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.
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| The Cathedral |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| Here is the construction taking place under the main market square. It was interesting to see what was under the very old city. |
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| I lived off of these. Wish I had one now. |
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| Another photo primarily for my dad the structural engineer. This is the inside of the marketplace building. |
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| Sigh |
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| The Catholic in me was a little shocked at how stark these Lutheran churches were. |
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| Old wooden house |
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| Swoon. Also note the color. Not so far off from the color of StuccoHouse. |
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| Here is a kitchen decorated in standard 18th century form. |
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| I love this wall display and may actually do this in my own kitchen. I have a collection of vintage kitchen tools. |
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| Note the crocheted lace around the shelves. Another idea I may steal. |
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| More of that same house. |
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| I was fascinated by this bed. It slid out to full length. During the day it was pushed together and stored against a wall. |
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| Very cool heaters in these houses. |
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| Loved the stencils |
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| Here is the little central courtyard. |
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| This gray that appeared everywhere is very similar to that of StuccoHouse's trim. Who knew? |
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| I believe I need one of these in my back yard. |
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| Just an odd little thing that caught my eye. |
