Travelog for: Sampson

Hi Mum,
We are on our way up Snowdon by train.

My host grabbed a seat by the window looking backwards




There are a few stations on the way up. These are also passing places to pass trains in the other direction.

There's a cafe halfway up. The hill is Foel Goch

Oh dear, it is getting cloudy. I will soon have my head in the clouds. Llanberis is just visible next to Llyn Padarn.

We reached the top. There is a visitor centre with cafe and facilities. The train leaves in 30 mins but we have time to reach the actual top.

Visibility isn't that good.

This is the top of Snowdon at 1085m!

It is almost time for the journey down.

We sat on the other side of the carriage.



Hebron is one of the little stations.




There we are, back in Llanberis. Our engine was called Snowdon.

There goes the next train up, pushed by the engine called Wyddfa.

Our train reversed out and will wait for Wyddfa to go by before coming to the other platform to form the next train up.

Hi Mum,
Today, we've been out Geocaching. The co-ordinates are for Llanberis village, near where the second of today's finds was found.
The first one we found was in a field.

There are clouds over the hills in the background.

Poor Gwennie, the wind blew her off and those nettles must sting.

This is a popular rock for climbing.

A nice view down Lake Padarn. Today, I don't think they'd see much from the top of Snowdon.

This is a sneaky Geocache.

My host tells me that I am leaving next week, so this is my last outing out with her... I've enjoyed myself.

Today, a new visitor arrived.

Welcome Lupus-Tigger. We had a quick chat before I left for new horizons.

I have arrived in hot Finland! Maybe not as hot as in africa, but hot anyway +29C in the shadow. My hist will go for a trip in another city (Jyväskylä) tonight and I'll get to tag along! At least I don't have to get into an envelope but sit in her car - front seat! 

We arrived in Jyväskylä last night and today we're fresh & ready to go touring! Jyväskylä is a city about 250km and 3h drive north from Porvoo.

The City of Jyväskylä:

    the seventh largest city in Finland with 130 000 residents
    surface area 1171 km2
    water surface area 295 km2
    number of jobs 60 000
    households 70 000
    number summer cottages 4 000
    city of 47 000 students
    48 comprehensive schools, 8 high schools and 15 libraries
    the biggiest employer in the area totalling of 7 000 employees
    3 000 foreign residents from 100 different countries
(http://www.jyvaskyla.fi/international/facts/statistics)

At first we drove to the local candy factory outlet Panda to get some sweets

Then we drove to the city center to meet some postcrossers/geocachers! We walked around with the geocachers of the group and found some caches - and saw the sights. It was really hot so we couldn't do it too long. Luckily it was soon lunchtime!

After the lunch we headed to the harbour for a lake cruise...

We took a 3h cruise on the Lake Päijänne on s/s Suomi with "everybody"  As everybody was a postcrosser it was logical that they wrote & signed some (200)  cards before enjoying the views. It was really hot so the little breeze was more than welcome. We saw some quite awesome summerhouses/saunas on the shore - or maybe we thought they were awesome because the owners could take a swim anytime on this hot weather... 

When we got back my host looked for one more cache before we headed back home.

My host had promised to take her eldest kid and her friend to the zoo today. My host took me with her to keep company as the girls wanted to walk around by themselves  So, we drove to Helsinki to visit the Korkeasaari Zoo. It's on an island taht has been a grassland and common park before it was turned into a zoo in 1889.

There are many different animals but no giraffes

A few weeks back there was an annual "art meets sand" competition. People from different countires made sand sculptures - a person from Mongolia won. I liked that work the most too! The theme was, as you could probably guess, life of the apes.

Now I got to visit Helsinki center for real! My host was going to the Iron maiden gig with her husband and they "had a date" before that - plenty of photos for me  My host parked her car near the concert place and we walked towards the center. On the way I saw the Opera House (1, 3), The national Museum of Finland (9,11), Finlandia Hall (8,10) and some statues in between 

Then there was the Parliament (12), Museum of Contemporary art Kiasma (13) with the staue of a former president Mannerheim next to it. This is the very center of the capital city.

The building that has the giraffes in thebacony sipping tea (!) is the Natural History Museum. The big white church at the end is the cathedral, probably the most photographed attraction in the city. It's near the Market Place where you can also see the staue of Havis Amanda, the Uspensky Orthodox church, the presidential palace and ferries/cruiseships leaving to Tallinn, Estonia and Stockholm, Sweden.

Originally Helsinki wasn't the first capitol of Finland  it was Turku. Here's a short history of Helsinki. Nowadays there are allmost 600 000 inhabitants in Helsinki and that make sit the biggest city in the country.

My host and a few of her friends were going to Tallinn, Estonia! I got to go too!  Awesome! We took this little red ferry to cross the Baltic Sea. It took only a few hours as it's only 85km away 

I'm in Tallinn, Estonia!
Tallinn is the capitol city of Estonia. Tallinn has about 410 000 inhabitants of which 54% are Estonian, 36% Russian and 4% are Ukrainians. Tallinn has 9 twin cities of which two are in the USA: Annapolis and Los Gatos.

