Monday, July 18

Yesterday Terhikki suggested that we should see two things while we are in Tampere and so, after a hotel breakfast including Tampere’s speciality blood sausage, we set off walking.

The first item on our agenda is Tampere Cathedral and I will confess that I was not expecting much. I will also confess that I was completely wrong. The church is an astonishingly designed example of the Finnish National Romantic movement, and the whole interior is painted by Hugo Simberg in his style of mysterious and unexplained symbolism. We accidentally bump into a guide who then offers to open the gallery for us. There we find a fresco version of Simberg’s classic painting The Wounded Angel. This one differs from the version in the Athenium Gallery in Helsinki in several key ways. The chimneys have been added, presumabily in reference to the industrial history of Tampere, and the boys look angry instead of simply sad.

Later we will visit the Lenin Museum, Terhikki’s second suggestion, and that will also be extremely interesting. After this we will walk through the covered market before meeting Kaj. He will drive us to collect Anne and her partner Ritva, and we will then go to Kaj’s for a long, pleasant barbecue.

We will get a taxi back and, once again, visit Iluhuone before retiring to bed.