DAY 3: JONKOPING- STOCKHOLM & THE SILJA LINE FERRY TO HELSINKI!

6.45am: Today we have our longest drive. It's a beautiful morning, and before that, I hope I'll be able to enjoy a great Swedish buffet breakfast here in the Elmia hotel.

8.45am Breakfast was excellent! There was an amazing selection of cold meats, vegetables, cereals, hot foods and yogurts. It was busy, but everyone was SO quiet! They just walked around in Swedish silence!

We left our hotel in Jonkopping at 9.30am for the 325km drive to Stockholm along the E40/E4 road. By 11.30am we had driven 220km, so we stopped for a snack at a service station area.

Sweden was looking so beautiful in the hot sunshine, what with lakes, forests and lovely countryside.



At 12.15pm we set off again to drive the last stretch.
We reached Stockholm at 1.30pm and had lunch near to Ikea! I had hoped to see some signs for ferries- but nothing at all! We headed towards the centre and after a while started asking people where the Silja boat sailed from. Everyone kept saying we were at least 40 minutes away, but they were all unsure of how exactly to direct us.

Both Anna and I were beginning to panic a little now. It was now 2.45pm and we were suposed to be checking in at 3pm, and we had absolutely no real idea either where we were, or where the boat was. Eventually, I saw some guys speaking at the side of the road, stopped, and one of them directed me into a car hire place. The guy inside gave me a map of the city, told me we were about 5km from the ferry terminal, and gave us exact directions to follow. Phew!

Once there and in the queue, we got talking to a Finn, who asked us where we were from. He told us that Kotka, our destination, means the "Eagle", and within minutes he had asked Sandy to sit in his car and to pretend to drive what he called a "real" car- an automatic Mercedes. We spoke to several more Finns, and the obvious impression was that they are extrememly friendly folk.

We were totally blown away by the boat! It's awesome! Far bigger and more impressive than I thought possible. It's enormous- 14 decks, and we are on the 9th, in cabin 9602. (The photo of the boat doesn't do it justice by the way) The cabin is considerably larger and nicer than the one on the DFDS boat was, and the window's like a house window, not like the wee porthole we had from Newcastle.

At 5pm we left in blazing sunshine, and we were right at the top on the sun deck sipping beer with hundreds of others. We passed literally hundreds of beautiful islands as we sailed away.
At 5.45pm on the top deck we went to the pool and sauna area for an hour or so, where Sandy tried various hot pools with Anna and I. He loved it!

As we continued to sail past impressive large and small islands, many with huge houses, we ate dinner.
The centre of the boat is like Ocean Terminal's shopping precinct in Leith, Scotland- with loads of shops, bars and cafes and restaurants on each side. They're not particularly cheap, but it all looks so surreal! You just don't think you're on a boat.

Tomorrow we arrive in Helsinki at 9.45am and head off east for the city of Kotka, and our accommodation at the Santalahti Holiday Centre, 135 kkm along the coast. Let's hope that today's hot weather (28C) keeps going...