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Helsinki is a good place for riding! Our friends from Colorado spent 2 hours with us, enjoying and getting a lot of laughter from the people that saw us.  They wrote to us:
Hi Timo, As I suspected but can now confirm, our hobby horse tour with you and Olga was our favorite activity in Finland! We are on our last night in Helsinki and you win the gold medal! Thank you and Olga both for an absolutely wonderful time trotting and talking and learning about Finland. We wish you all the very best and again, thank you! Hugs, Heather and Tommy
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In northern part of Nuuksio National Forest is a cozy small cabin "The Northern Village of Nuuksio - Nuuksion Pohjoinen Pirtti". During first week of december we had a traditional day of christmas stuff sales, sledge-riding and good food.  Santa and mama Santa had a horse-pulled sledge tour - this is a real finnish tradition!  Santa and mama Santa found one of the best male singers, mr. Jari Sillanpää visiting Nuuksio Northern Village.
Rather near Helsinki we have the National Forest of Sipoonkorpi, In late autumn there grows a lot of delicious Funnell Chanterel mushrooms.  Funnell Chanterel mushrooms  Funnell Chanterel mushrooms grow often in the moss  After picking up some mushrooms, we had also Real Finnish Forest Food: Sausages!
We had a rare opportunity to climb up to the tower of Kallio Church in Helsinki  Stairs up to the tower  Round hole above the altar  The same hole from above  This is how it looks like above the internal roof of the church  The church bells are operated with this drum timing machine. Bells play Jean Sibelius tune "A Choral Collection, Vol 2" 2 times a day.
 Rule number one: get to know the poisonous mushrooms Rule number two: Pick only mushrooms you know  These mushrooms grow rather late in the autumn, until they freeze and crack  Hmmm... mushrooms   jillian Stewart from Australia riding a hobby horse in Helsinki  If you don't try, you'll never know how ridiculously fun this riding is...  In Nurmijärvi southern Finland we found an old hospital building named Röykkä.  This old hospital has served as pulmonary sanatorium but the previous owner town of Helsinki has wanted to ret rid of it. Look how beautiful architecture it has!  This building has been used as the home of the hospital doctor. Desigh by Helen Schjerfbeck's brother Magnus Schjerfbeck!  We have heard rumours that in this tower wanders an old white-drobed ghost lady, searching for something that we do not know  This old hospital building is located beside chrystal clear water lake  Finland's Lighthouse Society members planned to have a 2 weeks tour into the Atlantic coastline of Portugal and Spain.  In Lisbon, Portugal they have a tram which can climb up the hills by tilting the cabin  Tram service had an accident and we had to take a Tuk-Tuk to see some sights of Lissabon - driver droved like he lived there...  Portuguese Bögö   Portugal is a sea-farer country. They have built a lot of lighthouses on the coastline, here is the first we saw, the Santa Marta Lighthouse.  Atlantic cost has completely different kind of flora than in Finland          Lighthouse lamps  Vigo harbour in Spain  Vigo airport car rent office gave us a car that had scratches in the sides. Take always photos of the car when you receive it!  After leaving Vigo, it was time to have some lunch in Santiago de Compostella   Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela  The organs of Santiago de Compostella Cathedral had "Spanish horns"  We wanted to log the geocache in the church wall, but this older man was muggling around. Finally I just took the container and logged the cache...  This is the place whre the Santiago de Compostela walkers are ending their walk: FinisTerra beside the sea shore   One German geocacher was found  Icecream time!  In Spain we saw food storage constructions standing on legs and stone plates  Next lighthouse...  Nice sunset  Seawater farm for oysters or other mollusks  Sea Fennel (merifenkoli, Crithmum)  The oldest lighthouse in Spain was built by the Romans a couple thousand years ago  Kaija and Arja at the Hercule park  European Pea (Ulex europaeus), Euroopanpiikkiherne  Here should be a geocache? Pretty hot to walk down and up  Oh Yes!  This site had also been a military cannon bunker  And then, back to the basics!  Many kind of seafood available   Kiiltokielopuu  Roof paintings in a cave  Modern way of lighting a candle: place the donation and the candle will spread the light!  Jesus Christ!  One hour of walking down and 2 hours back...   Canfranc railway station converted to a hotel
I was lucky enough to be the gude for one Malesian traveller group in Helsinki. They wanted to go to Nuuksio, but as it was midsummer, I had to tell them that all services, including the restaurant in Haltia would be closed. So I proposed them that we go to Salmi area.  Our bus driver was a member of Etelälahti caravan area club, so we drove there and had a nice walk in the Northern Nuuksio park.  Team leader in Pikku-Parikas lake
Summer 2023 had better travelling opportunities and gave also more guided tour opportunities after the Covid 19 pandemic. We had travelers from several areas of USA, and mostly often the weather was also brilliant.  Old houses in Tallinn's evening  Medieval old town walls and guarding towers  Town wal gate beside "Fat Margaret"-tower  During the soviet occupation many Estonians were arrested by the soviet secret police KGB and disappeared. Tallinn has a special museum to remind people of the russian way of security  During one tour to Tallinn we were lucky to meet local old church Pyha Vaimu (Holy Ghost / Spirit) priest and also one of the bishops from Finland, mr. Matti Repo (brother of the author, by the way...)  There is always room for a good beefsteak!
