It was an incredible trip!
Here are some of our favorite photos from the trip (each photo is a thumbnail linked to a higher quality picture.):
129) After a travel day spent on the return ferry from the Åland Islands to Turku and then driving east to Salo we found a trailhead parking lot where we could camp near the water and next to a pasture full of big horn cattle. The next day was an unxpected day of art. We got up and hit the road but instead of heading east to Helsinki we headed south out onto a peninsula that sticks out into the Baltic Sea. Out first stop was the tiny village of Teijo. It was once an industrial iron works/steel factory town but that ended by the mid-20th century. Now the old iron works has been turned into an artist studio space with a pleasant cafe as the hub. There were two great gallery spaces with very interesting exhibitions and a few other studio/shop spaces. A really cool setting with some very nice art. From there we drove through the Metsähallitus/Teijo National Park for some natural beauty. The destination for the day was the resort town of Henko. We arrived at noon and would have been excused for mistaking it for the Riviera - a beach town with a busy and trendy marina. Tennis shorts, sun dresses, ritzy sandals and expensive loafers were the norm. We headed to tourist information and got the scoop on things to do. There was also an artist exhibiting paintings next door but "meh" (Excellent skills but looked like something that would be hanging on the wall of a rental beach house - all pastel flowers, little girls and ducks in lily pad ponds.) The tourist information lady pointed us to a restaurant by the marina so we sat with the jet-setters (yacht-setters?) and enjoyed the view of the bustling pleasure cruisers, sailboats, jetskis and mega-yachts. We had a tasty, though pricey, lunch and then headed back out.
130) There is a big water tower in town with a panoramic observation deck on top so we headed there. On the way we ran into some VERY FRIENDLY artists who REALLY wanted us to come in and see their art. It was a mixed bag but they really were friendly so worth the walk through. The water tower visit was very nice. The view out over the town and out to the islands surrounding the area was well worth the nominal fee. We’d heard about a public sculpture trail and had gotten general directions from tourist information. It was on a peninsula named (translated to English) "cat butt point"! How could we not check it out? The artist was Knutte Sundberg (now deceased) and he made wood sculptures which had been collected after his death and displayed on a narrow neck of land. We drove out and walked around looking at the carved and painted wooden sculptures but also enjoying the old wooden fishermen’s store rooms that are interspersed along the shore.
131) On the drive in we saw a house with a poster for "Hang Art" and had seen the same poster with the very friendly artists earlier so we walked back to the house to see what it was all about. It turns out that artists in the Henko area open their studios one weekend a year (like Open Studios for thosee who know about this in Boulder). Both painters were quite talented. I liked pieces by both of them and thoroughly enjoyed talking with them as well. Clearly, We had come to town on the right weekend! Well, now that we had discovered this our plan for the rest of the afternoon was set. We grabbed a map and took off! A nearby old school house had been turned into an artist collective. It turned out to be the Golden Girls of Hanko - a circle of elderly women whose shared social activity is painting. Pretty amateur quality but I think they are having fun so it serves its purpose. Next up was a painter - a beautiful house/studio/garden, very nice abstract work but but his stereotypical artist’s demeanor rubbed me wrong. Next was a fabric artist - really nice lady and meticulous work - there were 19,000 knots in the handmade rug she was making. Next was the most open and enthusiastic artist I think I’ve ever met. She positively bubbled with a love of making art. Next was a lovely woman with a genuine soft heart. We had a wonderful conversation with her and she even gave us a gift but we felt terrible because we didn’t care much for her paintings. That said she had made a children’s book - done the artwork and written the story - which I thought was adorable. Sadly, it was only in Finnish so it didn’t make sense to buy a copy. Still, if meeting the artist, rather than appreciating the art, was the goal of the Hanko Art event then this was the best way to end our day. We drove to the end of the road and found a free camping spot by the beach. We fell asleep that night with artsy images in our heads.
132) Our day started with the notable achievement of hiking to the southern-most point in Finland. An interesting, though not entirely beautiful, hike down the Tulliniemi peninsula. The Tulliniemi area is mainly famous as a bird sanctuary but along the way we passed the ruins of an old pre-1917 Russian military barracks that had been used by the Germans during WWII and then was a POW camp and later a women's penal colony after the war. There were also old gun emplacements and an active coast guard station out on the point. And, of course, there was the nature aspect - a pebble beach, rocky shorelines, rare plants and lots of water fowl.
