Then it was almost the time to say goodbye to Finland. We booked the couple of last nights in a highrise in Kalasatama (only the 11th floor though) on the Eastern side of Helsinki, since we have spent a lot of time in the Southern and Western parts, and we wanted to run the Kruunuvuori Bridge, the new 1200-meter long cable-stayed bridge from Korkeasaari (where the Helsinki Zoo is loated) to Kruunuvuorenranta in the island of Laajasalo. We had quite a nice view from our apartment.

The first morning was foggy, but sunny. The morning run took as to island (“saari”) hopping from Kalasatama to Verkkosaari, Sompasaari, Korkeasaari, and Mustikkamaa. On our run we learned that there was a marathon race (Björn Borg marathon), and also a half-marathon race,  in Helsinki on that day, which partially followed the same route we took. That was rather strange since we specifically checked before our trip if there happened to be any 10K or 21K races during our trip. We found one in Turku and another one in Kuopio, but they both were far off of our travel plans, but we did not find this one in Helsinki. It would have been a really nice day for a race!

By the evening the sun was gone and the rain started, beating our windows quite hard. A storm was forecast for the night, but must not have been very strong since we don’t remember experiencing anything particular.

In the morning the residual rain was light enough for us to go for a short  run. However, the wind was quite strong so we skipped the bridge and just ran around Mustikkamaa.

After the run we started the preps for the return trip. We had an early evening flight to Bergamo, where we spent one night before taking the morning train to Milano Centrale. Once there we did not even check the public transportation options to Milano Porta Garibaldi station, but hopped into a taxi right away. It was a smooth 10-minute and 10€ ride. Then we had an extra hour to spend since the train coming from Paris was 60 minutes late. Fortunately we did not have any more delays when going to Chambéry, where we switched trains to Brignoud, the closest railway station to us.

This was a great trip. The weather was mostly perfect, and as we heard from our neighbor and Tomi’s colleagues, we managed to escape the worst part of the French heatwave. As I am writing this, another one (sixth or seventh this Summer) is just about to begin.