Digging into history

 

Turku Cathedral

Last weekend IT and I traveled to Turku. My two sisters and two of my brothers live in the surrounding areas and a while ago my parents also moved there. So we took a train over the river and through the wood to gradma's house. 

My mother is pretty archetypical grandmother - she loves to spoil her children and grandchildren. Obviously it was lovely to visit. There were Finnish cookies in a jar. Grandpa had bought Danishes. IT also got a chance to sleep over one night at my sister's. His 13-year-old cousin lives there and they are good friends. I suspect they were gaming late into the evening. 

 Turku used to be the capital from the Medieval times until early 19th Century. Well, not quite the capital, since Finland was then part of Sweden, and Stockholm was where the king lived, but at least capital of the East land where people spoke mostly Finnish. Unfortunately Turku was also super prone to devastating fires, so there aren't many Medieval buildings standing. However, when the Rettig house was being remodeled, the diggers found old ruins underneath - a whole Mediaval street of them. The building became the museum Aboa Vetus Ars Nova - "old Turku new art". It houses an archeological museum and a contemporary art museum. We visited the archeological part on Saturday. 

They built big fat walls way back then

 My mother, IT and his cousin MH were my crew. We learned that Turku has been burned over 30 times in recorded memory. No wonder there's so little left! Also, imagine the fear of fire in the quarters that were most prone! 

We also learned that seal bones are totally normal finds in archeological digs, since people have been hunting seals in the Baltic sea for thousands of years. IT and MH played an old game, wolf and sheep, where you can either play one wolf or several sheep. 

Museum explorers

After the museum we also visited the Turku Cathedral, since it was close by and since I really like it. It is huge, slightly ominous and it makes you feel the centuries. The cathedral was built before 1300. It was built to be a Catholic church, but during the Reformation it was converted to a Lutheran church, as all other Catholic churches at the time in Finland and Sweden. 

The nave of Turku Cathedral, organ in back

The square around the Cathedral will be familiar to those of you who have watched the proclaiming of Christmas Peace on Christmas Eve. 

This is where the Assistant Mayor of Turku reads 
the proclamation

 We had our first snow! It started snowing just as we got into the train to leave for Turku. It was still on the ground the next morning, but did disappear during the day. This week is going to be chilly enough for more snow, though. 

I heard it snowed in Ithaca too. Snow is so pretty, especially in the beginning of the winter.  

Snow by my parent's apartment

 It was lovely to visit and lovely to return home too. We miss PW though. He should be back in a week.