Biking to Dragsfjord

Over the past weekend I took the Bike Friday on a three day trip west of Turku. The idea was to get out to the "Finnish Archipelago", a famous area for biking and sailing. After discussing plans with some of the Finns at Kiljava last week, I decided to head for the island of Rosalo, a bit more isolated but with a lot of Viking history. The weekend was a lesson in coping on the road, however, as nothing quite worked out as planned.

On Saturday morning I rode to the train station in Espoo, but after getting to the wrong station initially, arrived at the right one a few minutes late for the train I'd intended to catch. And the next train had no spaces available for bikes. But it was an hour and a half away, so I found a quiet corner and packed the bike into it's suitcase and, wallah! No more bike.

After arriving in Turku I reassembled the bike and rode through some lovely country to Dragsfjord. This was about 80 kilometers. I was pretty tired from riding into the wind and hauling the trailer. Found a nice pension to stay there from the Lonely Planet guide. Too late to get dinner, but I finished eating some snacks and fruit I'd bought along the way.

The next morning I headed for Kasnas, a small resort and the ferry for Rosalo. One of the maps I had seen showed a ferry from Kasnas back to Turku, I figured I could take that back the next day as I had to be back in Helsinki on Tuesday morning. In Turku, to avoid having to pack the bike again on the way home, I bought a train ticket back for 4:00 pm Monday. Rather than following the two lane highway, I decided to follow a "recommended bike route" marked on the tourist map I had. It turned out that the "recommended bike route" included some 8 km of gravel. When I had gotten through that and back on a paved road, I could not find the next portion of the "recommended route" and instead took the paved road back to very nearly where I had started the morning. 16 km of exhausting biking with the trailer on a gravel road and nothing to show for it. It was already 1 or 2 o'clock. I finally got on the main road and headed again for Kasnas, arriving around 4:00, completely bonking. Not enough food and too much exercise.

By now it was too late and I was too worn out to go on out to Rosalo. Instead I stayed over at the little resort. Which was very nice. I also found that there was no ferry back to Turku, so my options were to ride back 100 km or throw my bike onto the bus. I decided to get up early and get rolling, just see how well I did. If I needed to, I could pick up a bus later in the day. Had an excellent dinner at the restaurant and by the morning was feeling much better and ready to go. But when I headed down for breakfast at 6:00, it turned out that they didn't start serving until 7:30! Furthermore, the front desk didn't open until 7:30 and I couldn't leave until I paid my bill! Okay, whatever. I wait, eat breakfast, pay bill, dink around a little, finally get on the road around 8:00.

The ride back was terrific though. I now had, if not a tailwind at least not a headwind. There were sprinkles but no real rain. I even stopped for 45 minutes over lunch at Kemios to visit an outdoor historic museum called Sagalund. I had not expected to be able to do this because it didn't open until 11:00. But because I'd gotten such a late start it worked out that I could. After Kemios I continued but at some point discovered I had a broken spoke in my rear wheel. Fortunately it had just made the wheel wobbly, but still ridable. I rolled into Turku just 10 minutes ahead of the train. And 5 minutes ahead of the downpour that was following me. Train back to Espoo, bike back to apartment. Done!!

More Photos Here!