Day 32 - Hameenliina

Today was very relaxing. Timo made a delicious breakfast while the boys woke up the neighbourhood playing football out beside the road. Meanwhile, I tried to plan the ferry trip to Sweden. After breakfast Timo called one of the Imp guys in Turku for advice on the ferry crossing. After several calls and some head scratching over the ferry website, we ended up with paid for booking out of Nanntali at 9:30 Tuesday morning and arriving north of Stockholm at Kapellskar at 16:30. This and other meanderings had taken up most of the morning.

After lunch we visited the Hameenlinna Castile. The boys were initially disappointed as it didn't match their expectations of a castle. That is because over the years it has been damaged, repaired and rebuilt many times. The story of rebuilding is written in the many types of brick and stone used in the walls. The castle was used by the kings and queens of Sweden as a temporary home when the visited Finland collecting their taxes. One of its latest uses was as a women's prison.

After the castle we looked over the fence at the cannon museum. The boys were not that interested it seemed. They were more keen on scaling the castle outer defensive wall/mound. This is steeper than 50° with the lower 3m being stone wall and the upper 8m being a grassed mound.

From here we picked up supplies at a supermarket, dropped these back at Timo's house and drove on to Sami's house to pick up a trolley jack and look at his rally car. Semi bought it from Timo along with all his tools and spares. We spent perhaps a little too long about imp stuff while the boys played outside. Then we had a quick look at his neighbour's two Dodge Chargers (1968 and 1973) before enjoying icecream and coffee.

On the way back to Timo's house we stopped at the same supermarket to buy a SIM card for the mobile telephone that I had bought in Russia. This was I will can call out in an emergency. More football for the boys while Timo and I made grilled salmon and new potatoes for dinner.

After dinner I tried to get the boys to bed in good time. I read them a story but perhaps it wasn't a very settling one as they soon were giggles and shouts again. Meanwhile Timo and I jacked up each corner of the Imp and adjusted the brakes. The pedal had had more travel than I was happy with on the drive up. The brakes gripped very well and the pedal travel did not improve with pumping so I don't think they need bleeding. I think each wheel just got one click of its adjuster.

Timo and I chatted more about cars and he showed me photographs from his time as a mechanic for a team running a CanAm style Porsche 917 all over the world. After a sauna and a cooling beer it was 11PM and time for bed.

a very relaxing day.