Kemi to Helsinki

 Today was a drive day, all day so not many pics. Mostly snow pics for Jo Anne.

It snowed a little bit more during the night. Thankfully, not enough to be treacherous.


View from the breakfast table
sun rising
a little more snow as we head south
and even more



this makes me think of the background of a Christmas card
love all the snow on the little trees at the bottom


We drove through mostly forest with a few farms along the way.

church in Joutsa, Finland

Luhanga Church, or Luhanga Summer Church, was built from logs, with stone exterior, between 1891 and 1893 and was designed by Josef Stenbäck (same designer as the pink church in Kemi). The church has about 1,500 seats. The shape of the church is a long church with a gabled tower, and on its shell side there is a transversal nave with a crest lower than the crest of the rest of the roof. The style of the church represents neo-Gothic.

The congregation had ordered "simple and cheap" drawings from Stenbäck. The organ was built by A. Jurva in 1897 and has 18 voices. The altarpiece was painted by Selinda Danielsson in 1906, and it depicts Jesus standing at the door and knocking.

The original interior has almost been preserved in the church. The church hall is unlined, and there is no heating or electric lights installed. The church is only in use in the summer, and it is called Luhanga's summer church.

We arrived in Helsinki, Finland about 6 pm. When we turned the corner and saw our hotel, we both said, oh no! But it turns out not to be so bad inside. However, we had to change rooms as there was a leak in the bathroom in the original room. But we're all settled in for the night now.

Tomorrow we are taking a day-trip to Estonia on the ferry, so no driving, for which I'm sure Kim is grateful. 

"Faith in Christ is not just about knowing the truths of the gospel, but about living them as well." PDT

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 8, 2023 at 1:27 PM

    Thanks for the snow pics. I completely agree about the Christmas card background.
    Happy Sunday!! Love, J

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousOctober 8, 2023 at 4:31 PM

    The snow is beautiful. No food pictures
    Vicki

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousOctober 8, 2023 at 11:03 PM

    The snow is beautiful. The church in Joutsa is very interesting with the cut stone, square angles, and tall steeple. I agree Vicki, no food pictures today, hummmmm must have not eaten! - CJ

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Final Day - Oslo, Norway

Image
  Well, this is it - the final day of our Nordic Sojourn.  After breakfast, we took the 8:30 shuttle from the B&B back to the airport to catch a train into the city. It's about 20 minutes by train to the city centre. I love taking the train in Europe. This is the Oslo Central Station as well as Norway's main railway station. It serves as the main junction for both domestic and international trains. Over 150,000 people pass through its doors every day.  The station extends beyond its functional role. Inside is a diverse range of shops from high street fashion outlets to stores selling Norwegian design and souvenirs. It also stands out for its cutting-edge architecture. Its facades are largely covered in glass, allowing natural light to flood the interior. One of the most striking architectural features of Oslo Central (and my favorite) is its large hall  Østbanehallen. Formerly a train shed, it has been transformed into a modern food court. Standing just outside o...
Read more

Bergen to Geiranger

Image
 Whew! What a day. We knew we had a good day of driving ahead of us but a lack of instructions from our lodging caused us to be 2 1/2 hours longer getting here than necessary. But we are all settled in now so back to the beginning of the day. We stayed at the Magic Hotel in Bergen last night. Our room entrance was on the rooftop and the hotel is in the old downtown. View from the rooftop Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway after national capital Oslo. The municipality covers 465 square kilometres (180 sq mi) and is on the peninsula of Bergenshalvøyen. The city centre and northern neighbourhoods are on Byfjorden, 'the city fjord', and the city is surrounded by mountains; Bergen is known as the "city of seven mountains".  You may or may not recognize this photo as taken in the same place as the background photo on the blog. It has changed somewhat since the background photo was taken. This area is known as Brygge or Bryggen and means "a plat...
Read more

Stockholm, Sweden

Image
I couldn't get these two pictures to upload last night so I'm adding them this morning.  It was a miserable night on the ferry. Hot and cramped and horrible bed. I had to stand outside the door to our cabin to take this photo, that's how small it is. You can't open the bathroom door if you are standing in front of it. Quite a trick of maneuvering. We knew it was going to be small so we packed our overnight things in our backpacks and left our suitcases in the car. Even so, there wasn't room to put the packs down. We stood out on the "sun" deck in the wind, rain and cold to say farewell to Finland. And did the same this morning to greet Stockholm. Swedish cinnamon bun and cardamom bun for breakfast (sadly, not for me) I took lots of pictures because the architecture here is just stunning, and their dedication to preserving the history and style of the past is laudable. We were here too early for the Hop on Hop off bus, so we found a place to park and enjoy ...
Read more