I got a chance to go on a longer trip today so I decided to finally go fetch a few pins to the ruinspotting map I have on the garage wall. I got my neighbor to come with me which was very nice cause I`ve kinda used to ride alone so it was fun to get someone to come along. Of couse my right knee decided to have a bad day today sending icy electric needles all the way to my ankle and hip most of the way so specially during the end frequent stops were made.



The first stop was the abandoned log lifter in the Kimola canal just 42km from our house, more pics of that coming to the ruinspotting thread later.





the next stop was this relic from the olden days, to my knowledge the only, or at the very least one of the only still operating Gulf service stations in the whole country. We didn`t actually ride to it, but since it is along one very good twisty road and kinda suits the theme of the day we decided to take the detour to ride past it.



I had to stretch my legs for a while so we stopped at the old Stömfors ironworks















Because of the 18th century borders of the country a weird relic was left behind: if you look at the map, the whole Stömfors-Liljendahl area is completely Swedish even though we`re nowhere near the west coast.




From there we headed to the city of Kotka (eng: eagle) to the main event for the day. Right after a quick stop at a chinese fast food stand. I`ve seen this place when I drove past it at work but didn`t have the chance to stop for a nibble then so had to take the chance this time. I must say the service was pretty unconventional, the guy spoke very poor finnish so I didn`t quite make out everything he said but he did his best to service us, I got pretty surprised when a barstool was suddenly pushed out of the service window and then another was carried out for us to eat at the small terrace, along with springrolls, different sauses etc. Quite amusing to watch and the food was very good, albeit my pork "nuggets" were very slightly overcooked but all and all a place worth stopping for.



Kotka is a coast city and the place where we were going is actually in an island so we got to ride the seaside for a while too



These things got me baffled, how messed up do you have to be to build a house at a 20x20 meter rock island and actually live there?!! And there were several of these along the coast! At even slightly stronger wind the waves will literally hit the wall, must be an experience to be there at a proper storm!




This was the thing that I rode there for, the long abandoned sawmill of Halla island. Or more precisely the powerplant of it, the samwill itself is long gone and only a field fileld with wood cuttings remain. More pictures of this as well coming to the ruinspotting thread.

Here is a route map in case someone is interested, 334km not that much but a good casual day run.