Lost Posts: TdS day 6 & 7

Kirkkovene / Church boat at Sulkava - photo by konna.

Something I forgot to mention earlier (and as she hasn't even read, let alone posted to, the blog recently she didn't notice until now) all the photos during our 'Tour de Saimaa' (TdS) cycling trip were taken by Konna and not by me as I didn't take my 'big' camera - and even though they are on my Picasa album rather than hers (well if I had waited for her to do it... said the pot of the kettle). Anyway, moving on...
 

Lost Posts: TdS Day 3

What is that stupid piece of plastic for anyway?

I'm guessing that reading all these overlong Lost Posts of summer / cycling tour blogs is almost as hard work as writing them, so in the interests of speeding things up (so there is a chance they are done with before next summer) I'm changing to a more abridged and less windy style. You hope...
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Kolmas päivä: keskiviiko 7. heinä: Kerimaan Camping:sta Savonlinnaan (noin 35km pyöräillä)

Lost post 6: Tour de saimaa day 2

Kerimäki kirkko - big in metric and imperial dimensions

Lusto (in a less sunny 2008)

So to continue from last time in our 'lost summer blogs' series...

Next morning was another scorcher, and as we had a short leg and a whole day we started off with a detour back to the Lusto suomen metsämuseo forestry museum which has a loop of the cycle route around it's arboretum.  As we had visited before (well worthwhile by the way considering the importance of forestry to Finland and to understand the hardships people went through in the past working the forests) we only stopped for postikortit, kahvia ja pullaa. 

lost post 5: tour de saimaa (day 1)

Postcard from Punkaharju via 

  

As you may have gathered by now, we (by which I mean I) am doing a catch-up series of 'lost' posts about what we did last summer. A very late back to school essay if you like.  Anyway in the last episode our heroes were about to embark on an epic trip around Finland... well, a bit of cycling and camping around the north-west corner of Saimaa anyway...

1. päivä: maanantai 5. heinä: Helsingista Parikkalaan (junalla) / Parikkalasta Punkaharjuun (pyöräillä)

Lost Post 4: What not to take on a bike ride

Hazards for cyclists... From Kesä10 - lost postcards

Imagine it is the middle of summer again - heinäkuu 2010 to be exact - remember the blue skies, 20 hours of light, 30+°C heat? You are going with your partner on a ten day cycling/camping holiday around Saimaa, starting in Parikala and ending with a few days at a friend's mökki near Haukivouri (see map) - about 350km in all. You can't be sure if the weather will hold, and for every cyclists's instinct shouting 'travel light' there is the camper's instinct whispering 'be prepared'. It may be warm and dry today, but it could be 10° colder, wet and windy in a weeks time. What do you take? 

Ruma Suomi?

From Asuntomessut 09 + Taiskan mökki 08&09: best of Asuntomessut

There has been a series on TV recently called 'Ruma Suomi' (Ugly Finland) which is described as a tragicomic investigation of how Finland (and specifically urban and sub-urban Finland) has replaced 'beautiful old timber buildings' with 'ugly concrete' in the post wars period. Architects and town-planners will be torn between running for cover and rolling their eyes and sighing at this point. To be fair the program, produced by YLE1, seemed quite balanced in also presenting the political, economic and social historical background to this - not just a reactionary attack on the designers. In particular the program questioned the still frequent urge just to rip everything down a build new - is Finland still a developing nation in that sense? Despite the fact that Finland has produced some fantastic Modern and contemporary architecture (and still does) we have to agree there is more than a grain of truth in what they are saying.

This weekend we visited this year's 'asuntomessut', (housing fair) which was held in Valkeakoski, on the event's last open weekend in fantastic weather. It was reported that the messut hit the visitor target of 5000 people & was a success...

