Scandinavian Quest
Almat annual trip abroad 2008
Hi All!
After chatting to Glynn about Almat’s
annual trip abroad, it became clear that he and
many of our club members would be up for something
a little different in choosing our next destination.
Finland was mentioned. Being finish I got excited
about the idea, and thought I’d put a rough
suggestion forward to you all.
Weather in Finland usually gets
really gorgeous from the later part of June onwards.
I would time our Scandinavian Quest to start towards
the end of June stretching over to the first week
of July. Temperatures are between hot and comfortable
and the likelihood of any persistent rain is very
small. There’s always a chance for some showers.
My preferred route would take us
first over to France or Belgium for the first stop.
Then following day, across Holland and over to north
of Germany. This leg needs looking at as the distances
can be quite long, but for the progress of the journey
we don’t want them to be too short either.
There is an absolutely gorgeous town in northern
Germany called Lubeck. This town would be a great
place for a stop but might be inconvenient because
of it’s distance from other waypoints. Ryanair
fly to Lubeck, which might be handy for some members
wanting to join in “halfway”. After
covering the north of Germany we follow the coast
over to Danish isles and maybe stop in Copenhagen?
On a north-easterly heading we would follow the
Swedish coastline further up and towards Stockholm,
where we start our journey to cross the Nordic Gulf.
Firstly, close to Swedish coast, over to Aland-islands,
over the picturesque finish archipelago –
thousands of small islands in the Baltic Sea –
and on to land at our final destination –
Tampere. Although crossing a lot of water, there
is always land (islands) in sight, and the shallow
Baltic Sea is rather warm that time of the year!
Total flying time there should be around 10-11hrs.
Tampere is the largest in-land
city in the whole of Scandinavia. It is said to
be the most beautiful and the “friendliest”
city in Finland. There are about a thousand beer
gardens around the city, plenty of things to do,
excellent hotels and tons of good restaurants! Ryanair
fly to Tampere from Stansted. Tampere is situated
100 miles north from Helsinki, between two massive
lakes, connected by the rapids flowing through the
city center. For more information on Tampere, see
Glynn or call me with your questions! I will be
your expert guide in Tampere – my home town
for 25 years.
Return journey would take us over
to the Baltic countries, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Further on to Poland and Germany, where Berlin and
Templehof would be worth a visit. Flight through
the middle of Germany would bring us nicely back
to Belgium and France and finally back home to Coventry!
Another interesting way back to
avoid your own “inbound tracks” would
be to cross back to Sweden, continuing west to Norway.
Then following the coast to south of Norway to cross
the sea to North of Denmark. Through Denmark and
back to the continent.
As I mentioned earlier, the initial proposal is
very rough, but as an idea, there should be something
we could work with. I have volunteered to help with
any arrangements and planning, as much as I can.
VFR charts (1:500 000) for Finland are available
for just under 10€ from the finish aviation
authority Finavia (finish CAA. Check out their web
site!), who will post the charts abroad vat-free.
Please could you feed back comments
on this? Tampere is fantastic city that everyone
would enjoy! The scenery throughout the journey
over Scandinavia, especially over the Finnish territories
is breathtaking! Something different! Having your
own local expert there helps matters too…
Have a great summer all!
Jarno Kihlstrom
Almat News
Contact us
for more info
