Mikkeli - Day 7

This is Hiidenkirnu - the Giant's Kettle. Amazing isn't it? It was only discovered in 1965. It was formed as ice retreated at the end of the last ice age around 9000 years ago. Water swirled round and round, forming an eddy and grinding the smooth stones visible inside the pothole. Apparently there are 2000 of these known in Finland and this is only the fourth largest of them at 8m deep and 2-3m wide!

Unfortunately my husband felt ill this morning with a cold but we just walked slowly down here. We saw a sign for a lintutorni which solely justified (in my opinion) my attempts to learn some Finnish as it means Bird Tower (not many birds visible sadly but we looked anyway) and a market in which we bought a lovely mushroom knife and a torch of which more later.

In the extras I have added some birch trees and bluebells taken with the 500mm mirror lens which I think have a nice misty quality. Mikkeli treated us to a nice sunset later on to make up for yesterdays rain. The train carriage is Gustav Mannerheim's saloon car, apparently open only one day a year if I read the leaflet correctly!? You could apply to visit at other times for a mere 350 euros but we decided not to..