133) After the hike we spent the rest of the morning running errands (gas and groceries) before parking briefly back by the Henko Marina to make and eat our lunch. We’d planned to visit the Henko History Museum but it turned out to be closed on Monday. With that strike out we decided to move on down the road as we had a couple of other sights on our list to explore. Our first stop in the afternoon was the Raseborg Castle. Ruins, really, but as with the medieval castle on the Åland Islands a few days ago we don’t take being able to walk around in 700 year old castles for granted.
134) After that we headed for the presumed highlight of the day - the old industrial town of Fiskers. The local tourist brochures raved about it! Well, this is now the third historic old town (Bergen and Rauma being the previous two) where an amazing historical site had been turned into an upscale shopping mall. The buildings are awesome - basically a mostly restored late 19th century mill town - a fast flowing river with steel works, industrial shops making knives, scissors, ploughs, fabric and more. Lots of cool old wooden buildings, brick/stone warehouses, foundries and a giant mansion built by the fat cat company owner. But then all of it is filled with swanky, expensive shops. The parking lot was packed (mainly with luxury cars), the sidewalks were packed (mainly with people carrying bags of luxury goods) and all of the amazing history of the place is papered over with shiny signs and window displays. Sigh. Anyway, we tried to visit the art exhibition space but weren’t willing to pay an entry fee to see a gallery where art is for sale. We also walked to the old knife factory but it had been modernized and turned into a cider distillery/beer brewery so we turned around there too. We did use the free town wifi, had a cold drink in a stylish cafe and looked in the Fiskers showroom to see their displays of old scissors and a little diorama of the original steel foundry. Then we beat feet out of there since it just wasn’t our scene. The good news is that on our way east we turned down a dirt road road and drove 30 minutes to find a quiet little swimming spot/community sauna right on the coast to use as our camping spot for the night. *That* is our scene!
135) It had been a long time since we were last in the capital city of a Scandinavian country so it was a bit of culture shock when we rolled into Helsinki. Not only that but we are back to urban camping so our spot was a far cry from the quiet little water side sauna where we were the previous night. This night we were in a 24 hour parking lot behind a hospital. Thankfully, there were some tall trees providing a little shade and some birds singing to blend in with the distant drone of traffic noise. Our day was pretty straight forward - woke up, ate, drove to Helsinki and found a place to park the camper so we could walk around town for a few hours. Once all that was accomplished we unloaded the bicycles and pedaled to the central train station so we could hit up tourist information. They were very helpful! It was lunch time and our enthusiasm for biking back to the camper in the hot mid-day sun was pretty low so we opted to spring for lunch out - we found an Indian restaurant in the train station with sub-10 Euro prices so we gave it a try. Excellent choice!! With our bellies full of curry we ventured back out into the heat to hit our first museum in Helsinki - the National Museum of Finland. It is a history museum that spans from the stone ages to modern day, telling the stories with lots of artifacts and interactive displays. We ended up rushing through the second half of the museum because there was so much to see and do that we ran out of time. There was a collection of medieval stained glass panes found in and around the ruins of old Finnish churches, all displayed on a back-lit wall. Just one of the neat displays in the museum. We left the museum with the clock ticking to get back to the camper. With some fast pedaling we made it back without overrunning the parking time limit. We first went to a huge park that was combination cemetery, sport fields and beach to look for camping but all the parking was metered so no overnighting. That is when our camping app led us to the long term parking behind the hospital.
136) Not only was today another art extravaganza it was all contemporary art so we really got our brain juices bubbling (and at times my skeptical B.S. alarm gonging.) The night’s free camping spot was only a couple of miles from downtown so we jumped on the bicycles this morning and pedaled back to the epicenter of the art museums. Actually, the park in front of the Parliament Building is just an amazing panorama of architecture. If you want to be wow’ed drop into Google Street View at the Kansalaistori Library (00100 Helsinki, Finland) and spin around. Anyway, we locked up the bikes and walking into the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma. This is a huge, 5 story, ultra modern museum dedicated to contemporary art. There were a few different exhibitions on display that were interesting. The most fun was a large room with a brightly colored sculpture made from fuzzy synthetic hair. The name of the piece was "nervescape" but refreshingly the artist didn’t try to push a deep meaning and in a video interview said that it should be pleasurable just to hang out in such a colorful place...and it was.
