Tero
20 August 2002, 14:03
My wife's description of part of the trip:
We had a couple of great weeks in Finland. The weather cooperated for the most part. We had a couple of "hot" days, that is hot for the Finns, but 80-85 is nothing compared to the 100-105 + humidity that was here while we were gone. The one day that we thought we would go swimming it was cool, about in the 70s. So instead of swimming the kids did the traffic school in the park. They have cars the kids can pedal around an area with paved paths and stop sings etc. One teenager is the police for the school. The really little kids were doing stuff like driving the wrong way and driving on the sidewalk. The kids used their camp names.
Among the attractions were "Muumimaa," the amusement land near Naatali and "Muumilakso," which is a display about the Muumis in the library in Tampere. The former is sort of a village where the shops are named after the muumi charaters. They have a short play with some of the characters in it (life size) and people dressed up as the various characters wandering around the park. They are adults, so Pikku Myy is rather tall ! The buildings incude a replica of the Muumi house which includes the bridge in front and muumimammas root cellar. There is a model boat that is dubbed muumipapas sailing school. Its not in the water and the kids can crawl all over it. There is also an optional pirate island with the Muumimaa. You take a ferry to get there. There are various things around the island the kids can try to do, like walking on increasingly hard boards and ropes, presumably to prepare for climbing around on a ship. There is also a small village with some animals and homes so you can see how people lived in the old days. They have swings and stilts for the kids to try out. The pirates also did a play in an outdoor theater. It was easy enough to understand, even without knowing too much Finnish.
Speaking of plays, we also got to see "Peppi Pitkätossu" in the outdoor summer theater in Turku. They really knocked themselves out to make the play. The police officers were Swedish and really silly. They made friends with Pippi and kept coming to her to get candy. They also made fun of the robbers, they turned them into the Russian mafia with suits and all. Pippi's monkey was played by a little girl, so she only got to be in half of the play. It was great fun, since we knew the story so well, it didn't matter that we didn't understand everything.
One last day in Turku, we rented bikes in Ruissalo. Had to fix one from two junky kids bikes to get one working bike for our daugter. They gave that one to us for free, the other 3 we paid for.
We went to the amusement parks in both Tampere and Helsinki. In general I thought the one in Tampere was better. By American standards the rides are short and harmless. The tower at the Särkännniemi park in Tampere has a gorgeous view. We didn't go to the aquarium in Tampere, but we did see the one in Helsinki (which as a separate entrance fee from the Linnanmäki amusement park). It was a bit disappointing, because all of the critters were small. However, they had a whole room of seahorses, and that was interesting. Another interesting attraction in Tampere was the workers museum at the Amuri city block (wooden houses). It consists of a series of small cramped workers homes. They are furnished according to different periods from 1900 to the 1960s. There was also a bakery (not functioning) and a sauna. Some little kids (kids group from folk dance society) did a singing and dancing routine in the courtyard accompanied by a violin, some just PIIRILEIKKI. The food at this museum was workers food, bread around meat and piirakka, etc. It was good food.
We also visited Tallipiha (no charge, just shops)which is mainly a place to buy handcraft items. I was impressed by the quality of the workmanship. We bought a handmade doll for our daughter and a wooden cart and horse with two people in it for our son. The prices were about $25-$30. I think here something of that quality would cost at least $50. The city museum in Tampere is now in an old factory building Vapriikki. Our son got to practice some hockey shots there.
Skipped spy museum and Lenin museum.
We had a couple of great weeks in Finland. The weather cooperated for the most part. We had a couple of "hot" days, that is hot for the Finns, but 80-85 is nothing compared to the 100-105 + humidity that was here while we were gone. The one day that we thought we would go swimming it was cool, about in the 70s. So instead of swimming the kids did the traffic school in the park. They have cars the kids can pedal around an area with paved paths and stop sings etc. One teenager is the police for the school. The really little kids were doing stuff like driving the wrong way and driving on the sidewalk. The kids used their camp names.
Among the attractions were "Muumimaa," the amusement land near Naatali and "Muumilakso," which is a display about the Muumis in the library in Tampere. The former is sort of a village where the shops are named after the muumi charaters. They have a short play with some of the characters in it (life size) and people dressed up as the various characters wandering around the park. They are adults, so Pikku Myy is rather tall ! The buildings incude a replica of the Muumi house which includes the bridge in front and muumimammas root cellar. There is a model boat that is dubbed muumipapas sailing school. Its not in the water and the kids can crawl all over it. There is also an optional pirate island with the Muumimaa. You take a ferry to get there. There are various things around the island the kids can try to do, like walking on increasingly hard boards and ropes, presumably to prepare for climbing around on a ship. There is also a small village with some animals and homes so you can see how people lived in the old days. They have swings and stilts for the kids to try out. The pirates also did a play in an outdoor theater. It was easy enough to understand, even without knowing too much Finnish.
Speaking of plays, we also got to see "Peppi Pitkätossu" in the outdoor summer theater in Turku. They really knocked themselves out to make the play. The police officers were Swedish and really silly. They made friends with Pippi and kept coming to her to get candy. They also made fun of the robbers, they turned them into the Russian mafia with suits and all. Pippi's monkey was played by a little girl, so she only got to be in half of the play. It was great fun, since we knew the story so well, it didn't matter that we didn't understand everything.
One last day in Turku, we rented bikes in Ruissalo. Had to fix one from two junky kids bikes to get one working bike for our daugter. They gave that one to us for free, the other 3 we paid for.
We went to the amusement parks in both Tampere and Helsinki. In general I thought the one in Tampere was better. By American standards the rides are short and harmless. The tower at the Särkännniemi park in Tampere has a gorgeous view. We didn't go to the aquarium in Tampere, but we did see the one in Helsinki (which as a separate entrance fee from the Linnanmäki amusement park). It was a bit disappointing, because all of the critters were small. However, they had a whole room of seahorses, and that was interesting. Another interesting attraction in Tampere was the workers museum at the Amuri city block (wooden houses). It consists of a series of small cramped workers homes. They are furnished according to different periods from 1900 to the 1960s. There was also a bakery (not functioning) and a sauna. Some little kids (kids group from folk dance society) did a singing and dancing routine in the courtyard accompanied by a violin, some just PIIRILEIKKI. The food at this museum was workers food, bread around meat and piirakka, etc. It was good food.
We also visited Tallipiha (no charge, just shops)which is mainly a place to buy handcraft items. I was impressed by the quality of the workmanship. We bought a handmade doll for our daughter and a wooden cart and horse with two people in it for our son. The prices were about $25-$30. I think here something of that quality would cost at least $50. The city museum in Tampere is now in an old factory building Vapriikki. Our son got to practice some hockey shots there.
Skipped spy museum and Lenin museum.