We were here to see the Medieval Days  They sold all sorts of "medieval" items at the market place and everyone was dressed in a medieval way. There was music/dance  performances too! The Tallinn old town is a perfect spot for such a festival.

Built up from the 13th to 16th centuries, when Tallinn – or Reval as it was known then – was a thriving member of the Hanseatic trade league, this enclosed neighbourhood of colourful, gabled houses, half-hidden courtyards and grandiose churches is, quite rightly, the city's biggest tourist draw. And the fact that it's all neatly packaged within a mostly-intact city wall and dotted with guard towers gives it an extra dose of fairytale charm. (webpage) That is so true!

Here is more about the history of Tallinn.

And here's facts of Estonia.

Finally I got to see the homebase - Porvoo We made a small trip to Castle Hill! In the 14th century here stood a wooden fortress. Now you can only see the hill and the castle moats. My host said this's a good place to play Robin Hood! 

Also a famous artist (Albert Edelfelt) has painted this view. He painted other views from Porvoo as well - and tons of not-at-all-Porvoo-related paintings. After all, he spent years in Paris.

The view where you can see all the bridges from here, and the Old Town is my host's favorite spot. She has taken a photo here which she made into postcards! Very cool!

By the way: Porvoo  is Borgå in Swedish. Borg means Castle and Å means River. Borgå = Castle river 

I went to the local sightseeing tower with my host. We walked from the other side of the hill where you can see to the old town. In the tower I got a relly good view over the city of Porvoo! Porvoo is the 2nd oldest city in Finland. It has almost 50 000 inhabitants of which 33% is native Swedish speakers (finnswedes). Porvoo is only 50km east from Helsinki, the capitol of Finland. It takes less than an hour to drive there.

The story tells that the sightseeing tower was made by a giant: he heard that they were building a church in Porvoo and got angry (apparently giants don't like churches) and threw a stone all the way from Sipoo (where he lived, a place not too far from Porvoo). He didn't either aim it too well or his arm wasn't in good enough condition as he missed the church.

The stone has been a place to gather for festives a hundred years ago. Kids were told that babies were picked up from under the stone. Around 1880 they made the stairs and it became a sightseeing tower. Nowadays kids are told that a stork brings the babies - which is weird because you very rarely see storks in Finland...

After the views in the tower I got a closer look on the red shorehouses. They are also part of the old town - and the most wellknown attraction in Porvoo. The brochure tells this about them: The shore houses are now red, but they got their colour only in the late 18th century. Red ochre paint was used to paint the shore houses in honour of King Gustav III's arrival from Sweden. All of the houses along his route were painted, in order to make them more beautiful. The red ochre also helped protect the logs from wind and sun damage. Exotic fruits, wines and spices were brought to Porvoo, and the shore houses also served as intermediate storehouses for coffee an tobacco. Today the shore houses are used as private living quarters and storage space.

After that we walked a little further the hill for more views  I could even see the Castle Hill for afar. We walked thru the old town towards the city center. The second last photo shows a glimpse of the market place/buss station and the very last shows an old well next to the city park.

Lohja is a small town about 1/2h drive west from Helsinki. It has 39 000 inhabitants and is wellknown for apples. So I guess it's "The Small Apple" 

We drove there to meed postcrossers and to look for some geocaches. I'm sure the Church of St. Lawrence isn't the only sight allthough we photographed it the most. We just didn't see much else while staring at either postcards or gps-device...

The places we visit are getting smaller and smaller! This is the town of Vammala, now part of municipality called Sastamala. First we visited Mr Clutterbuck's House - in Finnish he's Herra Hakkarainen. Mr Clutterbuck is one of the famous characters in Mauri Kunnas' books. He's quite popular and very well known in Finland. My host says he rocks more than the Moomins 
The house was quite small but had fantastic displays and interactive plays (for example: you could dress up as Robin Hood or maiden in the castle room).

When we were finished we drove around for geocaches (starting to see a pattern here...?) and saw a few churches while at it. The first one is Church of Tyrvää (some indoor photos here) and the medieval one is Church of St. Olaf.

It's a rural area but thus lovely to drive in 

Finally a bigger city! Tampere is my host's second (first) favorite city. And she takes this little photos of me there 

It's 2h drive north from Helsinki, has approx 213 000 inhabitants being the 3rd largest city in Finland (after Helsinki & Turku). The city website reveals this in a nutshell: Tampere is the third largest city in Finland and the largest inland centre in the Nordic countries.

Currently there are over 213,000 inhabitants in Tampere, and close to half a million inhabitants in Tampere Region, which comprises Tampere and its neighbouring municipalities.

Tampere is one of the three most rapidly developing regions in Finland. It is a centre of leading-edge technology, research, education, culture, sports and business.

In 2010, the City of Tampere came first in an image survey comparing the largest cities in Finland. It was also the most attractive city among Finns who plan on moving. 

Yep, my host could imagine moving only to Tampere if she had to choose another city. Maybe it's partially because she has nice reletives there... Or maybe it's bacause she thinks the adventure park Särkänniemi is the coolest in this country (they usually go there every summer but this time it was Mr Clutterbuck's turn).

There's a Moomin museum in Tampere, under the main library. The Moomin statue is in front of it.