Kokkola – 2/14/2020
Feb 14th, 2020 by rallyadmin
We have a long day today. We’re going to Kokkola about 500 kilometers from Turku and we’re trying to see an archaeological dig there.
The alarm goes off at 6:30. Out of bed while it’s still dark. We take showers and head down to the 2nd floor for a quick breakfast.
I leave Barbara in the room and go to the parking garage for the car. The garage is in the basement of the hotel but the only way to access it from inside the building and that access is only available when the shops on the first floor and the basement are open which they are not at 7:45 in the morning.
Out to the street which is empty of last night’s student party-goers. That stands to reason – the bars are closed. I walk around the block and walk down the drive-in ramp to the garage. Go over to the pay kiosk to get an exit stamp on the parking ticket. Two days in the garage: 60 euros. They obviously don’t want cars in Turku Center.
Since it’s so early, I park the car in front of the hotel and run upstairs for Barbara. Back down to Reception, pay for the room and out to the car. Load the bags and we’re on our way to Kokkola.
The ride is easy but no very fast. On most stretches of the road the speed limit is 80 kph (about 50 mph.) Normally, I view speed limit signs as suggestions but Finland is known to be tough on speeders. And they try to enforce the speed limit with speed cameras every few kilometers.
The cameras do keep the speed down but they aren’t catching many speeders with them. Before you get to a camera there are warning signs on the side of the road. AND the Volvo I’ve rented has an icon pop up on the speedo display to warn me that there’s a camera 300 meters ahead. If you do get caught you’re either very dumb or very careless.
There’s not much traffic and the weather is perfect with a bit of a chill for those of us from the southern US. I’m sure that the locals think the weather is downright balmy.
We stop along the way for lunch at a kabob restaurant next to a large, frozen lake. I order what turns out to be doner kabab which is not kebab on a skewer. Rather it is usually lamb and beef roasted on a huge vertical spit. The meat is then shaved off the meat on the spit and server on pita bread or a plate.
Today they have pork and it turns out to be great. No fries or bread just a huge pile of salad. Barbara has a couple of plates of salad. We finish and leave to finish the last 100 km to Kokkola.
We get to Kokkola about 2:30 and start searching for our place to stay for the night. The plan is to drop our bags an find the dig site. We plug the address into the GPS and soon we’re in the driveway of a small cottage just outside city center.
The email instructions are to get the key for the cottage from the key lockbox. We have the code for the box. But the code doesn’t work. We try different variations of the code but no luck. We have a number for the cottage owner and call him for instructions.
I dial he number and, of course, the number doesn’t work. We try a couple of other numbers but they all come back as unreachable. Barbara takes our numbers and finds a young man who dials the number and gets the owner on the phone. (For some reason, my phone seems to be the problem. And the owner is in Thailand. Whatever.)
The owner tells us that we are at the wrong address. Both addresses are owned by the same company. We get back in the car, plug in the correct address and a few miles later we’re at the new property, a small apartment house.
At this address, the lockbox code works. We find the apartment up three flights of stairs. But the apartment is quite nice. It’ll do. Unfortunately, it’s getting dark and it’s too late to visit the dig site.
We sit around for a bit, check email and look on the web for somewhere to eat dinner. We don’t want anything too filling after the lunch at the kebab shop. Put the coats, hats and gloves on and it’s out the door for a 20 walk to Kung’s Kitchen, a Chinese buffet.
The streets are empty and Google Maps guides us to Kung’s in about 20 minutes. The dinner isn’t bad but nothing to write a Yelp review about. We finish and walk back to the apartment.
A long drive but an easy day. Tomorrow, we’re headed to Kemmi about 4 hours away. We’re trying to get there by noon so tomorrow will be another early start.
Obi-wan