137) Next up was the (literally) underground Amos Rex Museum just across the street. Another awesome space for a contemporary art gallery. The exhibit in this one didn’t thrill us but there were a few pieces that were thought provoking. The pieces on display were all part if a competition so we got to vote on which artist we liked best which was a new experience. It was HOT outside so we enjoyed hopping from one air conditioned museum to the next.
138) However, we had packed a picnic lunch so we needed to find some shade so we could eat. Just a block away from the Helsinki Art Museum was a dumpy little park but it had benches in the shade of a big tree so that fit the bill. After our snacks we rushed back into the welcome relief of the A/C in the Helsinki Art Museum and into our final contemporary art exhibit for the day. Beautiful paintings but the titles and descriptions were a bit over the top for me. High marks for talent and technique but dial back the high concepts a bit. Whew!
139) Jonna had reserved a campground for tonight and after a sweaty day in downtown having access to a shower was a *great* idea. We jumped back on the bikes and headed back to the camper in the early afternoon so we could check into the campground as soon as they opened the reception office. On our way back to the camper we made a quick side trip to a public park to see the monument there to Finland’s most famous composer - Jean Sibelius. It is a beautiful sculpture and a fitting tribute to a composer who meant so much to the young country of Finland in the early 20th century. Once back at the camper we drove to the campground out in the eastern suburbs and set up camp in the big commercial campground. We relaxed, showered, did laundry, cooked dinner and took advantage of the wifi. The sun didn’t drop below the tree-line until 9:30pm and it is finally cooling off as I type this at 10:15pm. (BTW, we were the fuddy-duddies relaxing in the shade. The Finns know summer doesn’t last long at this latitude so they were sun-bathing, swimming at the beach and running around having fun out in the heat all day!.
140) We (well, just Alan really) slept in a little later than usual but once moving we took care of the camper duties and then checked out of the campground. Our parking app directed us to a parking lot at a sports field next to The Helsinki Zoo with a 24 hour limit. We immediately unloaded the bicycles, locked up the camper and pedaled back to downtown Helsinki. We continued yesterday’s art museum theme by heading to the Ateneum Art Museum. Unlike yesterday’s contemporary art museums the Ateneum is a classic art museum but displaying mostly works by Finnish artists. The curators did a great job arranging the works with interesting themes. One of my favorites was a hallway full of self portraits of Finnish artists across a wide period of time and with only the artist’s name for labelling. It made contrasting styles more interesting because there were no dates shown. There was also an enthralling exhibition showing how Asian culture had influenced Finnish artists with paintings, ceramics, sculptures and textile works all on display. It was hot again today so for lunch we bought a drink from the museum cafe and then sat in the indoor patio area to eat our picnic snacks.
141) Jonna had booked a walking tour for the afternoon so after eating we headed over to a nearby cafe where we met our guide, Katarina. It was supposed to be a small group tour but we were the only ones who signed up so we got a private tour! We did a three hour walking tour that included the Senate Square, Helsinki Cathedral, President’s Home, Uspenski Russian Cathedral, Allas Sea Pool, Rauhanpatsas Statue of Peace, Market Square, Central Train Station, Central Library Oodi and the Chapel of Silence. We both enjoyed the tour and thought the guide was great. We now know a lot more about Helsinki! After the tour we found a cafe where we could cool off and then walked a few blocks to a Chinese/Malaysian restaurant for dinner - inexpensive and good food! At this point we were both tired but we still had a few miles of pedaling to get back to the camper. Along the way we passed a big stage that was being set up for a Danko Jones rock concert. Our camping spot is right across the water so until late at night we could hear the concert rocking out in the distance.
