Palvajarvi 2018: Day 2 - Sunshine and Heat

Tuesday 10 July 2018

Day 2 - Sunshine and Heat

Despite the long drive yesterday and a late night, I was awake early this morning and was happy to see that the sun was shining brightly as the weather forecast had promised.

Anna and I headed out to the supermarket straight after breakfast to get some food for everyone, as last night we had only bought the bare minimum of what we'd need to eat for the week!

Once home, with the sun getting very warm, it was time to sunbathe and relax in the garden for the most part. I filled the hot tub and lit the fire within the little stove and while we waited on it heating I also got the sauna ready for a long afternoon of doing little.

The temperature rose to very close to 25C, perfect weather really. Keith spent hours in the water, mixing swimming with the sauna in between and sitting on the steps of the sauna next to the jetty when he wasn't in either the water or the sauna.

Anna's mum and dad brought us a set of Russian sauna caps, one of which is here! I think we need to take a photo of us all wearing them!

After dinner this evening, we headed along to the nearby lake at Leppävesi, which has a good diving board as well as a public beach. It was still warm, 24C, at 7.30pm and Olivia, Sandy and Keith swam for a while in the lake while the rest of us don't enjoyed the evening sunshine.

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2018 will be the 12th anniversary of our first trip to Finland in 2006, when we first ventured to, and fell in love with this wonderfully beautiful and tranquil Nordic country.

This will be our 11th summer visit to this hidden gem of a country in the far north of Europe.

We fell in love with Finland in 2006 when we stayed at Santalahti Holiday Resort in the southern town of Kotka. We were back in 2008, flying to Helsinki, then staying in both Kotka and Varkaus, around 300 kms north east of the capital city. This gave us our first taste of the lakeland areas inland, and we loved swimming in the beautiful warm lakes!
In 2010 we returned by car from Scotland in a heatwave to the areas close to Juva and Puumala, renting our first cottages by lakes that were incredibly warm to swim in. After such fantastic weather in 2010, we had high hopes of the same in 2011, and incredibly, we were again very lucky to have a real heatwave! We stayed in two cottages close to Juva again, and fell further in love with the tranquil solitude you experience in this spectacular lakeland area.
By 2012, we wanted to try some new areas and cottages, so we planned a 24 day holiday, staying for a week in three different cottages as well as staying in a beautiful Helsinki aparthotel for 3 nights. It was lovely to discover the eastern town of Parikkala, as well as the western town of Ruovesi, and in between, we stayed for a week in what has become our firm favourite cottage of all our trips, close to Jyväskylä. We loved our stay on Lake Palvajarvi so much in 2012, that we returned to the same cottage again in 2013 and 2014 for two weeks, as well as in 2015. In 2016, we were back for our 5th year at what was definitely a real home-from-home! Then in 2017 it was time for our 6th year in a row at this lovely property!

Now, it seems we'd hardly want to go anywhere else, as in 2018, we return here again for the 7th year in a row!

Heating a Smoke Sauna

We've usually spent our time in wood-burning saunas while in Finland, but there is a different type of sauna that requires many hours of preparation, but which provides the "Rolls Royce" of sauna experiences once it's ready! Yes, the Smoke Sauna - and this short film describes the process for heating one! This year, after 10 years of wood-burning and electric saunas, we are going to try a Smoke Sauna for the first time, at the beautiful Taulu Manor which is only a short drive from our cottage.