Showing posts with label Finland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Finland. Show all posts

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Shadow Sunday: Helsinki


Today's shadows are more than three years old. I can scarce belief it is so long ago that we visited Helsinki as part of our 2006 Baltic cruise.

We were touring the city by coach and at one point, where the road runs by a beach area near a ferry terminal, we stopped at a zebra crossing. A flock of Canada geese were waiting for the traffic to stop. The guide told us they regularly used this route to cross to the parkland opposite and always showed perfect road manners.

From my position in the coach I only saw them when they had waddled into the shadows of the trees in the park.

Visit Hey Harriet to discover more contributions to Shadow Shot Sunday.

Saturday, June 06, 2009

The Sons of Camus Writers International Journal #6


Laboratooriumi --
grass in cracks under wooden doors
so quiet



Russia's Venice
from this one bridge
eight to be seen



fish market
next to the herring stall
second-hand books


These are just three of my contributions to the latest issue of this journal for writers over 55. You'll find in it nine "charcoals" based on photographs of Tallinn, Saint Petersburg and Helsinki.

John Light contributes a story which he says is extracted from a novel under construction. It is an enthralling piece and I enjoyed
I distrust experts. They see everything with a trained eye and the trained eye sees only what it has been trained to see ...
Raymond Humphreys has an essay on Poetry in Translation whilst Herbert Williams asks Who are the British?.

There is more artwork with a series of collages by Alan Perry as well as short stories, reviews and poetry to be found in the journal's 200 pages.

Editor, Ann J Davidson, is currently considering submissions for the next issue by email at scwijournal@gmail.com

Read the review of issue #5

Read reviews of issues ##1-4 on NHI Review
The Sons of Camus Writers International Journal
Rubini Publications
Gropious St #30
Limassol 3706
Cyprus
ISSN 1705-429X
CY£5 [€9; UK£6; US$10; CAN$15 including shipping]

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

ABC Wednesday - H is for Helsinki


In 2006 we visited Helsinki.


It was a hot day.


There was a lot to see. The above three shots are all taken from the same place.

A view from outside the railway station can be found on Sithenah.


This is our coach outside the Temppeliaukio Church; the final stop on our tour of the city.

For more H posts visit ABC Wednesday.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

ABC Wednesday - T is for Travel

I could have gone T for Tallinn but you can see my photos and account of that lovely city here and here.

I could have gone T for Trondheim but you can see my photos and account of that lovely city here.

I could have gone T for Tenerife but you can see my photos and account of that island here.

People seem to have the impression that I am well-travelled but I have only visited 13% of the world.



This map and the others you can compile on the net are bit misleading but interesting nonetheless. For the first 50-odd years of my life apart from a week in Amsterdam in 1980 [which included a day-trip to Brussels] and one holiday in Denmark, I never left the UK. However we saw an awful lot of the UK from St Agnes in the Scillies to Unst in Shetland. Very few areas of the British Isles are unvisited.

We didn't start world-travelling until 1999 when we ventured across the sea to Ireland. Later that year we flew via Amsterdam to Los Angeles. On the visited countries map that is enough to colour in the whole of the USA from New York westwards including Alaska.

In 2001 we had our tremendous holiday of a lifetime spending a month travelling around New Zealand which puts some colour in the bottom right-hand corner. The dot representing Singapore, our only stopover in Asia barely shows up.

The following year, having had to give up driving, we took a coach holiday through Europe visiting 9 countries in 9 days. There were some highlights but, in some respects it was possibly one of our grimmest holidays. It certainly colours the map though.

It was three years before we ventured abroad again on a fabulous cruise to Ireland, Greenland, Iceland and Norway. In 2006 we went quite mad (and why not?). Firstly we had a holiday in February to Tenerife, which adds Spain to the map even though we've never seen its mainland. June saw us on our second cruise, this time to the Baltics. Although we only visit St. Petersburg, the map covers in the whole of Russia all the way to Siberia! Finally at the end of September we went to Crete, which adds Greece to the map even though we've never seen its mainland.

Our only holiday this year was a week in Southport. We have enjoyed a few day-trips to various places. The likelihood is that we won't be doing very much physical travelling in the future except for short journeys. Any regrets? Absolutely none. I travel Around the World everyday without leaving home.

Friday, October 20, 2006

Temppeliaukio Church


In June we went on our second cruise. An account of our first cruise can be found on http://www.geraldengland.co.uk/cr/.

I intend publishing an account of our 2006 cruise and have started a blog Baltic 2006. So far I've done about three-eighths of the journey. I shall do more when I get a breathing-space.

Meanwhile I came across a photograph from inside the rock church on Helsinki DP, so thought now was the time to share my photo of the Rock Church. Sari's photo is taken from the centre of the aisle, whilst mine from a point on the right.

Temppeliaukio Church was built in 1968-1969. It was designed by the architect brothers, Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen. The Lutheran church is built into solid rock.