142) It had been a few days since we last visited a castle or fortress so it could have been assumed we had exhausted all of the possible options to walk around a bunch of old stone walls. Likewise, it has also been awhile since we last visited a UNESCO World Heritage sites. Well, we fixed that! Since we had camped in an un-timed parking spot last night this morning we decided to just lock up the camper and bicycle back into downtown without moving. This time we rode to the Allas Sea Pool and found a bike rack there where we could lock up the bikes. A short walk away was the ferry terminal out to Suomenlinna. The ferry pulled away from the dock as we were buying our tickets so that meant we had to wait 20 minutes for the next one. On the previous day’s walking tour our guide pointed out a gourmet gelato shop in the nearby Market Hall. Conveniently, it would only take about 15 minutes to walk there, buy ice cream and walk back. That was a good decision because the gelato was yummy and cooled us down a little after the bike ride. We hopped on the next ferry and took the 15 minute trip out to the islands that make up Suomenlinna. This fortress was built in the mid-1700s while Sweden ruled what is now Finland. It is a massive collection of forts spread over four interconnected islands and with a history that spans more than 200 years and spans three different governments (Sweden, Russia and Finland). The fortress was involved in numerous wars and, despite the monicker "The Gibraltar of the North" was seriously damaged twice (in 1808 by the Russians during the Finnish War and then again in 1855 when the combined British and French shelled it during the Crimean War). Anyway, all this is just to say it is an impressive site to visit and we thought it would be final UNESCO site of our 2019 vacation. We visited the official Suomenlinna Museum, the Vessiko WWII Submarine and the Toy Museum, as well as just walked the cobblestone streets and the miles of defensive walls.
143) It was another scorcher of a day so it was exhausting to be out in the heat. Before heading back to the ferry we cooled down in a quaint tea cafe that was attached to the Toy Museum. Once the ferry deposited us back into Market Square we made a beeline to find a late lunch. Our first choice was closed but a Chinese dumpling/salad/sushi buffet place next door was reasonably priced so we went with that. Our plan was to hit the Botanic Garden after eating but we felt so gross after two hot and sticky days we changed plans. We bicycled back to the camper-van, used the app to find another free parking lot and then found the nearest public pool that would have a shower. All the pieces came together so we drove to the new camping spot (behind a hospital but different from the one three nights ago) and then walked to the Helsinki Olympic Park which was built for the 1952 Summer Olympics)l. There we paid 4.50 Euro each to use the showers in the Olympic Swimming Stadium. It would have been fun to swim there but it was early evening when we arrived so we just bathed and called an end to our day's activities.
144) Despite the oppressive heat of the past few days we ventured out this morning for our last day of sightseeing in Helsinki. Our first adjustment to deal with the heat was that we bought day passes for the public transit and left the bicycles up on the camper-van’s bike rack. The tram from the northern suburbs to downtown wasn’t chilly but it was still a lot cooler than being out pedaling in the direct sun. We hopped off at the Amos Rex square stop. Our second adjustment for the weather, which we followed for the rest of the day, was to walk through buildings or at least in the shade rather than the baking sidewalk so we walked through the central train station rather than around it. Out the east side we picked the shadiest route through the park behind it to get over to the botanic garden. The garden is packed into a corner of the park and has a large selection of plants but like the garden in Turku it is mainly a research garden more than a decorative one. There were interesting plots for lichen and moss collections, a wide variety of trees, loads of shrubs and a few planters of flowers. The most interesting section was a sensory garden with a mixture of plants that had different textures, shapes, aromas and some were even edible. Even the walkway fit the theme because it was made from different natural materials (stones, bark, sand, mulch, etc) so that it could be tread while barefoot. It was a worthy site to visit ....but... it was just too hot and there wasn’t much shade. We did our best to enjoy the visit but after about 30 minutes we were melting. At this point our plan for the day basically became - let’s compare the air-conditioning in as many museums as possible.
145) Since we had transit passes for the whole day we headed to the nearest subway station - it had a long, air-conditioned escalator with fans blowing upwards that was nearly a spiritual experience. We considered just riding up and down the escalator for the next hour just to cool back down! However, we stayed on task and took the metro for a short ride (in a disappointingly warm subway train) and then exited near the old cable factory. One of the warehouses in this former industrial area had been turned into a museum space with three different co-habitating spaces. We walked the three blocks and visited the Helsinki Museum of Photography. (The same building also holds the Helsinki Theatre Museum and the Museum of Hotels & Lodging.) Most of the photography exhibits were pretty out-there, contemporary stuff. Conceptually interesting so we had a lot to think about but our favorite was a collection of silver/gelatin plate photos by a single artist from the 1940s and 1950s. Maybe the artistry of these older photos stood out more in contrast to all the more abstract and documentary work shown in the contemporary exhibits. Thankfully, the A/C in there was pretty good so it got high marks for that.
