The picturesque Kiikeli wooden bridge was not in a good shape any more. As the laundry that had been functioning for a long time on the island closed down and the Yacht Club's boathouse burnt up, the area became a haunt of idle loafers. Beneath the bridge there had been a pontoon quay. Horses had swum there. I had also swum the mare of Juuso Kuivala a number of times at Kiikeli. It was a grand Finnish horse called Lirppa.