Author: Annikki

We continue to explore the Great Lakes area.  From Chicago we took a Greyhound bus to Appleton, where I had my only working day a half day meeting to select candidates for the Hall of Fame of paper making area. The day also happened to be my birthday and in the evening Pekka took me to see the Broadway musical School of Rock that was on a tour just in Appleton on those days.

We came to the Northern Wisconsin mainly to visit mom and grandma of Pekka’s daughter in law, but I was also interested to see the area where Finnish immigrants moved to work in the logging and mining early 1900. In this area you can  still see the Finnish influence in the names and culture. As we went shopping the young cashier was delighted to hear we came from Finland and told her grandfather  came from Finland. Here are Finnish museum, Sisu skiing and several Finnish names of the roads.

When we arrived here it was cold and still snow on the heaps, but today and the coming days temperature around 20 C degrees have been forecasted.

After Lake Michigan I really waited for to see the lake Superior. It has been an important route for  fur trade and later for ore ships. Several ship wrecks also have occurred there when storms came and wind bowed  from the arctic areas of Canada. We were there now off season time, but on the shores of the Lake there were nice little towns and villages with beautiful restaurants. Had a white fish lunch in one of those which was open.

 

 

 

We have spent here eight whole days but this city is so huge and there is so much to see like several small towns inside this city.  Friendliness of people has  several times surprised us. We have walked miles everyday, the pedometer of my phone has shown even 19 000 steps one day and every day more than 10 000. The weather has been cool around 10 C , but that fits both of us well.

House watching was one of our joys.

The street greenwood was blocked for presidential drives only, but along the sidewalk you could walk.

 

Did not spend so much time in downtown.

 

 

 

Today visited the History museum of Chicago. It helped to understand this  huge city. Immigrants from different parts of the world have brought their habits and culture, black people from the south and Mississippi area have brought their music, and blues is still thriving. There are still names like Andersonville, Ukrainian village etc.  In our corner there is Ann Sather cafe, which is advertised as a Swedish chain with its  famous cinnamon rolls. One of those was brought to us even before lunch and  it was covered with very sweet sugar sauce. Did not taste very Swedish to me.

So far we have used our days by walking around different areas. Outside the city center “Loop” the scale is more human and  atmosphere is relaxed.

Getting from one place to another needs time although the public transportation is good and easy to use. The main system is the elevated train “L” , which was built already end of 19th century. Buses drive along the crossing streets and stop every second block.  But the distances  are long and you easily need more than an hour if you need to move between the L train lines.  Our choice was to take the train  to a new area and then explore it by foot.

 

A walking path like ” Baana” is built on an old elevated railway , blue line is crossing it.

L- train is elevated outside the city center, but inside it is underground, this photo from the corner of Graceland cemetery.

 

 

We chose Air BNB from the Northern part of the city near Loyola university and close to the L- train station. An extra plus is view to the Lake Michigan from the ninth floor. This is a 12 store high block made of bricks, so it must be quite old.. The first day we just used to stroll around, find the shops and cafes around. Bought traffic card, sim card and took. Visited the host who taught us how to use the gas stove where to put the garbage etc.

 

Stepping  in looks precious. However, people living here seem to be quite ordinary.

 

The apartment as such is modern and walls covered with modern paintings. The best its however the view to the lake.

 

After this it is time to start exploring downtown.

So unfortunately flying is practically only way traveling to US. We are heading first to Chicago, after that small university town Appleton and finally visit almost relatives in Northern Wisconsin near Lake Superior. My husband Pekka follows me, what I am happy about.

 

We flew Icelandair, which is fast cheap and changing  planes in Keflavik is easy due to the small airport. Luckily part of the flight was bright so we could see the Greenland  icy mountains and open fjords. Flying over Lake Michigan gave some idea how large the Great Lakes really are.

These places are like three different faces of Bretagne.  Rennes is a lively university city with young people and touch of intellect. Old medieval center is full of small restaurants and terasses, along the river are bold 18 hundred facades. New futuristic buildings are rising even around old medieval houses.

St Malo is a small idyllic, but touristic town surrounded by walls on the Atlantic coast. Spent again time at the beach just watching the sea and people strolling around the low tide area.

Brest is a commercial harbour and naval base of French army. The whole city was bombarded to ruins by the allied troops during WWII as there were German navy base at that time. After the  war the city was rebuilt, somewhere I saw it named the ugliest city of France. To me it looks little like a former Soviet city, but somehow I liked the roughness of the city.

Our hotel in Brest is down at the harbour area which is a mixture of  harbour life and lively restaurant street.

In Brest sightseeings worth visiting are Oceanopolis and Marin museum, which is located in the old fortress of Brest. It tells about the long history of ship building here. Brest is an important ocean research center and also Oceanopolis is more like a science center than aquarium.

Enjoyed watching the fishes, but even bigger experience was seeing a wild delfin jumping in the harbour area during our evening stroll.

In St Malo is a memorial of resistance. This is perhaps a little difficult topic in Bretagne, because Nazis gave  Bretons some privileges they had missed. Part of them were in the resistance though.

In Rennes we stayed in a small hotel at the residential area. although I was wondering did I make a wrong choise when dragging our suitcases and trying to find the place. However finally it was a delighting small hotel and a frequent bus connection to downtown was found.

In the cafeteria was a jukebox, old comic books and funny old-time things.

At the breakfast you prepared your own juice and coffee and cut your bread with a giljotin but everything was really fresh then.

Now Goodbye  Bretagne we will meet again. Train from Brest to Paris is waiting.

Six hours with TER trains from Normandia to  Bretagne through countryside, small villages and towns. Cows and horses, hilly scenery.

 

 

In Northern France all railway connections go through Paris.  It seems that TGV seats toward Paris are sold out often, at least the interrail quote. That happened to me now third time when tried to get a seat from Antwerpen to Paris. So again trip was done using  small local TER trains and several changes.

We found our way from busy Gare du Nord to Gare St Lazare from where the trains to Normandia are leaving. Enjoyed some jazz at the station and found a lively lunch restaurant across the station.

The town resembles small Lissabon with its steep hills. The neighbouring Deauville is more flat and like a jet set place with its film festivals and old villas. Sandy beaches are on both sides.

I am still confused with the ebb and tide, when the water  is rising and lowering, but maybe I learn during this trip.

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