The Motherland & Beyond

Today, Serena had me up very early(6.00am) to catch my tram to the Central railway statio to catch a attain to Tampere, a city north of Helsinki in the country. I duly met Serena at the Station, and we headed for our train, a comfortable commuter train. On the way, it gave me a chance to see the countryside and housing outside of the capital. Finland is very flat and the lots ( and lots) of trees, mainly birch trees. The housing is a mix of American barn style houses and the classic Russian dacha. Quite unusual.
Tampere is renowned for the centre of ice hockey, something the Finns are very proud of with their biggest rival, Sweden. It's just like Rugby between Australia and NZ. Tampere is also the centre for a Spy museum , which was closed, sadly, as this was the main reason for the visit. However, we also went to a Museum devoted to the national cartoon character called "Moomin." Moomin is equivalent to our Dog in Footrot flats, but Moomin is a Hippo and has existed since 1945. The Finns go crazy over Moomin, and he is a great inspiration to children.
Tampere had an unusual centre to its city with a hydro power dam running through it and a lake the size of Taupo on its border. Serena said , " This lake completely freezes over in Winter, and she and her friends walked on it out to a small island."

So after a pleasant visit to Tampere, it was on the next train to Turku, a coastal city with a river port. Turku (west of Helsinki) is the old capital of Finland. It is an absolutely beautiful city with a busy river port and a large castle.
Here, we walked along the river and caught the bus to the castle. A magnificent and nearly complete castle that has survived many wars. The buildings of Turku had a strong g Russian influence while the locals speak Swedish due to their strong connection with Sweden.
Today, the heat has been at least 25c, and this was noticeable with the number of people sunbathing in the park around the castle. Also interesting was the lack of bikinis and swimwear while sunbathing. Obviously, the local tax puts such items out of the range of the locals to afford😉 ( camera shake prevented photos).
Turku's river port was home to some amazing old sailing ships and modern craft. I was surprised as to what had survived the Civil war and the WW2 as Turku was the centre of both wars. Also, Turku, having existed for hundreds of years, had several fires and many of the oldest wooden buildings burnt to the ground. Overall, it was a beautiful city which I could have spent longer in.
At the end of the day, we grabbed a burger from " Hesbuger," Finland's answer to Macca's, and so superior! Then we headed for our train back to Helsinki riding 1st class, and well deserved after 15km of walking.Les mer