Old Porvoo

Today is Friday

 


We started off the day by packing all our bags ready for the evenings flight home. Then a visit to the local market for some last minute souvenirs.










Our next stop on the way to Helsinki airport was Old Porvoo to see some original old Finnish buildings. The town of Porvoo is a Medieval town and became a city in the mid 1300's. It was then the second largest city in Finland next to Helsinki.



 





 








The Porvoo Cathedral is an amazing structure with its timber roof cladding. They are not shingles but thick timber tiles. The Cathedral was founded in the late 1300's. The building has been plundered and burnt to the ground several times in it's history but some of the walls are still original. 


 

The church became a Cathedral in 1723. The Cathedral was damaged in the second world war when a bomb fell through the roof and exploded under the floor but didn't cause any other structural damage. 
The roof was badly burned in May 2006 when some drunks set fire to it causing extensive damage to the roof structure and also the 18th century chandeliers that fell to the floor. It was closed for two years while it was repaired.


 







 

The streets of Old Porvoo are mainly large cobble stones. The buildings are predominately timber construction.
The Old Town Hall was completed in 1764 and is one of Finland's oldest town halls. It is now the museum.






Then it was on to the airport where we said good bye to Anna-Maija and started off on the first leg of our trip home, a three hour flight to Heathrow. We had a 4 hour wait in Heathrow so it was off to a bar at the airport for the final British pint or two, one of Steven's new favourite ales, London Pride.

The next flight was 11 hours to Hong Kong and somewhere around Hong Kong we completely lost Saturday.
We had another 4 hour wait in Honk Kong and then a 9 hour flight to Melbourne. 2 Hours in Melbourne and then the 1 flight home, they don't serve beer on the morning flights in Australia, it was 10.00 am, I was still set to night time in Finland.


 


Dad and Chris met us at the airport and we were home.


This is Bakers Beach from the plane on our landing approach to Devonport.

We went home to a very cold house and unpacked the bags.




It has been the best holiday we have ever had. We have seen so many things and experienced so much. The time has flown by and we feel as though we have never left and it was all a dream.

Today is Sunday.
The holiday is over and the blog is finished.

Hunting

Today is Thursday

Anna-Maija took us to the hunting lodge. They are members of a hunting club and so they get to use it when ever they want.




We got our equipment together and set off with our trusty hunting dogs.




















Then Tehvi spotted something and sprang into action.
And there they were...
Blueberries.











Tammy swooped in to clean up.
A good days hunting.



 






Steven decided it was time to go and look for pub.












Across the disused railway bridge








 Through the forest














We found a pub in Finland only a 5 minute walk from home and had a pint. (Steven is sure that this was kept a secret for 8 days)
The locals were keen for a chat, they like an excuse to use their English, there aren't many tourists out this way.







Anna-Maija cooked us a fabulous traditional tea, we both sampled foods we would never have dreamt of eating. Black pudding, Maksalaatikko (liver, rice and raisins) and Imellettyperunalaatikko (Fermented potato mash) Nothing like a bit of dried cows blood and some chopped liver to get the digestive juices flowing. The entire meal was fantastic.






After tea we headed back out to the lake for our final sauna, this is the sauna on the edge of the lake, wood fired and the temperature is perfect between 80 and 100c.Your hair gets almost too hot to touch.

Tammy jumps in the cool lake and floats about a bit, then back to the sauna, then back to the lake.

Steven doesn't do floating so he stays near the jetty and plays with Tehvi who likes to chase water splashes.

Tammy teaches Lauri, Aapo and Antti how to make chocolate in bananas to cook on the fire.












It's been a relaxing day.
Tomorrow we head home.

Helsinki

Today is Wednesday

On our way to Helsinki we dropped into Hamina. A friend of Anna-Maija runs the restaurant at the Bastion. We visited the place on our first day in Finland with the big membrane roof structure. The restaurant is in the old armory storage section of the defensive wall. It is an amazing structure, brick catacombs stretching for hundreds of metres. The restaurant can seat 500, very comfortably. We were served coffee and quiche. It was lovely.

 









Most of the arched doors are the restaurant

 We drove to Helsinki and parked under Finlandia Hall, designed by Alvar Aalto.

Unfortunately the acoustics were not good enough for the orchestra so they have built a new theatre for them down the road.












The building looks new, however it is over 40 years old, it is so well designed.
Alvar designed all the furniture and fittings in the building as well. It is primarily of white, grey and black colouring. When asked why he had designed such a 'colourless' building he replied 'the people will add the colour'.












The colourful underground car park is good. Alvar had nothing to do with the coloured lighting.




 

Next we went to the rock church, built in 1969. The interior is excavated out of solid rock. It is one of the most visited buildings by architects and architectural students in Europe.
The building is considered to have the best acoustics of any building and regularly hosts orchestras. This is because of the rough unfinished rock hewn walls. Alvar Aalto should have considered this.



 

We then wandered around Helsinki for a bit taking in the old and new architecture. Helsinki is a wonderful city.






 

 



















We went to the sea fortress 'Suomenlinna' on the ferry. Construction started in 1748 when Finland was still part of Sweden. It was taken over in 19th century by Russia and the guns that face west are still there.





 

Back in the city, we went to the Lutheran Cathedral completed in 1852. It was designed by a German Architect 'Carl Ludwig Engel' and was modelled on the Kazan Cathedral in St Petersburg.

 







Alvar Aalto declared that it was time for a building designed by and for Finland based on all the previous architecture in Helsinki that he considered borrowed from elsewhere in Europe and Russia. Hence Finlandia Hall.
However it is still a fabulous Cathedral.

Many of the roads in Helsinki are cobblestones, mainly of granite. The zebra crossings are made from black and white stones, they will never need repainting.

This building has the supporting structure on the outside to maximise the internal space. This is what the architect would have us believe. I don't recall buildings with this amount of supporting structure on the inside, you would have to wonder, how much of it is for show? 


 



  




 









As we headed home there was a magnificent sunset, it must be getting late.

Almost Russia

Today is Tuesday

 

Today we needed to sort out the new fuel can for the boat. But first we went to the Russian border to see if we could see any spies. We found quite a few, they were in the supermarket. Their four wheel drives parked outside.









On the way there we stopped off at a cafe' they had a child's play area in the corner.
It was unusual.










We found some more standing stones, Steven's favourite. These ones date from the 1940's are there to keep the tanks out.











Heading back to the boat we found a ski jump, this one is in a state of disrepair. There are public ski jumps dotted about the place.

We went back out to the Summer House to return our borrowed fuel can. 
After a nice lunch it was time to return but Tehvi wasn't keen on the idea of leaving and sat resolutely on the rocks until someone picked her up and carried her to the boat.

At the hardware store we found a mo-ped for the grandchildren

  
We returned home and picked up the kids it was their first day back at school after the 2 month summer holidays and headed in to Kotka to visit Heikki's Mum, the children's Grandmother Aune.

Here are Anna-Maija, Lauri, Antti, Aune and Aapo.






In Kotka we visited a parkland and children's skate bowl area that is on a reclaimed petrol storage site on the banks of the river.
The Finnish designer received a European Union design award for the park.