My grandfather left Finland for Australia as a nineteen year old in 1912. He returned only once to Finland. In 1954 he sailed from Australia with his brother Eino to visit his family.
I am in Finland staying with my cousin Heli. She and her husband Mikko took me to some of the places my grandfather visited. Heli and Mikko live in Kouvola, about 140 kilometers north east of Helsinki. The Finnish countryside is looking wonderful just now. Finland is a country full of beautiful lakes and forests, now in autumn colour.
We started at a nearby church Matti and Eino visited with friends and family.
The next stop was the home of Matti’s sister. The lovely little wooden house remains almost unchanged since 1954.
We also visited the nearby Iitti Kirkko, a wooden church built in 1693. For obvious reasons not a lot of the old wooden churches have survived. The cruciform church has been renovated in 1913 and is looking very smart.
The bell tower is quite different in style from those I am used to seeing in Italy.
Benjamin Maatilatori is a food and craft market which operates from a working farm. There is a good selection of locally grown fruit and vegetables as well as meat from their own pigs. We bought some of the sausages made on the premises.
I think the vegetables below are a type of turnip.
My favorite rye bread rolls were on sale as well as some others unusually displayed on rods high above.
The market was in a beautiful rural setting. I love the brown and white buildings that are found all over Finland.
There was an all purpose shop nearby that has been run by 2 sisters for the last 43 years. As well as regular household supplies they had some very cute little bird houses for sale.
Our last stop for the day was the Russian church in Kouvola.
In the next post I will show you a Finnish barbecue where our sausages were cooked. It is nothing like an Aussie barbecue.