Summer Holidays 2 - On the way to Mikkeli

We slowly started our journey towards Mikkeli by taking some small country roads and getting lost between Humppila and Tampere... too much confidence on navigation skills without map. In Tampere we spent few days just checking out the village.

As usual we walked a lot, this time in Pyynikki and Pispala areas. I must admit that these places are not too bad. Hills with nice houses have sort of same feeling that many areas in Sydney. 

The cultural part of our stay consisted of a visit to Amuri which is a traditional working class area of Tampere. Particularly the museum of workers' housing was found to be fascinating. The following two pictures illustrates the past and the present of this animated community.

  

On the entertainment side the slides became the new corner stone of playground activities.

From Tampere we drove along lake Päijänne, stayed overnight in Joutsa before enjoying the hospitality of Otso's aunt Marja and her husband Matti in their summer house in Mäntyharju. In this very same place Otso has been swimming a lot many years ago. Therefore this was a perfect spot for Iines to have her first swim in a real lake which was an enjoyable yet tiring experience as you can see from the picture below.

Later in the evening Mikko joined us. He was on his way to Helsinki from Ilosaarirock in Joensuu. The time flew as we had sauna, chatted and enjoyed a fantastic dinner. The next morning everyone continued their journeys, we headed to Tiili's summer place in Mikkeli.