Jyväskylä 2013: Is this heaven?

It was rather cloudy this morning, just as had been forecast. With this being the case, we decided to head into the town to get some shopping. I was heading for the same car park that we used last year, in the centre of town, which is a sort of high-rise, multi-level place. When we got there, I quickly realised we were going to have problems actually entering the place, as the hire-car we have this year is an Opel Vivaro 9 seater, and it's rather high, like a van. In fact it was too tall to get into the car-park, so we had to find an outside place to park nearby.

By the time we did that and walked to the supermarket, the sun was out, so once we finished our shopping, we sat in the sun and ate some ice-creams. Sandy and Olivia had rainbow ice-creams (sateenkaari in Finnish) which were extremely tasty. Anna and I settled for the usual rum and raisin while Keith plumped for mango and melon. Ice-creams are extremely popular here in Finland, and it's always a pleasure to enjoy them.

Once back home, we enjoyed some rye bread rolls and salad before I headed to heat the sauna. I also decided to have look at the hot-tub, to work out how to use it. Anna had told me (from her experience of hot-tubs in the UK, that often have chemicals in them) that she didn't want to use it, but I told her the water is fresh each time, directly pumped from the lake, and heated by a really neat little stove, which is wood-burning, and which sets up a very clever circulation of the water in the stove, drawing colder water in and pumping the hot water out. Simple, yet brilliant!

Keith relaxing.

Olivia wants a duckling!

First try of the hot-tub.

The water trampoline doubles as a diving board!

Or you can simply dive from the jetty!

I need to find out exactly what kind of bird this is-- anybody help?

Edit- it's a female Red Breasted Merganser, with chicks.

Meanwhile, Anna, Sandy and Olivia swam and enjoyed the sauna, and Keith swam and swam and swam! I think he was in the water for more than 4 hours, from 2pm until about 6.30pm, and he must surely have swum a few kilometres today!

This is relaxation...

Heaven on earth!

Towards evening, I thought it would be good to use the wood-heated barbeque to make dinner there and to sit by the lake to enjoy it. When we were there, enjoying the fabulous view, I really do admire this wonderful cottage. It is definitely the best we have rented in our time here. It's just got everything!