Baltic Vacation Pix: Port #3: Helsinki

My excursion in Finland first took me outside of Helsinki to Porvoo, then Savijarvi Homestead, then back to the city to a famous church, and the open-air market.

Porvoo is picturesque, the second oldest town in Finland, and was a trading capital in the 17th century. I had coffee at Hanna Maria with Tuula, the tour guide. They gave me a newspaper to send to Kale so he could see what the Finns were up to in Porvoo.

Fire truck, impossibly narrow street, Porvoo

Porvoo street

Shopping, Porvoo

Salt houses on the river, Porvoo

Planting the coat of arms, Porvoo

Across the river, Porvoo

Cannon, Porvoo

Lupines, Porvoo

Our second stop was Savijarvi Homestead. We had an excellent lunch, and were educated about the operations on the farm. We met a couple of their horses, one a champion harness racer. The farm caters to all things equestrian, and the group was educated about the transition of many Finnish farms from dairy to other agricultural concerns.

Manor House

Garden

Stables

Other family homes on the farm

Inside the stables

Broom - the horse didn't like the handle sticking into its enclosure.

Buggy

Oldest building on the property

Horses

In Helsinki we visited the Temppeliaukio Kirkko, or Rock Church. Tuula told us that part of the planning of this church was to keep the vistas uncluttered by tall spires, as the people in the apartment and office buildings wanted to see the green spaces rather than the spire of a church. There is much more to the story if you follow the link. The architect basically blasted the church out of bedrock. The glacial retreat of the last ice age left Finland's bedrock very exposed, so it is definitely a way to use the environment to plan structures.