I am currently back in Helsinki. Many thanks to Otto and Paula for the tour of next year’s Finncon site and finding the excellent Thai restaurant. Since we got back to the apartment I have been deeply anti-social as I have had hundreds of blog posts and emails to wade through. I think I am pretty much done by now, though very little has been responded to. I wrote about 2500 words of con report on the train from Tampere, but I’m only up to Saturday night.
This morning I got to see Tampere cathedral, complete with its fresco of naked children. I have pictures but I’m not sure whether I should post them in case my web site starts getting blocked. I also finally got to see the Lenin museum, which was very Soviet and serious, but had managed to find one photo of Lenin smiling. Many thanks to Irma for the guided tour.
Tomorrow I fly back to London. The weather forecast for Darkest Somerset appears to be torrential rain for at least the next three days. Finland has been warm and sunny all the time I have been here. Go figure.
Perhaps this would not cause trouble: link to the official site of the cathedral. Clicking the pictures make then larger.
http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampereen_tuomiokirkko
Sorry for the very poorly guided tour to Lenin museum. It is truly very serious.
AND thank you so much for the most stylish hat I have ever had!!!!!
Ipa
(by the way, the unbelieveble weather was just for Finncon: heavy clouds appeared already this evening
)
That painting is by Magnus Enckellin, an artist well-known as the leading Finnish Symbolist. He was also a gay man with a predilection for painting naked boys and I believe the cathedral picture includes the detail of two men holding hands. I wonder what American tourists make of it?
Er, that should have been Magnus Enckell. Serves me right for blindly copying and pasting…