Sunday 9 June 2024

Lahti to Helsinki

It's Saturday so we got up early to explore Lahti before heading to the local parkrun. Lahti is quite a major city on the waterfront of a large lake.

I am guessing that bands perform on this circular stage, and it is just around the corner from a huge concert venue named after Sibelius, the famous Finnish composer.

There was some great photo opportunities, and the parkrun started just by the Lahti town sign. However, the parkrun is actually called 'Lahden satama parkrun', which we found out later means Lahti harbour in Finnish.

It was a genuinely beautiful course around a lake and the waterfront, but it will always be memorable to me because I was the first lady, and Darren came fifth.

The volunteers and runners were extremely friendly and we would have liked to stay for coffee with them, but we had to check out of our room, and there was an important sight that we needed to see before then.

The Lahti ski jump centre regularly hosts the ski jumping World Championships, and if you look closely at the above photo you can actually see a ski jumper in mid air practising on a dry ski slope.

It is part of an impressive sports centre with a football stadium, running track, ice hockey stadium and an outdoor swimming pool at the bottom of the largest ski hill.

Apparently they drain it in the winter rather than have a really slidey icy flat bottom bit for the jumpers.

Afterwards, we caught the train to Helsinki and got off at the incredible main train station.



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