Jack and Katrina's Place

Although we enjoyed our stay in Finland with Anna's Mother and Timmo, after 6 weeks travelling it was time to get back home. It was hard to leave such a beautiful place as Finland in the summer, knowing the winter storms were raging in Wellington. Here are some picture taken around Helisinki. The long summer afternoons stretched into warm sunlit evenings and made for great exploring time.

From Porovo we boarded the little white steamer to take us back to Helsinki. It took 4 hours, down the river and out into the sea between the islands. Some of the islands are kilometre long, others just big enough for a single birch tree. It would be a fascintaing place to own a small boat and a tent. Camping on these tiny little islands, like a far north versions of cartoon desert islands, a beach and a single tree. One of my impressions of europe was that everywhere you wnt there were signs of human presence, just the density of the population. Here in Finland it started to approach the sense you get in NZ, where you could an island or a patch of forest and remain undisturbed for hours if not days.

On the way the ferry stopped at several little islands where people live. There is very little tide in the Baltic so these sheltered little anchorages abound. The beautiful scenery seems to inspire some elegant little coastal boat designs too.

After his sleep in the park Guy was awake and looking at everything on the ferry. Lynn and Hamish's Mother Pat (in the sunglasses) helped us by taking turns to hold the wiggly man.

Anna and Hamish's wedding actually took place in the countryiside near the historic town of Porovo, which is about 50 kms east of Helsinki. Porovo is situated at the head of a long inlet that becomes a river which is why the town was established. If you know west Auckland, think about Riverhead, or Warkworth. The morning after the wedding we had a nice walk along the riverfront and lunch on an old Baltic sailing ship. Guy was getting used to Hi-chairs at this point, he was lookinng a lot like his Grandad Pat.

The white steamboat (actually now diesel) in the second photo had just arrived from Helsinki. Later that afternoon it took us back there on a leisurely 4 hour cruise through the endless islands and bays of the Finnish coast.

After lunch Guy was tired and went to sleep in his backpack. We took it off and parked him, still sleeping, next to a bench in this lovely park of green birch trees. The lunch resteraunt sailing ship is permanently moored by the bridge and up on the skyline the cathederal is being restored.

Despite the delay of a week or so in posting, these photos follow right along from the last post we did about the Wedding. Although I have been very happy with the images we've captured on our little Canon happy snappy digital camera, these next three photos show just what a professional photographer can do. I think it is the timing, the captured moment that makes these really quite special.

Katrina's preparation for the wedding included feeding Guy his lunch.

Guy congratulating Hamish!

Guy getting ready for the wedding with Anna's sister Pipsa.

Yes finally the reason for all this trekking through Scandanavia and Northern Europe, the wedding of our friends Anna and Hamish! What a beautiful wedding it was. Held in ancient stone church amongst rolling fields on a summers day. The fields were full of bright yellow flowered crops, both at the church and the reception venue which seemed to shimmer in the summer sun, (it was the hottest day Finland has seen for ages, 30 degrees at 61 degrees North). Although Hamish was staunch in his family kilt, Guy was down to the bare necessities. Although he was very good during the service, I had to take him for a walk on the cool stone floor as he was so hot to hold in my arms. At the reception Anna parents had parked their caravan under the trees and we put Guy down to sleep. It almost worked, we were able to enjoy the reception together, but it was so light and so hot that he woke up again. The good thing about that was he got to join everyone for dinner, in the little high chair with a place name that Anna and Hamish had thoughfully arranged. After Dinner he went to sleep again in the Caravan, but by 11:00pm he woke up, just as the sun was setting. While Katrina fed him his almost midnight snack I took this photo. Finland in Midsummer is a most beautiful and surreal place. (even if it does plays havoc with babies !)

Now that's quite clearly Scandinavia and not Wellington isn't it? The trees are growing straight up instead of leaning over all gnarly. Dinner for Guy in Anna's Mother's garden.

Hey Anna, there's a tiny little man in your shower.

Spot the difference? We are using a new template, this one has recent posts by title on the right hand column which makes it easier to find pictures. It picks up the title rather than just the date so I will try to give them sensible titles.

