Our journey starts here. A favourite of mine: an old cloth factory made into shops, restaurants and apartments:
Another view:
TREELESS EUROPEAN CITIES:
Quiet here:
Sunday afternoon at shop closing time. Not much traffic, but good for me!
The Lumber Square. A place where people bought lumber, later coal for heating and also cloth.
This small round building at the square is the first public toilet in Turku. Before that people just peed on the street. Now it's a restaurant. Behind it one of my favourite buildings.
From Wikipedia, a shot during the night. BTW, the grand fire of 1827 that destroyed 95% of the city started here. The fire of 1827 is the same for Turku as the 1666 fire is for London.
Turku Synagogue:
New, old, wooden, stone mixed. And also sun.
Another downhill view:
Random street:
Which building doesn't fit in? The one in the middle is a Swedish Lutheran Congregation office building.
A very controversial building.
Not a very shabby school, eh?
Quiet in the centre on a late Sunday afternoon:
Brewery and Restaurant Koulu (lit. the School).
The Turku Market Hall there on the right in brick:
The most beautiful building in Turku IMO. The Verdandi House:
A quick rest in the shade and a sip of water on this lovely yard or "park".
Dunno what this house originally was, but now it's offices and the restaurant Bryssel (Brussels)
Bank of Finland, Turku chapter. "Waihetus- Laina- ja Depositioni-Contori". No, that's not jibberish Italian, it's old Finnish.
A new building in front of the bank. Quite nice, actually.
Another of my favourites, the Katiska House (lit. the Fish trap House).
Turku wasn't an official Hansa city, only an associate, but no wonder they chose the name for this shopping centre:
The mall is created in the inner yard of this block. All the houses are now shops or restaurants and it's fully roofed and AC:d. Poor AC, though. But the guy who come up with this idea is a genius. This is what some of it looks inside:
The Art Museum on the hill there:
Turku Orthodox Church:
The tourist train.
Superman:
Quiet here as well:
Another favourite of mine. Who said wooden buildings can't look nice?
Damn this photo was poor. In the middle is the Wanhan Paronin Kellari (the Cellar of the Old Baron). If you ever visit Turku, go to that restaurant. It's excellent!
St. Michaels' Church:
One of the more controversial buildings in Turku. A 60's apartment building which doesn't even fit in the picture. It takes the whole of the south side of that block. Some people hate it, but I find it quite inoffensive.
All 5 people on that patio are desperately trying to be in the sun.
1-story wooden building still left:
Port Arthur, one of the most lucrative areas in Turku. It was built in 1900-1910 as workers' apartments, but in a stylish fashion. The houses face the street and the blocks have a common inner yard, quite crampy at times, but now all houses are renovated and completely out of reach for the average working man. Oh, the irony. This building style is quite indegenous for Finland.
A more open inner yard:
And a crampier one:
Port Arthur "main street":
Gettin' claustrophobic?
Sigyn, a commercial barque in Forum Marinum:
Suomen Joutsen (lit. the Swan of Finland), an interoceanic wooden/metal commercial cargo ship built in St. Nazaire in 1902. One of the last and largest commercial wooden sail ships. Also a former school ship for the Finnish Navy. In 1933 she went from Helsinki to Rio de Janeiro making only one stop. Sailed also from Helsinki to New York, and made some stops just for fun in Dakar, Senegal and Havana, Cuba.
Decommissioned gunboat Carelia. Less seaworthy than Suomen Joutsen
. Armament: 1x 120mm Bofors howitzer, 2x 40mm AA-guns, 2x twin 23mm ZU AA-guns, 2x ASROC rocket launchers, and mines if you want to.
Quite empty at Forum Marinum as well:
Some lovely 60's on the river bank:
Some more on that hill:
Still not very crowded here:
The problem in Turku. The riverside is crowded and everyone is here. The centre looks deserted sometimes due to this. I wasn't able to even bike at some points.
A good example how a new building blend in with the old one. I really like this solution:
Ugly 60's again:
Ok, now I'm up to the Observatory Hill. The sea level at 0 AD was right here:
Observatory Hill park:
The city gardeners could do something about this path. A bit overgrown:
Now I'm almost on the top. This is where the sea level was at 4000 bc. Ok, it's a long time ago, but the post-galactic rebound is still huge:
Even the Cathedral tower which dominates the city would be barely visible at 4000 bc:
The (former) Observatory:
Apparently now partly a consulate of the Netherlands. Good luck if you're Dutch and need help. Climb up!
Make war not love. A Bofors 75mm AA gun and an opinion tagged:
Wouldn't mind living here. The Observatory park would be my neighbor:
On the hill is also the craftsman museum. One of the very few areas that survived the fire of 1827 due to its' elevation. This is how Finnish people lived in the 1700's. The museum was already closed and behind gates, so I just took pictures behind the bars.
This is how the whole area looks like:
This was apparently a bourgeois house, as it has a stone foundation and an attic. Still pretty crappy, right?
Across the street is a huge beautiful villa complex that was unfortunately gated as well:
Some very rare mixed wooden-stone Art Nouveau:
Stone and wood once again in harmony... No, they really aren't.
The river Aura:
The Cathedral School of Turku, the oldest continuously functioning high school in Finland, founded in 1276. Of course not in this building, this was built in the 1830's.
House Brinkkala, the Turku Art Center. The horizon isn't screwed up, the topography is and the building is actually sloped. Neoclassicism at its' best:
The old 'Rathaus' (seat of local government). The flag of Turku is waving proud.
I didn't have access here, as everything was closed, but this is the inner street of this block. Its' dimensions are still the same as they were in the 13th century. And this was a main road in medieval times! Pic from Wikipedia:
Some more rare stone-wooden Art Nouveau
And a couple more cramped alleys:
New very nice student dorms:
Old ones at the back:
Out of the city, final destination: St. Mary's Church. MAYBE the oldest church site in Turku, seen there in the horizon. Again, the original church was of wooden construction, and this one was built in the early 15th century.
But first the suburb of Halinen. Sometimes called the Monaco of Turku. As nobody pays taxes. They're all on social security...
Bye, bye!
Some old suburbia before the church:
Green:
And same design as the other church I took pictures of. (I knew this, though.)
A Celtic cross on the roof? We aren't Catholic anymore!
A "quick tour" out of the city. It ends here:
Ok, I take this jogging/hiking trail and will get back... Oh, how dry it is:
Houses again in sight!
Suddenly I was in this suburbia, and was almost lost. Had no idea where to go...
Just biked forward:
And then into this forest. If I'd encountered trolls, I wouldn't have been surprised:
Finally, the river. If I follow this, I'll eventually get home.
A quick break at the river:
Countryside:
River bank. If I follow this I'll eventually get home...
But first some closed canopy forest again:
Suddenly I'm on an old farm and among civilization. Those people in dark were some muslim ladies in full Arabic dresses. A bit out of place, maybe.
And that's concludes our journey. I spent around 4.5 hours with breaks, so hopefully you'll spend at least a couple of minutes.
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