Finland 2017 - Tampere and Hämeenlinna
Aug. 25th, 2017 09:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
major_clangerTampere is Finland’s second city, and sits on the edge of Finland’s lake region, with the city itself lying between two large lakes, Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi. We chose Tampere as our first stop not so much for its own attractions (although it turned out to have a few) but as a convenient point for looking around that part of Finland.
After a very straightforward drive of about two hours from Helsinki airport we arrived at our hotel, the Scandic Rosendahl, which sits on the ridge between the two lakes. I don’t think I’ve ever stayed anywhere quite so totally 1970s, from the brutalist architecture to the interior décor. Don’t get me wrong though – it was retro-stylish rather than tired, and the Scandic ended up tying with the Radisson Seaside in Helsinki as nicest and most memorable of our hotels.
[Some back-to-the-1970s hotel design.]
The Scandic evidently caters to a lot of tour groups and so had an evening buffet that, after our waiter explained the options available, we went for over the rather Americanised main menu. We weren’t disappointed and had our first taste of the Finn’s fondness for serving up salmon in half a dozen different forms. Later, we wandered down to the local lake shore to admire the sunset (which, this being Finland, happened at about 9.30 pm).
[Pyhäjärvi shore at sunset]
On the way back we took the path up to the hotel through the woods.
S: We're going to find a body, aren't we?
Me: It will be a Scandic murder mystery, so everyone will be very gloomy.
S: I haven't brought the right kind of jumper with me...
Thursday (Day 2 in Finland) saw us drive half-way back towards Helsinki so as to go to Hämeenlinna and its castle. (The castle itself is Hämeen linna – ‘Häme castle’ – with Häme being the name of the region and Hämeenlinna the town around the castle. It makes sense if you think about it). Rather than retrace our route I aimed to drive rather further east, down through the Pälkäne lakes region. This led to the satnav issues I described yesterday, but eventually we escaped Tampere and found ourselves heading south through flat, lake-scattered farmland. Stopping briefly at a small café by the side of a lake, we had our first but by no means last taste of Finnish doughnuts, then headed on to the castle.
I’d aimed to arrive for the scheduled English language tour at 2, but we got there about an hour early which worked nicely as it gave us time to look around the very good military museum next door. Finland has a somewhat conflicted attitude to its military history; for centuries it was part of Sweden and then a Russian vassal state before becoming independent, after which it did a very good job of fighting off a Soviet invasion (the Winter War) before quasi-allying itself with Nazi Germany to, in effect, try kicking the Russians when they were down (the Continuation War). That didn’t work out so well, and Finland ended up suing for peace, losing a lot of land, and being obliged to go to war for a third time to eject its former co-belligerent (the Lapland War). The whole issue of Finnish policy and politics is rather vexed and the two military museums we saw concentrated mainly on the events rather than the reasons behind them, although that may have been in part simplification for English translations. In any event, the Military Museum gave a very compact but comprehensive history of the Finnish armed forces, and I only regret that we didn’t have time to look around the adjoining armour and artillery park.
Then over to the castle proper where we got a fascinating and comprehensive tour of a structure that dated in parts from the middle ages and in others from the Napoleonic era. Unusually for Finland it’s substantially brick-built, and it’s very obvious just from looking at the walls where there were different phases of construction and reconstruction. It was originally on an island, but land reclamation and rising land levels in Finland mean that it now overlooks a lake.
[Hämeen linna showing the different styles of construction; the circular gun fort; the view over the adjacent lake]
On our return to Tampere I checked out local dining venues and was fortunate enough to get a table for two at Restaurant Näsinneula, a 125-metre high rotating restaurant at an amusement park on the shore of the northern lake. The weather was amazing, as was the food; we chose the ‘Finlandia’ tasting menu, which we both thoroughly enjoyed.
[S enjoying the view; we got to enjoy watching rather than being on the amusement park rides.]
