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.