Monday 3 August 1998

Slideshow Pictures

In Varkaus Lasse, Rachel and I stopped at the locks and watched as the lock was filled to allow two pleasure boats to go to the other lake.

In the meantime Tuulikki and Rita stopped at a fish store and bought a fish pie. It is made with lake fish in a rye dough. Tuulikki and Lasse have a beautiful house right on the lake in Varkaus.

It is possible to go to their cottage by boat right from this house.

We had dinner of fish pie and fried cheese and later Lasse left to go to Estonia on a business trip. After Lasse left we drove around with Tuulikki who showed us her son’s house and the pony they had bought for their grandson, which they were boarding at a farm. The lady who was looking after the pony had been to Vancouver. It is amazing how many people we met on the trip, have been in Vancouver. Then we drove back to the house.

 Rita did some laundry, and Tuulikki set the dryer on such low heat, to save energy, that it took the whole night to dry them. Went to bed early.

Tuesday 4 August 1998

Had breakfast with Tuulikki.

Then headed to Tampere to see Tuulikki’s sister Annikki. On the way we stopped to fill up the car and had a bite to eat at the restaurant at the gas station.

We had arranged to phone Annikki’s son Markku when we arrived in Tampere. We phoned him from in front of the hospital. He was driving a blue beetle which wasn’t hard to spot. We followed him to Annikki’s apartment where we met her second son Raimo and her granddaughter Salla.

Markus makes pottery figurines. He showed us some of his collection and gave us three sculptures that he had made. Had a late lunch and after we were joined by Annikki’s daughter (Markku’s twin sister) Marjut, son-in-law and their two children.

The kids were fine but the parents were super shy. They didn’t utter two words while we were there. We left for Helsinki around 5:00 p.m.