Last spring, my wife Marjolein got the opportunity to have a nice long holiday. So she could fulfil an old wish: to cycle from the Netherlands to visit her friend Lilian
in the middle of Finland. Marjolein has known her friend for almost 30 years and they have many contacts by E-mail and regularly some holiday visits
with the whole family.
Moreover, we found the announcement that the Finnish ECO trip was organized in Seinajöki about 150 km south of Kokkola,
the place where our friends live. So we decided to travel by recumbent to Finland.
Marjolein and our youngest son Guus left mid of June and travelled through North Germany, Denmark, Sweden and finally after the ferry from Stockholm to Turku
they did their last 450 km north to Kokkola. In exactly four weeks they rode 2350 km with a Hurricane and Flevobike fifty-fifty.
My oldest son Hans and girlfriend Vera left two weeks later, they travelled with their Hurricane's via Germany and Sweden and then via the ferry from Stockholm
to Helsinki they rode up to Kokkola. They did about 2100 km in three weeks. I myself left 12th of July and travelled with my Quest via North Germany
to Travemünde where I took the ferry to Helsinki. I arrived in Kokkola after a biking ride of 1150 km on July, 20th.
It was in total less then seven days of cycling but the waiting for the ferry and ferry itself also took me three days.
We spent a nice time with our friends, celebrating my 52nd anniversary, nice meals and sauna's, some trips with their boat
and lots of swimming during this warm and long summer.
After ten days we left our friends, and the five of us travelled together towards Seinajöki, where the starting point of the ECO trip was planned.
There were 25 cyclists from Finland. Many of the vehicles where trikes. They are pretty useful during winter time in Finland.
There were many home made products. Some bikes were very inventive; other bikes are beautiful like the wooden bike of Sakari Holma.
Some other bikes were electrical supported and the rest of the bikes came from Germany and the Netherlands.
The programme for the ECO trip was well planned by Timo Lehtonen and of course with some creativity there was space for some alternative plans
like swimming and camping near the hotel. We travelled through a nice area of Finland and visited some interesting locations,
like the first trike factory in Finland, some historical points of interest, nice camping sites with wooden cabins complete with sauna and a delicious classical dinner.
Some of us also visited Vaasa with the Swedish University. The last night we spent on a fine classic Finnish farm house with a good sauna location
and a cold pool with a natural well. Again we had a good dinner and after that we had fun and nice music from the ECO trip band during that evening.
To make the evening complete we had a perfect sauna and some beers.
The next morning we went south towards Hanko to get the ferry to Rostock in Germany.
Two days later we met Heikki again with his Leitra (velomobile) who was on his way back home to Helsinki after the Eco trip.
We had some nice last kilometres together. After lunch, Heikki went eastwards and we continued our way south to Hanko to catch the ferry.
We had a fast and fine trip on the boat. Hans and Vera decided to get home from Rostock by German railway. Guus, Marjolein and I decided to travel the final 700 km home by bike. The first two days we travelled together, but the velocity of the Quest was too high, so the last two days I went my own way. It took me four days to get home. Marjolein and Guus did it in five days. This gave me time to prepare a good meal for them.
We had a nice trip to Finland but the differences in speed of our bikes in the warm European Summer gave us some problems.
But this is solved now. Since September, Marjolein is riding in a Quest and she enjoys it very much.
Greetings from a happy recumbent family.
f.vanschoot@chello.nl