Linnansaari skating trail, Olanviina Castle, and scrounging for dinner

Today was our last day of skating while in Finland. So our plan was to enjoy the Linnansaari skating trail and potentially check out a castle. But first I went for a walk around sunrise and checked the area. 

The skating trail before sunrise.

Mailboxes for Oravi

The trail down to the ice hole for dipping after the sauna.

The ice hole was not very big, but definitely gets used every day by the locals.

This town is much more of a summer destination, so these canoes are just waiting for the snow and ice to melt.

The only place to buy anything in town.

All sorts of different meats with English and Russian translation - this area is close to Russia.

Dried leaves as a flower arrangement 

Breakfast was not available until 9:00am and you just got food out of the mini-mart.

It looks like our bags threw up in our room. What a mess! 

The skating trail is on Lake Saimaa which is the largest lake in Finland and the 4th largest in Europe. The lake is known as ab incredible destination in the summer (camping, boating, fishing, ringed seals, etc). 

In the winter, there is a skating trail that is 20km long that goes through the Linnansaari National Park from Oravi to Järvisydän. There are fire pits, warming huts, and a cafe along only the trail (depending on the winter weather). Unfortunately, when we were there it was only 5km long (it had been 20km, but they had too much snow). The pancake hut was supposed to be open on Saturday/Sunday, but it was only open on Saturday this weekend. Bummer. Luckily, the weather was good and the ice was mostly smooth. Sarah can say she learned how to Nordic skates in Finland!

At the start of the skating trail - nice wool blankets to keep your biscuits warm while you put on your skates 

People using kick spark sleds - they are actually used a lot - even on the roads.

A warming hut for skaters, skiers, snowmobilers, and more.

The sign says the pancake cafe is closed - a sad Kara.

People kick spark sledding with their dogs on skijoring harnesses.

A fireplace for cooking food and warming up on an island on Lake Saimaa.

The cafe on the island along the skating trail that was closed.

So sad 😢

The Lake Saimaa ringed seal is endangered - less than 300 of them left.

We put some wood on the fire, so we had to replace a few logs to the pile which meant we had to saw some from the shed.

It was windy on the lake, so the snow drifts came onto the skating trail.

The warming is on pontoons.

Inside the warming hut.

Locals using kick spark sleds along the road.

After skating, we still had time left in the day to make it to Olanviina Castle - but just barely. We had to buy the tickets to enter by 3:15 and we arrived to buy the tickets at 3:16 - it was close! We were on the fence about going, but by the end of the tour we were definitely glad we went. On the tour, we learned a bunch about the history of Finland and it's relationship with it's neighbors, Sweden and Russia. And we gleaned some interesting facts about castle life and architecture. In addition, it was beautiful!

So many ducks!

The black ram is kind of the castle's mascot - the Russians thought it was the devil during a big storm with fires.

The castle chapel - because it can be rented out, people get married in the castle.

One of the old potties in the castle - the waste just dropped a long way down into the lake.

In the restoration process, they put this mini ship cannon in the castle window.

Our castle tour guide was awesome (and was just included in the entrance fee). She was happy to have a tour in English - they don't happen often because not many English speaking people visit.

Old steam ships in Savonlinna used for trading goods with Russian.

On the drive back to Oravi, Mother Nature graced us with a sweet sunset. The stands of birches and evergreens combined with the sunset colors was stunning. When we got back to our lodging, we took a short walk out on the skating trail to catch the final sunset colors. 

There are so many stands of birch trees mixed with evergreens - it is beautiful.

Dinner was a basic affair since the restaurant was closed. We had some nuts and bars, but not really anything dinner-ish. So we called the woman who runs basically everything, she said that she was just finishing up skating, but would unlock the store for us so that we could get some food. So, we had a fancy dinner of mushroom soup and meat and cheese sandwiches. She also offered to let us use the better sauna near the ice swimming hole (usually 30 euro to reserve it). When I asked about the rules around wearing bathing suits she declared that "there are no rules here." So... it's perfect for us 😀

Next we tried to bring order out of chaos by packing our room disaster into our bags for the flight tomorrow. The goal was to make 2 light carry-ons and 1 checked bag. This took some effort. Obviously, we ended our evening with a sauna which we finally figured out how to work. Tomorrow is a big transportation day as we will go from the Lakeland region to Lapland via Helsinki.

Sarah was very appreciative that I made her dinner (in the microwave 🤣).

 

Our fancy dinner in our room with what we were able to scrounge up when the owners unlocked the store for us to get some food