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Started our trip on October 3rd the day of reunification of Germany.   Pekka my husband is my travelmate this time.

We did not stay long in Berlin, but headed towards Leipzig,  a former DDR city. Leipzig is a city of about the size as Helsinki, it is an old city of  book printing, university, fairs and music.  Bach and Wagner had strong connections to Leipzig. We also liked the structure of the city, several parks and forest areas, most buildings were from the early 1900 different styles. For an interrailer it was interesting to see the largest railway station building in Europe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trondheim is a lovely wooden town where I have visited during my working years often. This time I continued with a ferry to Hitra Island and further to Fröya island where several old colleagues met for a week-end meeting. At the end of the meeting we made boat trip to outer archipelago, Sula island. Some of our group were real bird watchers so we managed to see several sea eagles and other birds.

 

I have always dreamed of overnighting at this sailing boat and here I am now. My cabin is with three bunkbeds but so far I am the only one here.

A new experience today was aqvarels of Lars Lerin at Liljewalchs museum. I did not know him beforehand but a friend, Liisa took me there. They look like photographs but in a pleasant careless way. Second target was lunch in Nordiska museet and third coffee at Fotografiska.

What was new in Stockholm:

1. Tram, a new shiny blue tram with a conductor to check your tickets

2. Rush of bikers, as the cycling routes are not so good long double queus of bikers were waiting the lights to change.

3. Slussen under construction. It was a bit difficult find your way among contemporary stairs and sidewalks.

You may wonder why I do not have more photos in this post. This wordpress only accepts photos smaller than 2 Mb, and I have not found a way to reduce the size with this phone. I do not have my big camera and computer with me this time.

 

Now I am packing and the ferry leaves this afternoon taking me to Stockholm.  This time I am planning to make the Scandinavian tour by train. A seven day interrail ticket has been waiting in the drawer since last day of December. The  campaign for reduced price tickets ended then.

These beautiful shoes I decided to leave away anyway, although one party is waiting. Weather forecast has promised over 20  for at least  10 days, except in Trondheim archipelago. Do I need jeans or are shorts and a woolen sweater  enough etc and always you have too much. This is the dilemma of packing.

We stay in a motel by the highway 2, that crosses the whole US. This looks like the ones in American movies, you would expect to have a bottle of whisky with you.

This area has strong history of mining and logging, but the mines are now shut down. Most probably this is where Trump did get his supporters when he promised to open the mines, but nothing has actually happened or will happen. Luckily our hosts did not believe in him.

Except many Finns, other Scandinavian, Polish and Italian, who came here, the area has also population of Native Americans. They live in reservates and enjoy some priviledges like selling alcohol and cigarettes without taxes. They also have Casino.

Our hostess LeeAnn did show her art work and and gave demonstration of Taj Chi at her studio.

 

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.