I put my iPhone into time-lapse mode and propped it on the window. This is about an hour, or one and a bit revolutions. Look out for the boats skimming across the lake!
Next: Turku via a rather rainy Rauma.
After a very straightforward drive of about two hours from Helsinki airport we arrived at our hotel, the Scandic Rosendahl, which sits on the ridge between the two lakes. I don’t think I’ve ever stayed anywhere quite so totally 1970s, from the brutalist architecture to the interior décor. Don’t get me wrong though – it was retro-stylish rather than tired, and the Scandic ended up tying with the Radisson Seaside in Helsinki as nicest and most memorable of our hotels.
[Some back-to-the-1970s hotel design.]
The Scandic evidently caters to a lot of tour groups and so had an evening buffet that, after our waiter explained the options available, we went for over the rather Americanised main menu. We weren’t disappointed and had our first taste of the Finn’s fondness for serving up salmon in half a dozen different forms. Later, we wandered down to the local lake shore to admire the sunset (which, this being Finland, happened at about 9.30 pm).
[Pyhäjärvi shore at sunset]
On the way back we took the path up to the hotel through the woods.
S: We're going to find a body, aren't we?
Me: It will be a Scandic murder mystery, so everyone will be very gloomy.
S: I haven't brought the right kind of jumper with me...
Thursday (Day 2 in Finland) saw us drive half-way back towards Helsinki so as to go to Hämeenlinna and its castle. (The castle itself is Hämeen linna – ‘Häme castle’ – with Häme being the name of the region and Hämeenlinna the town around the castle. It makes sense if you think about it). Rather than retrace our route I aimed to drive rather further east, down through the Pälkäne lakes region. This led to the satnav issues I described yesterday, but eventually we escaped Tampere and found ourselves heading south through flat, lake-scattered farmland. Stopping briefly at a small café by the side of a lake, we had our first but by no means last taste of Finnish doughnuts, then headed on to the castle.
I’d aimed to arrive for the scheduled English language tour at 2, but we got there about an hour early which worked nicely as it gave us time to look around the very good military museum next door. Finland has a somewhat conflicted attitude to its military history; for centuries it was part of Sweden and then a Russian vassal state before becoming independent, after which it did a very good job of fighting off a Soviet invasion (the Winter War) before quasi-allying itself with Nazi Germany to, in effect, try kicking the Russians when they were down (the Continuation War). That didn’t work out so well, and Finland ended up suing for peace, losing a lot of land, and being obliged to go to war for a third time to eject its former co-belligerent (the Lapland War). The whole issue of Finnish policy and politics is rather vexed and the two military museums we saw concentrated mainly on the events rather than the reasons behind them, although that may have been in part simplification for English translations. In any event, the Military Museum gave a very compact but comprehensive history of the Finnish armed forces, and I only regret that we didn’t have time to look around the adjoining armour and artillery park.
Then over to the castle proper where we got a fascinating and comprehensive tour of a structure that dated in parts from the middle ages and in others from the Napoleonic era. Unusually for Finland it’s substantially brick-built, and it’s very obvious just from looking at the walls where there were different phases of construction and reconstruction. It was originally on an island, but land reclamation and rising land levels in Finland mean that it now overlooks a lake.
[Hämeen linna showing the different styles of construction; the circular gun fort; the view over the adjacent lake]
On our return to Tampere I checked out local dining venues and was fortunate enough to get a table for two at Restaurant Näsinneula, a 125-metre high rotating restaurant at an amusement park on the shore of the northern lake. The weather was amazing, as was the food; we chose the ‘Finlandia’ tasting menu, which we both thoroughly enjoyed.
[S enjoying the view; we got to enjoy watching rather than being on the amusement park rides.]
I put my iPhone into time-lapse mode and propped it on the window. This is about an hour, or one and a bit revolutions. Look out for the boats skimming across the lake!
Next: Turku via a rather rainy Rauma.
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Date: 2017-08-26 08:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-08-26 04:47 pm (UTC)