1 Let's deal with the location first of all. ******************************************
We were to land in Finland's Tampereairport - the home of Ryanair flights from Dublin. Our first week was to be spent in the East of Finland, quite close to the Russian border, in Hoilola. Several maps I consulted did not include that metropolis, the nearest habitation of note being Tuupovara, where Finnish rally motoring has its home. The nearest major centre in which I could locate a hotel chain is in the city of Joensuu, the capital city of the region which has lent its name to the whole area. Though the area stretches roughly over 1300 km2, it's total population is under 60,000. I was somewhat comforted regarding my ignorance of the city and area by a quote from the mayor of the city - " No-one just wanders into Joensuu by accident. Our location means that we have to create experiences and enjoyment for ourselves right here."
Booking online through HotelClub, told us to expect a good quality hotel beside the river, and that it is easily accessible from the main road we would be travelling on. It sounded just right,
and we were eager to discover another new city, and another hotel brand.
We encountered a slight problem with directions to begin with, as our total ignorance of Finnish left us uncertain when to leave the city's bypass and head in towards the city centre, and begin the search for the hotel. We picked a turn off from which we could see what looked like the river and a city centre. As we came off the slip road, we spotted the hotel immediately, and that put us in good spirits for the rest of our stay.
My first impression of the hotel as we approached it was that it seemed large, reasonably modern, possible 1970's construction, and well maintained. We followed signs for parking which led into an underground car park, which suited us well. If you are staying in the hotel you will be provided with a disc to put in the car to show you have a right to be there, and in winter you will have a hook-up to an electric car pre-heater as well.
The foyer was spacious, modernised and welcoming. Staff at the desk addressed us in Finnish, spotted somehow that we were not locals !! - and reverted to perfect English. They were very helpful, and seemed genuinely happy to see us.
Everything was carefully explained, location of breakfast room, restaurants, operation of lifts etc, and we felt confident that we were in for a good stay.
The hotel is undergoing a long-term modernisation process, and so downstairs there were conference rooms that appeared to be ultra-modern, with plasma screens and modern furnishings. Other parts are awaiting the transformation, and are very 70's / 80's in style. We got the impression that what had been fitted had been full of style at the time, but looked strangely dated now. The hotel has a pool and a gym, but we had been travelling since 5a.m. that morning, and were not really in energetic form at that point in time. So all I can say, is that the pictures of the pool area and the saunas, look fine. As well as the large Riverside Restaurant where we had breakfast next morning, there seemed to be a pub, a disco, and a quality restaurant on the premises. We decided to see what the city centre offered by way of meals at 8.30 pm on a Friday evening. An hour later, having managed a mediocre pizza and salad at a high cost, we were a bit sorry we had not used the hotel's facilities instead. Joensuu is no major city in British terms, more like a medium sized rural town.
3 The Room.
I gather there are 130 rooms in total. There are suites, family rooms, special rooms, a disabled room, and the more standard room we had booked. At £60.16 for the room plus breakfast, it was not the cheapest night I had ever had in a hotel, but neither was it the most expensive. The room was good, and I would compare it to a Holiday Inn standard. However, ours was not in the area that has been modernised, and so the decor was tired looking, and the preformed vanity unit, sink and toilet unit, were almost quaint - well retro at least.!
The beds were large, very comfortable and warm. There did not seem to be an individual control for air-conditioning in the room, but the windows did open a little bit to provide some air. There was plenty of space for clothes and cases. I gather that an internet access is available, but I had no need to experiment and see how good it was.
4 The Breakfast
Served buffet style in the Riverside restaurant, and with options to sit inside or outside in the sun, breakfast was going to be an ultra pleasant experience. We were really surprised that no-one seemed interested in making sure that we were bona fide hotel guests! No-one asked for our room number, our key card, or our booking form. In fact, we had to go in search of someone to get instructions on how this buffet operated... having discovered that some hotels are rather touchy on deciding where you sit, whether you help yourself to coffee and whether you can burn your own toast, or not.! The waitress, - whose main task seemed to be ensuring that no dirty utensil was left on a table for more than 30 seconds - was sweetly helpful, just telling us where things were, and encouraging us to enjoy breakfast as we wanted.! Finnish readers of this review are encouraged to leave comments on how Finnish the breakfast was, but we felt that there were genuine attempts made to combine all the traditional international hotel breakfast buffet items, with something Finnish - like rye porridge; local breads, and berries by the bucketful. Hot food was on the hot side of warm, coffee was from a machine, but a really good one, and we were allowed to burn our own toast, and then eat it with cloudberry jam! We were struck by the fact that margarine and butter were not served in neat little pre-packed rectangles, nor on little saucers for each table. Rather the guests did just what we do at home - stick a knife into the large butter dish, and spread it there and then on your bread or toast, right there beside the bread basket. Most of our travels in Fnland demonstrated that this is normal custom. We were perfectly content, as there was a choice of butter, margarine, Benecol, lactose-free and Finnish egg-spread, too. But I can imagine the tut-tuts of the health and safety conscious polite brigade at home, who fear that sharing a butter dish like that risks both health and decorum?? I did not follow the pattern of the locals who seemed to enjoy a full salad with water melon alongside their scrambled egg, boiled egg, frankfurter sausage and streaky bacon - but I ate enough to keep hunger pangs away for most of the day. We wanted to explore the town a bit more after check-out time, and decided to be cheeky and ask for a prolonged stay in the car park. We were assured that there was no problem with a look from the girl at check-out that said, " I can't believe that those people felt they needed to ask my permission for that "!!
It had been a nice restful stay, and a great introduction to Finland for us. Little did we realise, just then, that the next week would be spent in the wilderness engaged in outright war with Finland's airforce - the mighty mosquitoes.! - but that's another story.
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They weren't THAT clever to spot that you and Mrs B weren't Finnish. I'm sure the look of utter incomprehension on your faces gave you away pretty sharpish!
reddragonflame87 09.10.2007 17:35
Ah mosquitos, one of the most feared creatures in the world. Bloody things. -FT
missy0303 08.09.2007 18:41
Sounds like a nice play to stay, and breakfast sounded nice too...what is cloudberry jam? x
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