Lakeside

For whatever reason I'm having trouble getting back into the swing of posting.  Apologies for the delay between posts.  I also hope that I am not boring you to tears with my trip.  I'll get back to house stuff soon.

After I left Rovaniemi, Finland, I headed south by train to Kuopio.  I really wanted to head as far East as I could and get close to the Russian border, but I discovered train service to that area was wanting.  Instead, I opened my guidebook and randomly chose a city.  It was raining when I arrived and I hauled myself and my luggage across town to the hotel.  It was late and I was crabby so, I went to bed.

I visited Finland in off-season. I was a little surprised at the extent that this affected my trip. Things were randomly closed...either for the season....or for some unexplained reason (the sign on the door insisted it was open).  I laughed a little when I got to the main square and it was covered in scaffolding.  At first I thought the market building was closed, but finally figured out you could get to it via a boardwalk under the scaffolding.  I chatted with a local and she told me that they were building an underground parking area and a new Ikea (I think I got that right).

I also discovered many of a museums were closed.  But, I did manage to locate the Old Kuopio Museum which kept me busy for the better part of a day.  By now I knew that any museum that mentioned "wooden houses" had to be at the top of my agenda. This one was a city block with all of the buildings facing in to a center courtyard.  I was interested in it from two aspects: 1) I was interested in knowing what kind of life my great-grandparents lives in the late 1800's; and 2) I was interested in seeing a house from the 1930's which was roughly a contemporary to StuccoHouse.

 I took a lot of photos in this town, so I'm going to break them down into two posts.

The Cathedral

This was the center walkway that ran from the Cathedral on a hill down to the the massive lake.Finns as it turns out, know flowers.

The wall of the Cathedral built in 1815.  I took this photo to ask my dad what those iron things were in the wall. Repairs.

Here is the construction taking place under the main market square.  It was interesting to see what was under the very old city.

I lived off of these. Wish I had one now.

Another photo primarily for my dad the structural engineer.  This is the inside of the marketplace building.

Sigh

The Catholic in me was a little shocked at how stark these Lutheran churches were.

Old wooden house

Swoon. Also note the color. Not so far off from the color of StuccoHouse.

Here is a kitchen decorated in standard 18th century form.

I love this wall display and may actually do this in my own kitchen.  I have a collection of vintage kitchen tools.

Note the crocheted lace around the shelves. Another idea I may steal.

More of that same house.

I was fascinated by this bed.  It slid out to full length.  During the day it was pushed together and stored against a wall.

Very cool heaters in these houses.

Loved the stencils

Here is the little central courtyard.

This gray that appeared everywhere is very similar to that of StuccoHouse's trim. Who knew?

I believe I need one of these in my back yard.

Just an odd little thing that caught my eye. 

Grand Openings

Both Parka and The Blue Door have opened in Longfellow. Yeah!

The Gateway

After I left Oulu, I took the train to Rovaniemi.  It's a city touted as the "gateway to Lapland."  Most of the guidebooks described it as "bleak."

I arrived in town about 6pm.  Hauled myself to the guesthouse where I was going to stay. I realized immediately that the streets where not going to be easy to navigate. The map I had made it guesswork to find anything.  I read later that the city designer (Alvar Aalto) planned the streets in the shape of a reindeer's head complete with antlers.  Fun concept; pain the neck for tourists.

My room was three blocks away from the train station, but I took a few wrong turns up the "antlers" before I found it.  I'm one of those travelers that needs a room that is clean, safe, quiet and has a shower somewhere in close vicinity.  Beyond that, I don't care.  This place was perfect (and the least expensive place I stayed on an otherwise rather expensive trip).

So, I dropped off my luggage in my room and set out walking around the city.The city seemed to be full of concrete  buildings. None of the style of Helsinki and none of the charm of Oulu. They did, however, have a quirky collection of moose sculpture. I came to a snotty conclusion that this city was in fact, bleak.

But then I was walking back to the guesthouse I was staying at and saw this sculpture up on a hill.  I decided to check it out.

Next to the sculpture was this long concrete wall.

And on the wall was the story of the city in photos. The first two pictures showed the city in the early 1940's.  You can see charming wood houses.

 

In October of 1944, at the end of World War II, retreating German forces received orders to destroy all buildings. I stood at that wall and looked at the photos for a long time. Stunning. I also felt more than a little guilty for being so snotty about the lack of architecture earlier in the day.

 

 

You may also remember that the 1952 summer Olympics were held in Helsinki.  The Finnish government requested that Rovaniemi do it's best to pull the city up from ruins in time for the games.  Finnish architect, Alvar Aalto developed the (earlier cursed) city plan and up a new city went.  I suddenly had a new respect for all things Rovaniemi.

And then I discovered one of the best museums that I have ever visited.  I bought an entrance ticket to the Arktikum thinking that I would spend a couple of hours inside.  4 hours later, they had to force me out of the building at closing.  I loved, loved, loved this museum.  I could have spent 3 more days there.

After getting kicked out of the museum, I was walking back to my hotel, when I spotted this building.  It was obviously an old log house.  The sign on the door said they sold local crafts.  It was closed for the day, but the next morning I got up and made a bee line here.

 

I chatted with the guy working in the store (while I bought out most of his inventory).  I asked him how the buildings on this spot had survived during WW II. He told me that they had been located out on the woods outside of town and had been relocated to this spot. He also told me he had relatives in the USA, and there was a moment of shock when he told me they were in a state named "Minnesota."  He thought I was joking when I told him that was where I lived.

And finally, the flowers of Rovaniemi.