New Year's in Lapland!

Christmas in Europe - Back to Helsinki

After Germany we returned to Finland so Aaron and some visiting from Germany could get a taste for Helsinki. Sure, it would be dark, but everything should be open again so why not revert to playing the tourist role in earnest?

Well, one reason is that I severely underestimated the effect of...dark. While it did make the work week difficult, it doesn't make touristing much of a picnic either. For one thing, many tourist attractions assume no one will come visit them in the pitch black of early afternoon so they choose to close early in the winter. One example was the castle of Hammelinna (above), which we drove an hour to get to. Bummer. The floodlights were nice though, especially when one of our friends used the darkness to relieve himself over the side of the wall. Too bad I was up on the wall as well -- might have made a truly interesting picture from below.

Since our friends had rented a car, we explored the countryside a little more on the way to see Tampere. One stop took us to a sculptor's house on a lake. Again, despite multiple signs posting their opening hours as starting 15 minutes before we arrived, they were in fact still closed. So, we just hiked around the grounds for a while with no one to stop us. Beautiful house and setting...



...and gorgeous setting, right on the water...



...though perhaps modern life intruded a tad into the setting for some of the art work...



Once in Tampere (one of the three largest cities in Finland -- the others being Helsinki and Turku) we had trouble finding much to actually entertain us. The highlight for us was probably the Moomin Museum, celebrating the comics and books of Tove Jansson. Pictures aren't allowed in the museum, which basically just has a number of large collages depicting scenes for various Moomin books. However, there were no regulations against acting out with the Moomin figures on the outside door...



Between walking around Helsinki and driving to Tampere, we had four days of typical tourist experience. We even managed to find our German friends some reindeer (to eat -- not to take home). And despite my many walking tours, I also managed to find new monuments. Such as the "Independence Tree" to celebrate Finland's independence from Russia in 1917.

Unfortunately, though quite a tall tree, it did seem a bit of a letdown for a tree with a name as grandiose as "Independence Tree". Perhaps that is just another indication of the Finnish culture -- modest and somewhat reserved, but still standing tall.