It made me wonder what kind of success was it and for whom. I found only a few successful sides to the messut including the fiddler on the roof of Talo Valo (no.34), 2 interesting developments: passive house Paroc Lupaus (no.21) & ENSI-omakotitalo (no.17), good company of friends & free press parking near the main entrance & kyyttö cows (definitely the high point of the 4 hour stay at the messu area for me!)

The first so called disappointments were the houses located on the first loop to the right of the main entrance ('so called' as we knew that these asuntomessut were not going to be as good as Vaasa last year & that neither offered the same kind of interesting solutions as Espoo in Kauklahti asuntomessut a few years ago, both of which we visited... Saying that I should probably mention that the city had tremendous difficulties getting all the houses/flats sold in Kauklahti...)

Anyway the Valkeakoski houses no.1-10 were standard package houses (why would I go to see these to asuntomessut, when there are brochures after brochures of these solutions out there? + Finland full of these boring wannabe boxes... being too harsh on standards of our newly builds?) - one of the houses even bosted on the accessible design solutions, which culminated in high thresholds (for the main door & all doors inside), inaccessible sauna where you have more than a high chance of falling onto the 'kiuas' (=stove where you throw water...) and stairs leading to the main entrance (note secondary entrance included a steep ramp ending with a ad-hock timber 'creation' ramp between the terrace & door - still with a high enough threshold for a person with a wheelchair to have a difficulty getting in).

After these shockers we entered no.11 with a hopeful thought that we can't judge this one as it is not actually yet finished. The promised sea side features & feeling most likely had not been realised yet - perhaps the engineer designer should leave it to this. We entered the house, passing two massive garages, via 'takkahuone' (=the chilling room for sauna, where you usually have a fire place etc) without 'takka' (=fire place) which was not yet been built, we climbed to the main living floor via spiral staircase... The challenge for this house had apparently been the sloping site to the north and perhaps the fact that the house of 192m2 was designed for a SINGLE MALE (with a note: this house suits also a bigger family... uh?)

- What does the nation learn from this?

1. Perhaps we should use an architect on the challenging sites next time? Hmmm...

2. Don't date the owner of the house

Huh - the first loop ended in a cafe. Pulla & coffee had never tasted this good. Next stop was the 'celebrity house' (no.14) designed for a famous bike rider Mika Kallio & his family (incl. a bike & trophy room). The house was hideous from outside, but never the less we approached the destination happily discussing the food products from our coffee break. The massive sauna for the whole family (perhaps for the moms, dads, cousins, kids, dogs, cats, turtles, nieces, cousins friends, stray cats, neighbours, asuntomessu-visitors, etc) was pleasant, I guess the three jacuzzi/whirl pools were ok too (definitely not too many), the huge manor-like middle stair case was ok (brought to my mind tv-program Dynasty - aaaah that charmer Blake Carrington)... Was I in a bad dream with Joan Collins? I must have been as the messu-magazine said that this was a dream of most men!!! Emmdee - please comment!

Luckily the next houses were pleasant. Pretty standard, but pleasant (after the Blake Carrigton manor anything goes). No.17 had a surprising (in a good way) exterior - a by passer commented as follow: 'helvetti, että osaa olla muuten ruma talo' (= h*** that it can be an ugly house). I had read earlier that an architect's (sorry can't remember whose) comment was as follows: 'tuo pystylaudoitus on tavanomaista' (= that vertical timber bording is fairly common)... I would like to remind of the Blake Carrington in this case...

Yes - swiftly moving on to no.21 by architect Kimmo Lylykangas. This passive house was the jewel of the site. The design concept was based on the wedge shape site and the client's wish for the living areas opening towards north & the scenery over the flower fields (& towards the cows). The shape of the building gives a strong character for the upstairs bedrooms with lovely rounded roof & walls. A magnificent bonus was the internal exposed brick spine wall extending as the fist floor walkway balcony balustrade. The house fulfills VTT requirement for a passive house - the simulated heating requirement is only 23,8 kWh/m2/a (the concept of VTT passive house is tested via 3 concept houses, one being this Lupaus in Valkeakoski, second in Vantaa & third in Rovaniemi).

