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).

the entrance to the church

the view from the balcony

looking up

the top of the dome roof from the outside

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.

look who I found in the cemtery

Otto and Hedvig, my 2x great grandparents

Gustaf is my 3x great grandpa

Gustaf’s wife, Ulrika is there too, but in a separate grave

having candle lanterns on graves is a common thing in Finland

isn’t this grave pretty

more pretty graves …

this was interesting, grave plaques or markers with lanterns

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?

now a cafe, but formerly a mental hospital in Helsinki

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 have cousins come and visit and with quiche, rhubarb pie, Tim Tams and Fruchocs (chocolate covered apricots), chatter, photos and family history … it was a great afternoon.

cousins

and I said we needed a group selfie

Tomorrow we head off to the Summer house.

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.