cerealjoe | The accountants among them looked forward to a profitable autumn aloft...

From time to time I get ideas that are either brilliant or crazy. On the 29th of September (or perhaps the day before), I figured I'd cycle to Porvoo by the King's road and then cycle back along the shorter route. It's definitely something anyone with a bike living in Helsinki has to do at least once and I, personally, found it quite nice. I especially liked the road from Sipoo to Porvoo, but maybe I'm quite biased there. On the day of the ride I wasn't feeling so hot, it took me about 18 kilometers just to get out of the city and by then I was feeling shitty but I decided to try and get to Sipoo to see how the road was. From there, I saw that I was roughly half-way to Porvoo so I continued on and, at that point, I probably hit another one of those rider's highs and life just looked pretty awesome.

Porvoo itself... I will never understand why the heck it's seen as a perfect place for tourists. It was mainly my pit stop, a short walk around to get some other movement into those legs and a walk to the shop to get extra bananas, prunes and a drink.

The way back was full of head-on wind, which we all know is what kills me on the bike. The worst part is that the short way back is around 50 kilometers long and is basically a straight line, if you have head-on wind at the start, chances are you will have head-on wind the whole way! And of course I hit the eastern side of Helsinki right when it started raining, you can't go fast because you're in the city and there are pedestrians and cars and red lights AND it starts pouring. So yeah, I did not like the way back. I did love the part along the King's road going there... so that makes up for it.

Now on to the story in photos!

It was my first time really venturing into north-eastern Helsinki. I've pretty much covered every side by now.

I find it's always the fields that bring on a feeling of freedom on a bike. There is nothing around (and then, bam! an S-market in the middle of nowhere... just to play tricks with your mind), it's pretty awesome. Luckily the Helsinki area does have quite a few fields.

No, really. I have yet to understand the appeal of Porvoo. I'm sure living there must be great, it's like a mini-Helsinki of sorts, but as a tourist, I'd want to get out of there after half an hour!

But hey, there are walls that have won awards there.

I don't know where the cycling path signs take their position-zero in Helsinki but it's not Töölö. In the end I had about 55km. (And it doesn't help that it said "49" on about three signs, each separated by a good kilometer)