 Russian emperor Aleksander 1st has incorrectly been marked here to 100 years wrong year - writer is a Helsinki Guide...  Oikokatu in Kruununhaka area  I have seen the writing on the wall  This Jugend style house in Helsinki was a site where secret jaegers were collected and guided to Germany to get military education  Maurinkatu 4 street gate has a nice story - the name of the building is not Suomela!
 Hms Albion is a British ship supporting groups to land  Equipment required to let the troops to land  Vessel is equipped with self defencing barrel gun  Please do not use Google translator. In stead of that, British Dictionary can help...
Sometimes people say that we Finns are silent and somehow uneasy to get near. Of course we do have some, but most of us are very interesting persons...  During the negotiations in Säätytalo, Helsinki, regarding fossil fuel use, we met mr. Tulipää (Firehead) - an exentric artist fighting against coal usage.  In Helsinki Arja met another interesting artist, Mr Markku "the Pig" Puustinen, that has created voice-producing art in Helsinki.
We had an opportunity to visit the waste water treatment facility in Viikki, Helsinki.  Waste water treatment process starts with sand and big particles removal  Some examples of the stuff people have flushed down the sewers  Good example of the "not-belonging" stuff is butt-plugs...  Mechanical grids are picking up unwanted things from the waste water  Primary sedimentation and thickening  All of the process is done underground  Oxygen is added to the process so the bacteria can eat the waste  Final cleaning is done with bacteria before the cleaned water is pumped to sea
 In center of Finland exists a special area for geocachers: Jautlandia. It is developed by mr. Jauhiainen, that builds wild geocaches with figures and technology. "None shall pass!"  Some gems of Jautlandia include a nice grassmoving unit    Mr. Jauhiainen himself beside his solar panel system  Ari's solar panel system can be rotated to follow the sun and also tilted to get the maximum light   Ferry to Suomenlinna  Suomenlinna smaller dry dock  Suomenlinna guides at the dry dock gate  Suomenlinna dry dock gate is filled with water to keep it in place  Suomenlinna bigger dry dock had some smaller boats still in  Suomenlinna has a repair place for old wooden ships  Old lighthouse ship is waiting to get repaired  Suomenlinna's Rantakasarmi gate  Suomenlinna's high walls have also an eagle-owl having her nest
We had a Helsinki tour to a family.  Tour includes often a stop beside the cafe Regatta  We had a stop at the Senate Square also  Gustafsvärn is a lighthouse island in front of Hanko town. The sauna on that island required a new water boiling kettle, and that kind of thing was found at Helsinki fair centre.  Teuva water boiler  At the harbour of Hanko we loaded the new table and the water boiler into the boat going to Gustavsvärn island  Water boiler in the boat  And then off we go  The new water boiler will be placed near the sauna  After we got back to Hanko town, we visited the most southern point of Finland, the Hanko peninsula. During and after the second world war, this area used to be a prison. Now the building "might need some little repairs"  It's rather long walk to the southernmost point, so rest is needed   The southernmost point of Finland is a route for the migrating birds to come and leave. Part of the peninsula is thus restricted to only birdwatchers from the university  Hanko area has many old air defence gun sites
 We had rented a nice cabin at Viitasaari, near Huopanankoski.  The nearest neighbours were on decent distance  The lake view was beautiful, although the water was so cold in October that no swimming was even thought of  But then, in the kitchen: what is this? Black rice?  Wanna have some coffee?  Town of Tornio has a nice salmon statue on the riverbank. This river is completely open, so salmon can migrate up to the little brooks  This statue is made of Tornio's stainless steel
 Restored clock dating to 1924, serving as local landmark & popular meeting spot. Good starting point for geocaching in the town.   Meeting local geocachers in the center of Riga  In the center park of Riga they have a statue that has nearly as good figures as Havis Amanda in Helsinki  We had an opportunity to visit a high tower based bar in the center of Riga  View to the center of Riga  Not Rin-Tin-Tin, in stead of that here is Mr Poo-Tin-Tin  Slava Ukraini!  Riga is known as a great example of Jugend-style (Art Nouveau) houses  Jugend-style statue in front of the building  Jugend-style house  Jugend-style water closet  Jugend-style vegetable slicer  Jugend-style soup  Jugend-style older house in Jurmala village  Jugend-style Onyx   Jurmala beach  Old train from Riga to Jurmala: a noisy, banging and mourning type of steel box  Riga has frienship with Bremen
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KirjoittajaKetunretket Järvenpää blog, to tell about our new products and adventures! Arkisto
March 2024
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