Turku

All names are in both Finnish and Swedish in this part of Finland

The cathedral over the river

Several boats have been turned into restaurants and bars

We arrived in Turku in the late afternoon, found a laundromat and proceeded to get clean clothes for the rest of the trip. We then walked down to the Aura River to look for a place to eat. The menu at Sergio’s looked good. Rather than wait for an outside table we opted to dine inside. Our table by the pizza oven was a bit warmer than the rest of the restaurant, but still pleasant seating and entertaining watching the pizza guy do his thing. Linda chose the risotto while John, Cherie, and I had pizza. All were excellent as were the accompanying wines.

Sergio's

The next morning, I got up early to walk the river and take some pictures in the early morning light and the heat and humidity took over. The Aura River is people friendly with restaurants, museums, and hotels on both sides of the street. The old architecture is interesting and the river boats add to the ambience. Six old riverboats offer dining and drinks although the menus indicate they are more about drinking and partying than about eating. It is also possible to rent small electric boats to ply the river on your own or take a tour on a larger boat. Flowers and trees and no cars make the river a pleasant place to walk and enjoy the city.

After breakfast, Linda and Cherie did a bit of shopping while I returned to the room to work on this blog. After those activities we decided to follow the guide book’s walking tour. To get to the start at the cathedral, we walked through an outdoor market where I stopped to talk to one of the fish sellers. His neighbor seemed to have a gull for a pet. This gull was just hanging out on the pavement in front of her fish stall. Not intimidated by the crowd at all, it seemed to be waiting for a handout. I asked the neighbor who responded with, “Unfortunately,” when I asked if she fed it. When he saw my Stanford cap, that led to more conversation. It turned out that he has a relative in Bellingham where I went to high school.

Paavo Nurmi, Finland's great distance runner and Olympic champion

These eiders also monitor the water quality

Eventually I caught up with the rest and we headed to the cathedral. Over 700 years old, Turku Cathedral is the main church for Finland’s Evangelical Lutherans and a national shrine. Built as a Catholic Cathedral it has a number of side chapels and had 42 altars. These are now mostly family vaults.

From the cathedral we headed down the river enjoying old architecture and the sites along the riverside. We checked out the riverboats as a possibility for dinner. None seemed to fit our desires, but we did stop for conversation and a drink at one of them whose evening menu consisted of burgers and pizza. That seems to be standard fare along here.

We continued walking downstream for another 30 minutes or so past the last bridge and the beginnings of a more industrial area. We had thought about walking to the castle, but the heat told us we had walked far enough and headed back to the hotel for a rest before heading back out for dinner.

Art along the river

This is a war memorial

Dinner was at an excellent tapas restaurant, La Trevi. It’s not on the river, but we had some nice seats outside and enjoyed ten different tapas and some interesting and tasty sparkling sangria.

A mosaic to indicate handicapped parking space