Summer holiday part 1 ...

This week saw the first part of our family holiday. Horrified at the prices quoted for Tuscany, I had persuaded the family to take a cottage in the Finnish countryside.

I've written before about the mökki thing - Finland has around half a million of them, for a population slightly less than eleven times that number. Escaping from the cities to a cottage during the summer months is considered a normal thing to do.

Regular readers will know that I have a strong affection for this country and its people, so I apologise in advance to any Finnish friends who feel my reporting has taken a more negative turn. I'm afraid our experiences this week mean it is rather unlikely that the kesamökki will become a regular fixture on this family's calendar.

I booked our cottage via a website (http://www.lomarengas.fi/, ours was number 8238 and the company's service was excellent). The details suggested that the town of Perniö, only 5km away, offered restaurants and other amenities and we would not be too far from Salo, a larger town and an hour or so from Turku, one of Finland's major cities.

Things did not look promising from the beginning. As we drove to the cottage on Finnish road #1 (European route E18), the heavens opened and the rain fell so hard that even the wipers on double speed had trouble clearing the screen. The few tunnels en route gave temporary respite but confused the GPS, already struggling for a signal because of the millions of litres of water in the air between the satellites and my phone.

Having followed the (very accurate) driving directions, we spent the last 3km driving down barely surfaced roads, finally ending up in the yard of a farm, in whose grounds our cottage was. The cottage was well equipped, warm and clean and we unpacked, before heading back to Perniö for supplies. We had plenty of choice at least, with K-Market, S-Market and Siwa all represented (first stop, though, was Alko, for the most essential provisions).

At the only bar in the town, which doubled as its only restaurant, we chatted with our waitress who was recently returned to Finland after 11 years spent studying and then working around Birmingham, the first Finn I've met with a brummie accent in English! She explained that the next day, Saturday, was the annual market in the town, worth experiencing.

So, we returned to see more of Perniö, which we concluded in rough translation means "one horse town but the horse is on vacation". We did make it that day to Fiskars, once home of the eponymous manufacturer of knives and related items but now a cute village of craft workshops and sales outlets.

Sunday saw rain, so we stayed at the cottage, swam briefly in the 21°C lake during a gap in the clouds, took a sauna and played Mah Jongg.

On Monday we ventured to Turku to see the castle, billed in my tour guide as one of Finland's most popular tourist attractions. It was shut, despite information to the contrary in my guidebook and online. The rest of the city appeared to be similarly disinterested in visitors and we returned home rather disappointed.

Tuesday gave us a warm day, ideal for chilling out by the lake (or in it) and some barbecue, so that was OK.

On Wednesday, seduced by further tourist literature found in the cottage, we visited Hanko, described as a pretty little town by the sea. It seems to have been caught in a time warp since the 1950s, though it did give me an opportunity to paddle in what I was told was the most southerly seawater in Finland (the picture at the top of this post shows the proof). We at least had found the Finnish equivalent of Littlehampton.

Today, we decided to return to Helsinki a day early, stopping in Salo for the market and a very pleasant lunch. It was the hottest day of the holiday so far, at 24.5°C, so sitting at a pavement table felt almost Mediterranean!

Now we have a couple of days before the next part of our holiday, 6 days touring in Scotland. Stay tuned for the next instalment