Olavinlinna

On Saturday, we rented a car (bright red VW Polo) and ventured a bit further afield.  We drove to Savonlinna, to see Olavinlinna - a Medieval Castle built in 1475.  Though a bit nervous, Annabelle was reassured that it was only a mid-evil castle and not pure-evil.

On our way, we noticed on the map that the road we were taking seemed to dead end at a lake and continue on the other side.  Ever hopeful, we drove on and discovered that there was a free ferry service to connect the dots.

James was thrilled.

We arrived in the beautiful lakeside city of Savonlinna in time for lunch.

And, then we headed to Olavinlinna!

Our tour was led in Russian by Svetlana.  It turns out that we were only 30 miles from the border, and in our group of 25 or more people, we were the only non-Russian speakers.   We had English text to read, and Svetlana did well by us.  We were impressed by all we saw and enjoyed the tour enormously.

We were all thrilled by the experience and look forward to more adventures such as this in the near future.  For now we are putting our efforts into celebrating Annabelle's 7th birthday tomorrow.  

All is well with us in Finland.