Fiddler on the roof

Last, but not least we spotted the violin player on the roof of no.34... Not to sound too positive about this year's housing fair (is it possible?), I still need to comment on tv-house no.35. What on earth has happened here? Outside the house strikes like a standard brick faced day care centre - slightly upscale from a standard single family house, but this almost 300m2 - also a passive house - is monstrous in it's use of internal space. Apparently client's clear vision for the way they wish to live, tv-audiences influence for the development of the house & external swimming pool (remember we are still in Finland where a good summer is 'vähäluminen' (=with little snow only)) make us vacate the housing fair as soon as we were able to find our way out from the tv-house labyrinth...

The best house was yet to come - our friend's Taiska's lovely red timber cottage in Sysmä from the 1920's. Thank you for your family's hospitality. What a lovely day after all :)

What does the nation/designers/architects learn from this?

... probably nothing, but ought to respect old traditions and design/build beautiful - EVEN IF IT COSTS MORE & to keep it passive!

Click click click

Click the links for Emmdee throwing his winter fur coat away after paddling in his red 'Ferrari', hoisting sails on Linden and visiting the past... Also view some Turku Tall Ship Race weekend photos by clicking Konnan picasa web album... which has now been finally set up (as Emmdee's camera is kaput).

Eli klikkaa ylläolevia linkkejä, niin näet mitä ollaan viime aikoina puuhailtu - Ahvenanmaalla sekä Turussa. Lisää Ahvenanmaan pyöräretkestä tuonnenpana (kunhan 'koululainen' ehtii kiireiltään)...

Waft of tar

Pommern anchored in Mariehamn

On our last day in Mariehamn we visited the famous four-masted barque Pommern (built in 1903), which belonged to Ålander Gustaf 'Gusta' Erikson in its hay day when it used to carry grain from Spencer Gulf area in Australia to harbours in Uk & Ireland until the WWII. Pommern's strategic measurements are a bit different to Linden's... Made of steel her length is 95m, width 13m & draught 7.5m. The windjammers were able to attain great speeds; most four-masted barques were able to cruise at 15kn on plausible winds, some logged 18kn regularly - and Herzogin Cecilie is known to have logged 21kn. This was excellent on long voyages against steamers doing barely 8kn. Pommern now sits still in the harbour. Her sails are not hoisted anymore, she is only towed to the boat yard for regular maintenance works once a year or so - but she is truly a windjammer from the era long gone (can't wait to see the Tall Ship Race that comes to Turku this year...).

The Mariehamn Sea Museum has a fantastic exhibition on the last grain race around the treacherous waters of Cape Horn in 1949. This was a race against the clock between Pommern & Pamir on Pommern's favour. The exhibition in the museum and on board Pommern prompted me to buy a book titled 'The Duchess'.

'The Duchess' tells a story of Pommern's sister ship Herzogin Cecilie (ship named after a German duchess; book written by the skipper's wife Pamela Eriksson 1958), who was wrecked off the coast of Devon in the summer of 1936. Parts of the ship are now exhibited in the museum for visitors to admire, but the true marvel of Herzogin Cecilie is well captured on the pages of The Duchess - with the occasional peculiar waft of tar when turning the pages (no kidding!).

Interesting link for 'a survivor's story' to be read with regards to the last voyage of Herzogin Cecilie.

Strategic measurements

Sails up!

Early afternoon of the 18th July we arrived to Mariehamn (Maarianhamina in Finnish) and we had some time in our hands after setting up the camp to Gröna Uddens camp site (middle of the city, on the coast... like everything else). Conveniently it was the Sea Days of Mariehamn and the city was bustling with people, activities such as Rock off, gathering of old American cars & all sorts of boats, e.g. schooner Linden - and we hopped on board for an evening sail.

