Where we'll be staying in 2011...

I described the boats we'll be travelling on in the previous post below, but of course, we'll be staying in two separate holiday cottages in Finland, as well as in hotels in Germany and Finland too.

Here is a run down of all the places we'll stay in:

Once we arrive in Finland, we'll travel to our first cottage, which is close to the town of Juva in the eastern lakeland district. This first property is on Lake Kolkonjarvi and is a large house, with five bedrooms, which we'll need, as Anna's parents and sister Olga, along with her son will come to meet us there and stay with us.

Week 1's accommodation:

Looking back to the cottage, from the lake.

An impressive property! Probably the nicest cottage we'll have booked so far in Finland!

Inside, looking from the living area to the kitchen.

A couple of the bedrooms.

Looking down to the lake from the cottage.

After staying at our first cottage for a week, we'll move from Lake Kolkonjarvi across to Lake Hakojarvi, which will take us about 5 minutes, as they are very close to each other, to our next cottage, which we stayed in last year, and which actually belongs to the same lady as our first cottage!

Week 2's accommodation:

Karhunpesa cottage, on Lake Hakojarvi. Like the first cottage, only around 20 metres from the lake!

This is a really fantastic setting! I took this picture in July 2010.

On the lake last year, Sandy and Olivia in the boat. They spent endless hours swimming in the warm water too. 

Sandy on the balcony. There's a room out on the balcony that both Sandy and Olivia want to sleep in this year!

Something we'll do a bit differently this year will happen on the return journey in Finland. On each of our previous visits, we have rushed back to Helsinki and spent a little time (usually an hour to two hours) strolling around in the centre of Helsinki, close to the ferry port and the South Harbour area, where there is always a lively market, before we have boarded our fery to depart from Finland.

This year however, we are going to spend a night in Helsinki, which will allow us to spend a bit more time exploring the centre when we arrrive, have a nice evening meal somewhere in the centre and then spend the following day wandering around again before we head for our FinnLines ferry back down the Baltic Sea.

In Germany, on the way home, we'll stay in this hotel in the village of Nenndorf, close to Hamburg.