Cold Day in Turku

Awoke this morning with a sore throat - sure sign that I am coming down with a head cold. I guess it is not surprising considering the hotel room is like a sauna (heat wise), the shops and restaurants/cafés are all heated and it is freezing cold when you venture outside. The temperature at noon was only 6 degrees C after falling to zero overnight. Tomorrow is forecast to be a high of only 8 after falling to -2 overnight. I feel like an Eskimo walking around outside with layers of clothes and a beanie and to think the first 3 weeks of the holiday I lived in shorts and t-shirts in Estonia. Yesterday afternoon after checking into our internet-based hotel with a little trouble (all bookings are done via the internet, there is no reception and guests are sent a PIN by SMS to enable access to the hotel and room) we had our first walk around the town and although I visited here over 30 years ago I didn't recognise anything apart from the large boats on the River Aura that flows through the town.

Boats on the River Aura that have been converted into bars and restaurants. We turned a corner on our walk and discovered a brewery, Panimoravintola Koulu, set in former school. This brewery pub only serves it's own brews, around five lager-style beers that change with the seasons. Maree and I went back there today for lunch and I am working my way through the beers!!

Panimoravintola Koulu Brewery. Earlier this morning we visited Turku Cathedral, the 'mother church' of Finland's Lutheran faith. Consecrated in 1300, the brick Gothic building was rebuilt many times over the centuries after damaging fires.

Turku Cathedral