Her strategic measurements are:

- length 49m

- max beam 8.6m

- height of the masts 32m

- sail area 632 m2

- draught 3m

Linden sails under the flag of Ahvenanmaa (of Finland)

On board we admired the lovely scenery and enjoyed 'kalakeitto' (= fish soup), 'saaristoleipä' (special archipelago bread, which takes approx. 3 days to bake) + 'Ålannin pannukakku' (=Åland's pancakes) with jam & cream and witnessed the last moments of Emmdee's camera. You have to stick with my photos for a while now... :(

Kalakeitto + dark saaristoleipä (which I don't like!!!) and pannukakku with jam & cream

Melontaretki

I'm heading to the open waters through a narrow passage

It was a pretty still & sunny day when we rented kayaks from the Föglö camping site near Finholma. We had a break from cycling on Thursday 16th July and what could have been a better past time than relaxing legs on board of a kayak. We took a local map & compass with us & bottles of water. Hat was a necessity as the sun was beaming on us.

We spotted a heron or a stork couple (didn't recognise which!... Emmdee only saw the legs underneath, so it could have been anything really...), ducks (sorsia), grebes (silkkiuikkuja), an otter (saukko), and some other sea wild life such as Emmdee capsised near the shore...

On board of Emmdee & staring at him investigating an old boat shed

After the 'melontaretki' we relaxed in the sauna, which had a fantastic setting on the rocky shore - we also threw our winter fur coats away... which means we swam in the sea (can also be a lake) first time this summer... yeah yeah - better late than never!

Sauna (bastu in Swedish) & the view out from the sauna's terrace

Missä on sähkötonttu?

KESÄLOMALLA? Is sähkötonttu on summer holiday?

It's Eino Leino's day ( & summer & poetry) today and the flags are up again. It is very peculiar that our third writer, Sähkötonttu has not been 'around' lately... He's been missing some of the flag days in the past, but... He must have a good explanation for his/her absense. Some of our blog readers have been asking after tonttu... Oh well, we'll see tonttu when we'll see tonttu - as simple as that...

sun is out - I'm not...

No need for 'kumisaappaat' (=wellingtons)

If Juhannus had a rainy & cloudy weather, there's no need for umbrella today as the sun is out now - big time... and I'm confined inside the four walls finalising the competition design report... you may wonder why I'm not doing it right at this second, but writing the blog and the reason is that I'm spooling the document... and with our stone age machinery this process can take ages... in the meantime you can view some images below from the Juhannus cottage weekend (the only sunny patch during the weekend is seen in these images!).

'Kaivo' - the source of drinking water, steps to our quarters, the pier to cold lake & our loyal companion 'MEZE' who always takes us around Finland...

The serious tone re: sun & hot weather was on today's Hesari. It noted in a small article that the heat ruins everything... By this the writer meant that the heat forces more children to be taken into custody (moms & dads go drinking...), people lose their sleep (too hot & sunny during the night), people get fat (drink too many sugary drinks over hot periods of time) and people get sun burn (should stay in shade instead)... And above all, this information & article was published after 3-4 days of sunny weather in Finland! So go out & enjoy the summer where ever you are - unless it's sunny!

Do you like needles?

Marienhamn harbour at midnight, July 2006.

Ahvenamaa or Åland (as the locals prefer to call it, or rather them) is a bit of a historical geo-political oddity.  An archipelago of more than 6000 islands and skerries, although only 35 inhabited, it is inhabited around 26,ooo Swedish speaking people in an autonomous Finnish kunta (Commune). The Swedish Krona freely circulates (although the Euro is the official currency), they have their own flag and the Finnish defence forces are forbidden (it was made a demilitarised zone after the first world war).  Lying between Turku and Stockholm, handily for the locals all the big ferries stop at it's capital Marienhamn (Maarianhamina) albeit in the middle of the night, in order to take advantage of it being outside the EU-customs zone; but in the process adding an annoying couple of extra hours to the Helsinki-Stockholm journey time (unless you're just on the boat for the booze, fags and karaoke, in which case who cares). It has probably the best summer weather in Finland, (but the worst winter weather if you like skiing) and some beautiful archipelagic scenery. And, to get a bit closer to the point of this post, it's also reputed as a great place for cycling and camping holidays.

