| We had been seeing posters around Lapua advertising a World Market being held in Vaasa so we checked with Christine to see if there were better public transport options than what we were seeing on the internet. Instead, she offered us the use of her husband's boxy old Volvo station wagon. Before leaving Saturday morning we picked flowers for pressing to include in the installation. Then driving for an hour on well maintained, mostly straight roads through rural Finland. Alongside, a few meters away from the roads are wide paved bicycle/walking paths that receive quite a bit of use. The World Market was thoroughly disappointing. |
We did stop in a Video/Candy store on the way there and found several different varieties of licorice (taste videos to follow). Fortunately Christine had recommended that we drive further through a string of islands to where the road ends, the world heritage site at Svedjehamn.
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After lunch of a lovely salmon chowder at the cafe at the end of the road we took a short hike on the nature trail, stopping at the brilliantly designed observation tower to enjoy the views and read about the site. The land was compressed by the weight of the glaciers during the Ice Age and has been rising since. In 2,000 years the land raised the height of the tower and in another 2,000 years will do the same. Without the rising seas of global warming Sweden and Finland would become connected by land. Efforts have been made to reconstruct the old buildings historically utilized for salting herring.
We originally set off on a longer loop but the very large mosquitoes made the hike in boggy areas a constant effort at swatting so we decided on the shorter loop.
We originally set off on a longer loop but the very large mosquitoes made the hike in boggy areas a constant effort at swatting so we decided on the shorter loop.
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