Day Four

The main feature of today is that I finished a task that I've been working on all week and wanted to complete; now it's done, I feel like I've got control over my time and I'm raring to go.

I had decided that regular walking would be built in to my retired life as my work was highly desk-based and I am naturally an active person given the opportunity. I managed to fit a walk in on Monday but not on Tuesday or Wednesday so was pleased to walk into town today, taking a longer, indirect route to increase the benefits, and picked up some shopping as well as booking an appointment for an eye test. I have got in for tomorrow morning so that's new as the restricted times I could offer when working meant I usually had to book about a month ahead.

The big leap forward, however, is that my husband and I have made a start on looking at the rail map of Europe and making some initial suggestions about possible routes and stopping places. Helsinki is where I think I might possibly like to end our trip, and I've already checked that we could get a cheap flight home on the date we'd need it. However, when we found out that the average temperature in Helsinki in April is 4 degrees that's a bit daunting, those icy Baltic winds!

We had a look at some clips on YouTube and the most striking message from these was that Helsinki appears to be full of people who qualify for 18-30 holidays; so where are the kids and the middle aged and older people? We spotted two street musicians who could have been in their 80's, but they were part of the scenery rather than participants. Makes me think there is a niche here to share travel experiences aimed specifically at the more mature traveller - sort of a rough guide for old farts. I expect they already exist and will do a bit of  searching to find out what they have to say about Helsinki, as well as a list of other European cities which might be on our long list.