So as you might guess we are planning a cycling/camping holiday in Åland (I'm going to use the local names for everything from now on as I am writing in English and to annoy Konna who insists on using the Finnish versions), for a week this summer and as well as the usual logistical issues of transport, equipment, food, routes and accommodation to resolve (as we are not doing a pre-packaged deal) we also need to think about something I associate with visiting exotic destinations like Africa or the far east father than cartographical inksplashes in the Baltic. Vaccinations.

Now to get right up close and personal with the point of the post, Åland also is home to something other than a bunch of people with a long standing identity crisis (Finns, Swedes, Ålanders...). Ixodes ricinus ticks. Yum, look tasty don't they? Unfortunately as well as being as fugly as hell, and liking to latch on to wayfarers and do impressions of blood-filled coffee beans, punkki are tricky to remove.  Then you discover they potentially carry two even more unwanted guests: the bacterium Borrelia burghdor feri, which causes Lyme disease; and even worse, the virus for Tick Borne Encephalitis (TBE) in 1:200 to 1:1000 ticks.  Åland is considered endemic for TBE in Finland (although maybe not according to UK NaTHNaC), which is un-curable after contracting it, and it has a 1-2% fatality rate. For this reason the advice seems to be that at-risks groups (which include cyclists and campers you-know-where) should consider having the vaccination course. 

So that's three shots at €40 a shot; €120 each to add to what was supposed to be a cheap holiday. Money well spent? Well it's hard to judge the risks on this sort of thing (just ask Ben Goldacre if you don't believe me) - trying to put it in perspective even taking the worst case: say 1 in 200 x 2% x say 50% chance of getting bitten/latched onto by a tick in a week (that last is a complete guess by the way) = 1 in 20,000 chance of death.  Which compares to something like a 1 in 94,000 chance of dying cycling in the first place. [A direct comparison of those figures is statistically completely wrong, as different things were being measured in each case - so please don't imagine that means 5x more likely!!!] 

Maybe we will end up going to the punkkibussi after all, too much knowledge is a worrying thing for Konna at least ... or am I being complacent when we can fix it with a needle or three?

Mämmiä - kiitos!

nam nam...

'Mämmi' is a traditional Finnish Easter time dessert made from rye flour and malt. It has a brown and sticky appearance (yes, it does look like...) and as far as mämmi is concerned there are two types of people: those who love it; and those who hate it. There's no middle ground.

'Mämmi' can be bought ready-made from a shop during Easter in a variety of boxes and sizes. Making mämmi isn't hard either; it just takes quite a lot of time... As you might not get this delicacy elsewhere than in Finland - you might wish to prepare it yourself (we strongly advise against this!): 5 bowls made out of birch bark (?), 3.5 litres of water, 1kg of rye flour, 1/4kg of malt (preferably rye malts), 2 tablespoons of syrup, 2 teaspoons of salt and 2 tablespoons of orange peel. 'Mämmi' is usually eaten with cream or milk & sugar. And apparently it will take you approx. 30mins of nordic stick walking to burn a small bowl of this stuff - so perhaps you don't eat it at all...

Hauskaa Pääsiäistä!

Tipuja rairuohossa

'Rairuoho' (= Easter grass) is growing fast and is ready for the Easter and some local chicks have already found it as their home... Hmmm... How is your rairuoho doing - esp. peops I sent the seeds to? Is it as green and dense as the one above? Let us know! Any wildlife there yet (yes - the chock eggs are counted as wildlife in this case). Happy Easter time to everyone!