Candy Cranks

I just got back from a little academic/pleasure trip to Helsinki, Finland. It was awesome! The weather was beautiful (only one flash hail storm in the week we were there), it was hot and at this time of year 11:30pm is still twilight. Our hotel had free loaner bikes. They were battleship Kronans, weighing a good 30kg (at least), one-speed with coaster brakes which I haven’t experienced since I was seven and was totally unaccustomed to. We took these bikes out for some mini excursions as the university was quite close by, but it was the unplanned, wandering ride out of the city that was one of my favourite parts of the whole trip. This isn’t the exact route, but it was something like this. I had guessed it about 30km, but it turns out to have been more like 40.

We made some stops along the way. The first point of interest was the waterfall by the museum of (history? culture? I forget).

And some fisherpeople.

Refueling with Kage…

Then back on the road…

They have bike paths on the sidewalks in a lot of Helsinki, but even out in the suburbs (which feel like the country) they have great separated paths everywhere.

Where are we? A little GPS checking…

OK, we found our way back to the main road. Popped in for a bit of browsing at Bike Planet before finding lunch.

Well, the trip was great, and so was the beer, but after the long haul, I was really glad to be back in my apartment in Tokyo. Here is what was waiting at the entrance way when I got back:

Yes, it would have been a nice welcome back gift, but it isn’t mine…Fumi’s new road bike is ready. Not only did it take over my bike’s spot, but it’s also way nicer than mine. *jealousy*