Travemuende, 03.08.2023 Heading north
We took a ferry from Travemuende to Helsinki and it was one of the best decisions we ever made. For two nights and one day we had nothing to do but to spend our time reading, eating and watching "Rookie" in between. A good, restful way of starting a holiday.
Helsinki, 05.08.2023 Arriving in Finland
A vibrant, colourful place with lots of second hand opportunities.
Tuusula, 06.08.2023 Halosenniemi Museum
The former house of the Finnish artist Pekka Halonen. Worth a visit.
Sininen Majava, 06.08.2023 Where the blue beavers live
The reason for us to visit Finland this year was my uncle Norbert. He and his wife Dagmar live close to us in Berlin and we got in touch when preparing for our big family reunion in Munich in 2017. Since then, we all enjoyed each others company regularly and the two of them often told stories about their second home in Finland. We often said that we would love to go there one day, too. "One day" turned into "next summer", when Norbert got a stupid cancer diagnosis last November. We wanted to visit the place with the two of them.
The place has a magic of its own. There are blueberries growing, basically everywhere, in between you can find porcini mushrooms, chanterelles, moose moss. The Saaima lake is huge and the views stunning. Each evening, the sunset was different. And beautiful!
Puumala, 09.08.2023
Puumala is the next town, but it is so small, it doesn`t even have a bakery of its own. But the wooden church of Puumala is a gem, built in 1832.
Helsinki, 12.08.2023 Farewell
Helsinki, 13.08.2023 Finnish
When I look at the Finnish language, I'm glad that there are pictograms.
Tallinn, 14.08.2023 Container love
Tallinn also leaves a very vibrant and colourful impression. A lot of fancy restaurants are there, and the overall atmosphere is bustling and busy. Funny enough, we ran into my sisters friend Susa and her family on our first evening out!
Tallinn, 15.08.2023 Estonian Maritime Museum
Whatv impressed us most was the range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages accompanying the (also great) food.
Harju, 16.08.2023 Keila waterfall
Riga, 17.08.2023 The market
We fell in love with a photo by Lia Darjes taken in a market place in Kaliningrad and the market in Riga so reminded us of it.
Siauliai, 18.08.2023 Hill of crosses
Poles and Lithuanians unsuccessfully rebelled against Russian authorities in 1831 and 1863. These two uprisings are connected with the beginnings of the hill: as families could not locate bodies of perished rebels, they started putting up symbolic crosses at the site of a former hill fort. Over the generations, not only crosses and crucifixes, but statues of the Virgin Mary, carvings of Lithuanian patriots and thousands of tiny effigies and rosaries have been brought here by mostly Catholic pilgrims.
Vilnius, 18.08.2023 Rome of the North
Also a very well-kept city with generous open space design.
Lodz, 20.08.2023 Conversion of a factory site
Our last stopover on our way home.