146) Making sure we got our money’s worth out of our transit passes we next hopped a bus. It had the best cooling of the three different vehicles we tried in the public transit network today. (If you include the Suomenlinna ferry yesterday, which is also part of the Helsinki Public Transportation system, I think we got pretty good use out of their whole range of transit options!) Our next stop was another of the old market halls - The Hakaniemi Market Hall. It was smaller than the one in Market Square but was a lot less touristy. It also had an outdoor market but rather than it being a bunch of stalls selling touristy stuff like in Market Square this one had a flea market. It was kind of junky but at least it was junk for the locals. Oh and it had an ice cream kiosk. It was Ingman, not our preferred Pingviini brand but in this heat we weren’t picky. After finishing our treat we walked a block and visited the Sinebrychoff Art Museum. This is a very traditional art museum based on the personal collection of a family that made a fortune during the 19th century, primarily by owning the first legal brewery in Helsinki (among other business interests). The art was mainly 17th and 18th century classical paintings but the space had been restored to the splendor of a mid-19th century mansion so it was almost more interesting as a house than an art collection. They did have a special exhibit with works in blue and gold that spanned a large timeframe and with a mix of media types that was very well done. And, of course, the highlight was that all three floors had modern air-conditioning.
147) We reluctantly left and walked around back to a park to find a shaded bench so we could eat our picnic lunch. There was a pop-up restaurant grilling food in the park so we were smelling smoke and watching heat radiate off the grills while we ate our sandwiches so psychologically it *seemed* hotter. We bucked up and walked to our next museum - the Helsinki Design Museum. This was sort of a spontaneous decision to visit - mainly just looking for another museum with A/C. We were really absorbed by the section on the history of Finnish design - they had something like 65,000 different items in their collection but there were a few iconic pieces that showed just how influential some items designed by Finns have been. There were also two special exhibits that were worth seeing but both were hurt by the mediocre air-conditioning. To crank the body cooling up a notch, and meet Alan's dietary necessity for a sugary drink for lunch, our next stop was a shopping mall with a Burger King - just to a soda with ice! ...another near spiritual experience. Oh, and the fastest wifi of the day. And great A/C. A triple treat. We were dragging at this point but we did make a half-hearted effort to find a Pingviini cart for a final ice cream but the heat beat us down (and the ice Alan was chewing on from the soda melted away) before we could find one. We jumped back on the tram and returned to the camper-van. We spent the evening preparing to leave Finland - getting our bicycles ready to donate, cooking the last of the food in the ‘fridge and packing carry-on bags for the long ferry ride to Germany.
148) It is hard to make this day sound interesting. This was the start of a transit day that took 30 hours to complete. Worse yet, we had a couple of domestic tasks to take care of in the morning so we weren’t even able to do something fun to start the day. So the schedule for the day was: wake up, eat the last of the food from the ‘fridge (since it would be powered down for the next day and a half), do laundry, drop off a bunch of stuff (bicycles, sheets and blankets) with a donation center and then drive to the Finnlines ferry terminal.
149) It was blistering hot so we went inside the air-conditioned terminal office to eat our leftovers for lunch and then went back to the camper-van for check-in at 1pm. Everything clicking off like clockwork! Then someone hit the pause button. It took Finnlines four hours to load the ferry. Yes four. Like starting at 1pm and finally driving onto the boat at 4:35pm. So we sat in the camper-van in the burning sun in a big black asphalt queuing lot for nearly four flippin’ hours. Ugh! Finally we got onboard hot, tired and bored. Thankfully, we paid extra for a private cabin when we booked so we had a place to collapse and, once we recovered a spark of energy, to take a shower. In the early evening, after the comically bad mandatory safety briefing, we filled our thermos with hot water from the cafe and used that to re-hydrate some dehydrated cup meals for dinner so we didn’t have to pay ferry rates in the onboard restaurant. We spent the rest of the evening laying in the air-conditioned cabin watching Star Trek: Discovery episodes on our tablet.
150) Darkness! It has been quite awhile since we really experienced the dark. By the time we got into southern Finland we were south of the Arctic Circle so technically it was dark in the middle of the night but we were usually asleep by then. However, last night we rolled off the ferry at 9:45pm and it was dark. We drove in the dark, found our camping spot in the dark and went to sleep in the dark. We didn’t miss it when it wasn’t there but it was strange to re-emerge into a world where the day is split into light and dark. It was also apparently a world that is hot and muggy - another environment that feels strange. We woke up early in morning to a misty, almost rainy, grey day. We were about an hour away from the campground we had reserved for our final night with the camper (which was needed so we could empty all the tanks before returning it). Well, we can’t let a whole day go to waste just because we need to spend an hour driving on the autobahn. A little online research turned up that the nearby city of Lübeck is a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its history during the 12th through the 15th centuries when it was a key free city in the Hanseatic League. The old city was built on an island in the middle of the River Trove and, despite damage from a fire bombing in WWII, still has a significant number of brick buildings from this time frame. How could we miss seeing that? We found free parking within walking distance of the famous Holstentor (Gate).
