Finland Day 2 and 3: Churches, Cemeteries, a Mental Hospital and Family...

My adventures in Finland continue and cover churches, cemeteries, a mental hospital and family. Sounds like an interesting mix. Right? Friday 30 June 2017 The day was cool and cloudy, and rain was forecast, still my cousin took me touristing again. This time to the Rock Church in Helsinki. I found this listed on a number of “things you must do in Finland” lists, so asked if we could go there. The Rock Church is a modern church, built in the 1960s that has been built into rock and largely underground. I know my photos don’t do it justice, so here’s a link to find out more about it. It is a big tourist attraction, and yes it even costs to enter (3 Euros/person). Next stop was the Helsinki cemetery. I visited this cemetery a couple of years ago and was shown some relatives graves then, so it was an interesting challenge to see if we could locate them again from memory. Yay for us, we did, though we pretty much walked the entire cemetery looking for them. But since it’s a spectacular cemetery, and the rain held off it was lovely to just wander. I know a cemetery wouldn’t be on most tourist’s itinerary, but you know it’s what us genie folk LOVE, so I was pleased that we got there.   Following on from visiting a church and a cemetery, my cousin took me to a mental hospital which is now partly a cafe … you’d never guess it from outside would you? Saturday 1 July 2017 Yesterday was seeing the ancestors, today was seeing the cousins. Today was an ‘at home’ day, so I don’t have any interesting place pictures to show you. But we did...

Genealogy Holidays: 2014 and 2015 Booked Up!...

Recently I’ve been planning my holiday trips for 2014 and 2015, and strangely enough they all revolve around genealogy events … surprise! surprise! But considering I rarely take any time off, the trips in 2014 and 2015 will be quite a novelty. So here’s what I’m planning at this stage … February 2014 – 4th Unlock the Past Cruise First up I’m going on the 4th Unlock the Past Cruise which is a eight day/nine night cruise next February. This one travels around the bottom of Australia (from Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide, Sydney). So no exotic islands this time, but since I tend to spend most of my time in the conference rooms anyway that’s no big deal. I’m going for the genealogy. I’m going for the friends. I’m going for the food. I’m going for the ship (it really is a mini-city on water). And I’m going to learn from the awesome lineup of speakers. This will be unlike anything else I’ve ever been to, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to need a big long break afterwards to recover from trying to soak up everything I can. Alas I know that won’t happen, as there will be a backlog of work waiting for me. Seriously I can’t believe it is now less than four months away! That’s just going to fly by. More on this cruise … July 2014 – 5th Unlock the Past Cruise My next trip after that will be in July 2014, when I get to go cruising again, (yes, it’s becoming a bit of a habit). This will be on the 5th Unlock the Past Cruise, and it’ll take me the to the UK, a place that I’ve never been before. Travelling from...