This is our last full day in Scandanavia and we have had a wonderful time in Helsinki, even though we have not been inside a castle, church or museum. We made contact with Laurel Colless yesterday and made arrangements today to meet her at 2pm. We went out at 9am and caught a bus to Seurasaari Island. Our manager strongly recommended this display to us when we arrived and this morning was our last chance. It was an Open Air Museum in that one third of the island was devoted to buildings that represented early Finnish wooden buildings. We arrived at 9.30 and found that the buildings did not open till 11 (Why do so many European activities start so late?) but that did not stop us from seeing what we wanted to see. We immediately found a sign directing us to an Iron-Age Market Place representing life at 1000AD.
We followed signs some distance across a log boardwalk and found an open area surrounded by log buildings.
Our interest in log cabins kept us wandering around here for some time inspecting the wall corners,
roofing materials such as this one made from reeds,
and the use of branch junctures to hold the roof from sliding,
and for making furniture.
We continued around the island taking many pictures and admiring the work of those responsible for this priceless record of country life in Finland. We examined this building from the 1500s and wondered whether our own log cabin would last as long.
They had erected a midsummer pole here which will stay up till next midsummer. Reminded us of Maypoles in Austria.
This church was the oldest building to be moved here.
Laurel suggested we meet at the Esplanade concert stage that she read about in our blog last night, so we headed there and on the way saw this beautiful beer barrel cart in the main street.
When we arrived we discovered that the Helsinki Army Band was giving a concert.
We had not seen Laurel for 20 years and we gave her and her daughters a hug and headed for a coffee shop. On the way she took us into into the Globe Hope shop which sells all recycled goods, such as
Laurel plans to use her children's book as a means of expanding their range of products, we gathered.
We were very fortunate to be able to meet all of Laurel's family. Olivia, and Julia on Pekka's knee. Pekka gave us a formal welcome to Finland on behalf of the Finnish Government which he represents in Greece. We talked flat out for an hour catching up on each other's activities. Pekka took a photo for us.
Pekka asked us the vital question: " What has been the highlight of your trip". We had coincidentally aked ourselves that yesterday so we answered immediately: Meeting up with family and friends as we travelled. We figure this has happened about ten times so far. As we said goodbye and came out of the cafe we decided to photograph the OTHER big church in the city. It looked magnificent in the afternoon sun.
However we noticed a large group of young people making a lot of noise over there. We went over and found many of them were in fancy dress and some were chanting and bowing down to others. As we moved back to cross the road, none the wiser, a group of young women insisted on assisting us across the road as an act of kindness. Deja vu? They explained that all this was an initiation experience for first year students organised by the second years.
We noticed several of the girl were wearing superwoman outfits
We seem to be developing some recurring themes here. On our way back we found the black superman still at his post(s).
The there is this thing about outdoor free concerts. When we returned to the bandstand there was a "trio" consisting of four men performing in the style of the Shadows of the 1960s. We sat and enjoyed that for an hour.
They performed better than they looked.
We did not make much progress towards home before we came upon this artist:
We had to stop and listen as he played Mozart's Little Night Music and Brahms' Hungarian Dance. Just like the xylophone in Fuschl. Three concerts in one day? We have loved our time in Helsinki
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