Leaving St Petersburg after our whirlwind exploration we found ourselves back on the train. It was a hot summers afternon, and the afternoons here in summer are long. Keeping an active little boy amused was not so easy, but we were very fortunate to be travelling with folks like James and Lynn. Friends of Hamish's family, they took turns to play with Guy, who seemed to specially like James. Here they are playing on the train. When we got back to Anna's folks place in Finland, Katrina gave Guy a feed under the ever present pines and then he had a shower. As you can see, he really likes the shower, tries to grab the stream of water and would stick the shower head in his mouth if I let him.

Hello Mummy, want to come in the shower?

Somehow Blogger wouldn't let me add pictures to that last narrative, but these are they. St Katherines Cathederal, Fountains at Peterhoff Palace, and a cruisy summers afternoon on the canals for some of the locals.

After a rest day in Helsinki, we joined Anna, Hamish and friends on a three day trip down to St Petersburg in the Russian Federation. The train trip from Helsinki took about 6 hours, through the beautiful Finnish countryside. In early summer the fields of wheat and barley look like rolling green seas around the islands of birch trees, almost and echo of the costal archipelago. In fact the Geography of Finland is quite unique, as the centre of the country is riddle with lakes like a block of cheese. Timo told me it is possible to take a boat 600km inland through the heart of the country via lake and locks. Something to do if you got tired of the endlessly beautiful coastal archipelago I suppose.

Anyway amongst the forests and fields of Finland I spied this little steam engine, wood fired of course given the abundance of trees. Most of our travelling companions missed it, as the picture shows they were resting up before the big day.

The border crossing into Russia was marked by a reduction in speed and an increase in rolling and clattering. The break-up of the Soviet Union has obviously strained infrastructure that wasn’t that flash in the first place. The railway approach to St Petersburg was lined with row upon row of garages stretching to the lines of apartment blocks. If you live in two concrete rooms you got to put your stuff somewhere.

The history of St Petersburg is a fascinating topic in itself, and I am enjoying Dave's that describes the life and Times of Peter the Great who founded the City in 1703. After some battled with Sweden He claimed the Mouth of the River Neva, mostly as it gave him access to the Baltic and thus Western Europe. After a trip to London Amsterdam and Vienna, Tsar Peter had decided Western Europe was the happening place to be. (Not much has changed!) Although the mouth of the River Neva was definately not a happening place, nonetheless it was as close as Russia could get to Europe (until 1945). In fact the Neva flowed into the Baltic through an icy swamp, if you can imagine the Turangi flats at the south end of Lake Taupo on a cold winters day only much much colder, that was where they decided to build a city. An immediate problem was the complete lack of building materials, just scraggly trees growing in deep frozen peat. So after digging canals and ditches everywhere to drain the swamp they had to carry in every single piece of stone. A lot of it was red granite brought across the Baltic from Finland, and St Petersburg is actually built out of thousands of pieces of Finland. Some say Russia has been trying ever since to claim more pieces of Finland.

St Petersburg central is blessed with stunning architecture on a grand scale. The Tsar sent his architects to the great capitals of Western Europe and as a result there are some quarters of the city that look like Venice, Amsterdam, Paris or London. 1703 was quite late to start building a city, even New York and Boston were well established cities by that time. Now St Petersburg is the 2nd largest city in the Russian federation with 4.5 million people (similar to Melbourne) We were fortunate to have Natalya to guide us through the city and especially the Palaces and Art Galleries during our stay there. She certainly made our visit and gave us so much insight into Russia, both historically and present day. Being a fine arts graduate she gave us the most interesting and informative tour of the art treasures in the Winter Palace. I never expected to learn so much about Picasso and Matisse and the impressionist movement in one morning. She also managed to handle the extra demands of guiding Guy around the city, and they became great friends. Here is a Photo of Natalya and Guy, with those eyes they could almost be related couldn't they?.

Pictures to complete the St Petersbur narrative.
Family portrait, In the Turkish resteraunt with Anna, Guy's friend Natalya and a St Peterburg streetscape