Finland – The Santa Claus Hotel & -12 driving conditions
We had an early start at 07.30, Joe being the early riser. We made our way from breakfast which you could have fed an army on. I personally along with David had porridge topped up with fresh fruit, toast and several cups of strong black coffee. It was an amazing sight to watch Joe devour 10 or more sausages, scrambled eggs, bacon, toast with melted cheese topped up with a bowl of cornflakes and every sort of topping from chopped almonds, bananas and apricots etc. In his defence he said, with a deep bellied laugh, “its hard work driving those Land Rovers when your not allowed to touch the brakes, eh brother”. He was, in fact, making reference to his first day’s driving from Kirkenes down to Rovaniemi where I had told him in no uncertain terms he was not to use the brakes, he had to use the low gearing system on the Land Rover to bring the vehicle to a stop. My dear brother and I had this conversation many times over the 530 klm drive where it finally sunk in but to my dismay the lead vehicle, driven by David, had pulled over in a layby to drink some hot coffee, we sailed past and as it was pointed out to him they were sitting in a lay-by to have a rest break, he said “I’m not stopping til we get to —— Helsinki as you’ve told me for the past 7 hours I am not allowed to use the brakes.
David, Robbie, Dan and Joe went to collect the bags from the rooms only to find that Martin had already assisted me into the vehicle and we were warming up the deisel for the long drive to Helsinki. I knew this was going to be a challenging day as we had over 830 klms to drive as we wanted to make the last ferry to Estonia at 8pm on Sunday evening.
Once we had passed Aanekoski some 500 klms further south the snow and ice on the roads was starting to diminish. This made for faster driving and allowed us to make up some valuable lost time. Over the many years I have known David he has never yielded at a challenge so when a couple of Russian trucks tried to intimidate him I knew we would make safe passage through a convoy of what seemed to be at least 12 trucks all travelling south. We discussed later the fact that they probably get their entertainment by trying to close the gaps between the trucks as you try to overtake. However, us boy from Britain are made of stern stuff and we had an 8pm deadline for a ferry to catch only to be foiled at the very last 10 klms arriving in Helsinki where we were diverted several times off our route by ongoing traffic and roadworks etc. This caused havoc with our sat nav. We finally arrived at the dockside only to find we were, in fact, on the wrong side of the bay and after driving 830 klms we were left with just 2 klm to the check-in point. To our massive disappointment the gates were closed and with some of the best grovelling you could hear we were unable to persuade them to let us board. As we sat drinking strong black coffee we had the difficult task of trying to find somewhere in Helsinki at a budget rate where 6 of us could sleep safely and with some food inside us only to return tomorrow to hopefully gain access to a ferry that would transport us to Estonia. After several phone calls back to Chip in the UK and the sat nav unit trying to find local hotels and hostels we had 3 places to go and visit that seemed to meet our needs of budget and kitchen availability so we could eat well. Martin, Robbie and Joe led the assault on the local hostels, which in reality were nothing more than low priced doss houses. Again with our fear for safety of the vehicle and all our gear and the fact that there were some loud music, dingy lights and dubious smelling tobacco we decided this was not the place for us to rest ourselves this night. Back in the UK Chip had come up with one last hotel that was offering last minute deals, I got quite excited as he said it was a very well known hotel chain and looked like the only place that could sleep 6 and have a secure car park. He told me it was the Hilton Hotel on the north side of Helsinki. Probably couldn’t repeat my words but “Hilton, 6 people with food including breakfast – you have got to be joking me” however, it was now getting near 10 pm so I had no alternative but to ring the hotel and ask to speak to the night manager to see if I could try and charm a better deal out of them with some stories of our epic journey and as the old saying goes “you don’t get if you don’t ask”. The hotel management and staff were wonderful, they offered us 3 rooms including breakfast for £25.00 per head, which has to be said is a fantastic deal in such a lavish establishment and certainly in Scandinavia. They even kept the restaurant open til 11.30 pm so we could all eat well. Thank you all at the Hilton Hotel in Helsinki it was certainly an honour to stay with you.
