We have arrived to Turku early in the morning after a nine hours bus ride through the whole country. We were exhausted, but we had only one day to enjoy the city. Luckily our host allowed us to drop our bags at his place, so we could walk without them.
This time we rented a room in an apartment close to the bus station. The host was very friendly and his home was bright and colorful.
So we left our stuff and went to have some breakfast first. We wanted to drink some coffee at the river bank, but we could not find an open place at that time (9 am). Everything seemed to start working at 11, and we were already hungry.
Aura River
We decided to get some pastry and a coffee to go and go to the river. The weather was wonderful: sunny and warm, the city was pretty quiet. We enjoyed our plain breakfast having a beautiful river view.
Afterwards we started exploring the fist capital of Finland. The main artery of Turku is the Aura river. It crosses its whole territory and has many bridges. Together they make a beautiful scenery.
Scooters
What we have noticed is that there was an enormous amount of scooters for rent. They were all around the city: standing at the parking stations and just lying on the ground here and there.
They are electric and are activated by an app. It seems that the users can leave scooters wherever. Then the next user can pick it up and leave it where it stops being useful.
Very often we saw these scooters left in the middle of nowhere not accurately parked, but just lying on the ground. Anyway, they must be very convenient as so many people use them.
Turku Cathedral
The cathedral in Turku is the main one for the Lutherans.
It was built in 1300. It has a rich history and looks very nice inside.
Architecture and sculpture
Many buildings attracted our attention by small details that they had. Like this bank on the picture above: nice clocks and a castle-like style.
Turku has quite many sculptures in various shapes.
Turku has a medieval castle. We didn’t go inside as it was quite late when we reached it. There is a nice area around the castle, so we sat on a bench for awhile enjoying calm and peaceful atmosphere.
Nature
As always in Finland, the nature is a big part of the city.
In the end, we had a very nice impression of the city. We didn’t have enough time to observe all its sights, but it was ok for the first acquaintance.
Next morning early we headed to the South of Europe. Read about our first warm location in the next post.