Lombardy, Italy, via Milano Centrale. We spent two days in Bergamo before flying to Helsinki, where we spent two days as well. We had booked three nights in Bergamo, since our flight was in the evening and the late check-out was not possible. From there we followed almost the same route as in the previous Summers: first to Tampere, then to Mänttä, and Kangaslampi, and finally back to Helsinki, with the exception that this time we stayed two nights in Tampere — in earlier years we have continued to Mänttä on the same day.

Actually the dates for this trip were determined by the reason we visited Tampere, namely the farewell concert of one of the most legendary rock bands in the Finnish history, Eppu Normaali, whom my generation grew up listening to. I have never possessed any of their albums, but I still know most of the lyrics by heart. And have had some persistent earworms since the concert.

Also in Mänttä we stayed one more night than before to have enough time to explore some nature trails we had no idea existed (more on that in a later post). As usual, we spent two weeks at Tomi’s parents’ house in Kangaslampi, but that time was for work, not leisure. This time we did not do any hikes, since we tried to keep up with our half-marathon training program. So, only early morning runs it was!

From Kangaslampi we returned to Helsinki for a couple of days. This time we stayed at a relatively new area, Kalasatama, as we wanted to run the new bridge, Kruunuvuorensilta. Unfortunately the weather had other plans and we were forced to postpone the run to the next visit. We did a short run in the morning rain around the neighboring island, though.

Talking about the weather — we were extremely lucky this year: we only had a couple of cloudy and grey days in Kangaslampi, one half-day of rain in Helsinki, and abundant sunshine otherwise. Except for the days in Bergamo, temperatures stayed at comfortable levels, especially the mornings.

On the final note, despite the full flights and crowded trains, again this year we both stayed healthy and well for the whole vacation. Also, although combining train traveling and flights is always a hassle, flying from Bergamo to Helsinki was much better decision than from Pisa last year. Even if the outbound flight time was rather inconvenient (reason we did not choose it last year) — we landed in Helsinki after midnight and stayed the first night in the airport hotel —  Bergamo’s airport was so much more comfortable than crowded and noisy Pisa. The town of Bergamo was not bad itself, either!