Author: Annikki

Ferrara is a modern lively town, streets are full of bikes, nearly everybody from kids to oldies cycle around. In Ferrara history is around you. Buildings from Middle age and Renesance are several and the whole town is protected by an old 9km long fortification.Savonarola,the Middle age strict reformist was born and studied here and the statue behind the castle reminds of him. The castle is surrounded by water, and carps are grown there. Before I saw one I thought they were small or middle sized fishes, but the one that showed up was a huge, two meters long creature with a wide gap.

Our hostess Laura adviced us three nice restaurants. You could get delicous three course meal and glass of regional wine with 25 Euros. Pumpkin and bolete were seasonal food served in different forms.

Ferrara is between Venice and Florence and it was an ideal place to stay for a few days. We made a day trip to Biennale where we visited Finnish, Estonian, Nordic, Danish, US, Belgium and Spanish pavillions. Venice scenery we only enjoyed during vaporetto drive through Grand canal to Santa Luzia railway station.

We passed to Italian side through the Brenner pass. Along the whole way from Innsbruck you could enjoy great mountain sceneries. We overnighted in Bolzano Bozen, which is a bilingual town with German majority. There is even a third language Ladin. Somehow bilingual places fascinate me, Guten Morgen Buon Giorno was greeting you could hear everywhere.

The pompous railway station building was from the fascism time built 1928. The influence of Eliel Saarinen’s Helsinki Railway station was mentioned.

Bolzano is famous for the Archealogical museum, where 5000 years old mummy of iceman Ötzi is kept. He was found early nineties and studied since that.

We overnighted in a big old Villa that served as a home of family Piha. Half of the Villa was reserved for tourists

Nighttrain Snälltåget to Berlin leaves from Stockholm 16.15, so we had time to spend in Stockholm. National museum and the fotoexhibition of Christer Strömholm was a good choice to spend extra hours. Museum also serves a proper lunch.

Our aim was to continue directly from Berlin to Nuernberg , but first train with free seats was in the afternoon so we had a few hours time to walk in the centrum and have coffee in Tiergarten. Except the memorial of Jews killed by Nazis, new to us was on the other side of the street memoriai of homosexuals persecuted under Nazism.

Nuernberg was a nice surprise, with its historical Old town, Albrecht Durer museum, lively atmosphere and lovely small hotei Franconia. We could not avoid eating Bratwursts in Historische Bratwurst kuche from 1419 and Wienerschnitzel the second day. Actually I only new beforehand that the Nazi trials in the forties were held in Nuernberg as well as the big party meeting in the thirties, but the great old history was a pleasant surprise.

Below are the photos, which were unfortunately taken by a tablet, my Canon was too heavy to curry during this trip.

On a ferry to Stockholm with Pekka my husband. I have sometimes said that I enjoy small adventures. The first adventure was at home one hour before we should leave home. I had activated our mobile interrail tickets in a new tablet, but could not remember the pin code that opens the device. The service adviced to return the factory reset, but the tickets would have disappeared, too. So I just had to believe in my intuition. I had tried all our normally used pin codes, but finally the code just came back to my mind and sesam it opened.

In the morning we admire the beautiful Stockholm archipelago, its villas and small oldfashion swimming huts on docks like in the Moomin world. Now ahead is a day in Stockholm and 16.15 Snälltåget night train towards Berlin.

My little red suitcase is now emptied at home. It performed well, although old and worn out, but the wheels managed all the cobblestone streets and stairs and the zipper could every morning close the fully packed suitcase. When I flew to London it was left to Helsinki as the tag had fallen away in the self service bag drop. Helpful officer in Heathrow could find it and next day it was brought to my hotel. After that it followed me through Southern England, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and finally over the Baltic to Helsinki via Turku.

In Sweden I stayed over night in historic town Lund. Old Cathedral Domkyrka was under reparation , but looked really respectable. Sunday morning was quiet when I walked through the town to the railway station. In a small park I found statue of Linnee, studying some plants.

Lund Domkyrka was closed but looked really respectable

The value of Finnish railways increased on my scale when passing Denmark and Sweden. DSB has removed the restaurant cars from the trains. Journey from Hamburg to Copenhagen was 6 hours with one hour stop at the border. In Sweden SJ had big delays both due to the reparation of railway tracks and bad condition of the engines. On my trip one train had to be changed between Copenhagen and Lund and two changes to buses between Lund and Stockholm. Waiting time for the second bus was more than one hour and my final delay in Stockholm was 3 hours, so no time for Fotografiska and no time for coffee with a friend. However, on a trip like that you have to accept changes. Luckily I could reach the ferry to Turku.

My main reason to come to Hannover was my granddaughter, who spends a school year there. It was good to see how well she had adapted to the system and was feeling well. It was wonderful to meet the friendly host family. I was invited to their lovely home and they took me into interesting parks and museums. I could also meet a friend from my own exchange year 55 years ago and her two younger generations.

Covid rules in Germany were most strict of all these countries i had visited. The covid certificate was asked in every cafe, restaurant and museum. Masks were also obligatory everywhere.

Germany seems to be a center point welcoming of Ukrainian refugees. My train passing Danish border stayed for one hour and passports were asked from everybody. I also had an Ukrainian lady sitting beside me. She was kind of surprised of the support she had encountered when fleeing from Odessa through Slovakia and Germany. It was also goo to hear she was full of hope and in contact by whats app with his husband fighting there.

During my one night stay in Amsterdam bikes are the most memorable image in my mind. You really had to be aware of them coming from different directions with high velocity. At the station there were thousands of bikes outside and a big hall for them inside. Maybe I come an other time.

London and Southampton were my targets in UK. London was busy and crowded like a nest of ants. An oasis there was the Kew Gardens where we spent one day with my brother, who joined me for my last day. Spring was still early, but you could find beautiful flowers inside the glasshouses.

The hotel that I had chosen was with mini tiny rooms, but friendly atmosphere. I wanted to stay near St Pancras international station to get easily to Eurostar in the morning. Friendly Georgiu in the reception helped me with sim cards and adviced us a nice Italian restaurant that was lively with locals. Just before leaving for Europe I happened to check my email, and learned I need a negative Covid test result to get to Netherlands. After a small shock we could find a laboratory near the station and I got negative result from an antigen test.

Irises of Kew Garden for us Ladies

In Southampton we celebrated my niece’s wedding with a good group of the family. It was an emotional day first in a beautifully set registry office and after that a party in Juniper Pub. It was exiting to learn to know the English family and their ways to celebrate.

Hugging new Ms Seaman

After the wedding day we walked around in the New Forest Natural park, seeing the old trees, free horses and dears and enjoyed the tea with scones in old English tearoom.

Wedding of my dear niece gave me an excuse to travel again. Corona is hardly over and Russia is invading Ukraina, but among all that there is still hope and joy.

Matera Sassi is the area, where people until the fifties lived in caves carved inside the rocky limestone land. This is one of the Unesco heritage areas and this year 2019 Matera is also one of European culture capitals.

Our room here is also in a cave, it looks rough outside, but inside all is nicely renovated. It was a bit difficult to find this place in the old town, but a friendly reception boy came to fetch us after the dark.