151) We spent a few hours walking around the old town including visiting the St Peter’s Church, St Giles’ Church and St. Anne’s Museum Quarter. St Peter’s was interesting because it is a huge gothic church from the 1100s that is no longer an active church. The building has been turned into a cultural center trying to make operating money by selling access to its bell tower as an observation deck. The old part of the city had something like 7 gothic churches and now has basically no parishioners so it was interesting to see how these old buildings are changing in order to support their upkeep. This was contrasted with St Giles (St Aegidien in German) which has been maintained as basically a 13th century church museum - supported by donations and funding from the city and regional parish. It gave a feel for how dark and daunting medieval pre-Reformation churches could be. Finally, we visited the St Anne’s Museum Quarter which was built in the ruins of a 16th century nunnery. It has been turned into two very cool museum spaces: a contemporary art space and a cultural/history museum. The art space had a show by a single local artist and it was "interesting". Not really our thing but definitely a prolific artist with a definite theme. Fortunately, the cultural museum was very good. The first floor was a collection of religious art - paintings, sculptures, altar pieces, architectural items and more. All well displayed with english signage and a detailed audio guide. Basically this museum houses the collection of all the historical pieces from the many cathedrals, churches, chapels, monasteries and nunneries from the city of Lübeck across an 800 year period (much of which was damaged by various wars, fires and civil engineering.) My favorite was one of the dial faces from a 16th century astronomical clock from St. Mary’s Cathedral. The second floor has done the same thing but with secular buildings - merchant houses, guild houses, schools, hospitals, manor houses and more. Loads and loads of items and spread across so many rooms it began to feel very maze like. After a couple of hours we ran out of steam for seeing old stuff and we needed to start the aforementioned drive to our campground so we walked back to the camper-van (with a quick stop at a bakery along the way to buy some fresh bread). The rain had stopped and the sun started heating things up so were timed our walking visit well. We made soup for lunch in the camper and then hit the road to rocket down the autobahn. We got to our campground on the banks of the Elbe River and just a few klicks away from the camper-van rental place. By the time we got parked it was back to steaming hot. We spent the late afternoon packing our luggage and cleaning the van. Exhausted and overheated we were thankful that the evening brought cooler temperatures so we ended the day eating the last of our food and watching the last of the Star Trek: Discovery episodes (meh).
152) Our last day of vacation. Most of the day was just transit. We woke up, ate, finished cleaning and prep’ing the camper and then drove to Brietlingen to return it. The check-in process was lengthy and then waiting for the taxi to Lüneburg took another half hour. Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait at all for the next train to Hamburg as it rolled into the Lüneburg station the moment we walked onto the platform. A short 30 minutes later and we were in Hamburg main station. We bought the tickets for the next morning’s train to the airport and then found a Syrian restaurant in the food court with inexpensive pita sandwiches. We had pre-booked a hotel - the same one we’d stayed at when we first flew in to Hamburg back in May - so we lugged our luggage a block and checked in. You know you picked a budget hotel when, instead of fancy chocolates on the pillow at check-in, there is a packet of Mentos on the side table. Still, inexpensive and convenient which is exactly why we booked it. That said, if they do want a suggestion for an improvement it isn’t to get chocolates. It is to add A/C to the rooms. It was another hot and muggy afternoon! We looked up the local museums but in the end we just went out for a walk around. We saw the Town Hall and St Peter’s Church, walked along the Elbe River and walked through a couple of malls looking for cooler temperatures. Finally we gave up, found a Vietnamese restaurant with inexpensive bowls (but still no A/C) and then retreated back to the hotel just before a burst of rain cooled things down a little. The next morning we got up really early and caught the train to the airport. We flew first to Frankfort and then on to Colorado. The vacation was officially over. We put 10,000 km on the camper over 9 weeks and we visited five different countries. A *great* vacation!
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