Kuopio is a lakeside city in the middle of eastern Finland, a place of just under ninety thousand people spread between water and forest, and it is the capital of the Savo region, whose people are known for their sense of humour and their talkative, roundabout way of speaking. The town stands on the shore of Lake Kuopio, one of thousands of lakes in this part of the country, and in summer, the water is dotted with boats and the air is full of birdsong. In winter, the lake freezes, and the people skate and ski across it.
Above the city rises the Puijo hill, with a concrete tower, about seventy-five metres high, which holds a viewing platform and a restaurant. On a clear day, the panorama over the lakes, islands and forests of the Savo is endless, a landscape of blue and green that stretches to every horizon. In the town itself, the market square is the heart of the city, selling berries, fresh fish and a local speciality called kalakukko, a loaf of rye bread baked with fish and pork inside, which is eaten warm or cold and is sold in bakeries all over the region. The Orthodox church museum and the neoclassical cathedral are small but pleasant.
The ride leads to Petäjävesi, a village about a hundred kilometres to the south-west, where an old wooden church, built in the 1760s by a local carpenter family, stands among pines. It has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1994, and its simple log walls and steep shingled roof show how Finnish timber building mixed Lutheran sobriety with a touch of the baroque. The church is a modest building, but it feels very genuine.
The roads in Finland are well maintained, and the traffic is light, but the great danger is the elk, a huge animal that can cause serious accidents. It is most active at dusk and dawn, particularly from late summer, so it pays to ride carefully and watch the verges. Speed limits are strict, and fines depend on income. In midsummer, the sun hardly sets, and daylight lasts nearly all night.
Fuel is easy in Kuopio, with stations on the main roads and supermarkets in the centre, but in the countryside, stations may be far apart, so fill up regularly. The season for motorcycling is short, from May to September, and the best weather is in July.