1936 On the Continent

Association Finland-Travel for the above Automobile Associations and obtainable gratis from Messrs. John Good & Sons, Ltd., Hull, if the British travel agencies are without copies, should be read. Finland has one great attraction for the motorist in the “Great Arctic Highway,” the only motor road in the world to the coast of the Arctic Ocean.
    Travelling in Finland thus presents no difficulties; even the Finnish equivalent of a Bradshaw, which also gives lake-steamer time-tables and those of the chief motor-bus services, contains explanations and instructions in English. Indeed, the only novel form of travel is the rapids-boat service on the River Oulujoki, a form of locomotion developed centuries ago for the transport of tar from the interior to the coast; reindeer-driving in the winter is another, in Lapland, but we are speaking now of summer.
Accommodation and Food
    To come to bed and board, there are very good hotels of an international standard of comfort in the capital and the biggest provincial towns, and simpler hotels, inns and pensions at all health resorts, spas, places of special interest, well-known fishing sites, etc.; at all these places the visitor can be sure of ordinary civilised comforts and cosmopolitan rather than pronouncedly Finnish food. Bathrooms diminish in number as one leaves the running hot and cold water belt, but the lakes, streams and sea, nature’s own bathrooms, make up for thedeficiency. A bathrobe and a piece of soap is all man need contribute. The sea water is only slightly brackish and makes a lather with soap. And for a real cleansing the Finn uses the national steam-bath, the
sauna
, where one lounges on a high wooden platform until the steam produced by throwing water on to heated stones has caused a profuse perspiration and then washes in hot water and closes the pores again by rinsing with cold or dipping oneself in the lake.
    The modern first-class hotels charge 40 to 100 marks (3s. 6d. to 9s.) for a single room, the higher-priced rooms from about 5s. 6d. upward, with private bathroom. At less pretentious places rooms can be had from a couple of shillings upward. The latter include both Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A. hospices.
Meal Times
    As to local customs in regard to mealtimes, food, etc., the visitor is by no means compelled to adapt himself to new conditions, for all hotels and restaurants of any consequence serve meals at practically British hours. The average educated Finn believes in starting the day with coffee and bread of some kind; breakfast follows about ten to eleven o’clock, midday coffee at one to two o’clock, dinner at five to six o’clock, and a light supper at about nine o’clock. At pensions the visitor will usually find hours something like these, but mostly the meal-times are extended, so that the breakfast can be eaten as an early lunch and the dinner at seven o’clock. The big hotels are accustomed to serving English breakfasts; elsewhere cooks are mostly asleep at that hour, and an egg is about the most one can obtain in addition to the coffee or tea and rolls. Tea, if the visitor must have English tea, may prove to be a problem, for tea is expensive in Finland and is drunk Russian style, very pale. Away from the big hotels and the capital even an order for strong tea is likely to result in the addition of half a teaspoonful to the teaspoonful brewed for two or three persons, for few Finns believe that tea can be drunk as strong as the ordinary Englishman likes his. The tea-addict might bring half a pound of tea with him for use in emergencies, others will find Finnish coffee a very good substitute.
    At lunch the only novelty is the northern hors d’œuvres table (literally “sandwich table”), which displays a truly surprising wealth of dishes to the person who has not travelled in the northern countries before—cold meats, fish, salads of various kinds, cheese, sausage, boiled potatoes and perhaps a hot egg dish. One helps oneself, once, twice, thrice—the visitor with an appetite need not stint himself. The cold dishes contain nothing alarmingly new, unless it be pickled herring or smoked reindeer meat, recognised by its dark-red colour and its texture, tighter and smoother than smoked ham. Follows a choice of a meat, fish or vegetable dish from the bill of fare, which includes the usual cosmopolitan dishes. Sweets are not included in this meal. Bread—white, black rye, hard crispbreads—and butter are provided; coffee is an extra. The