Travelog for: Elle

On the way to Tampere I saw a few cities, one being Hämeenlinna. Ok, I didn't visit the city but I did see some of the sights from the train!

And finally: Tampere! I could see my next day destination from the window: the Näsinneula Tower... But now I need to rest with my travel companions, we have a busy day tommorow.

Let the adventure begin! I'm now in Tampere a city about 2h drive away from Porvoo. The train from Helsinki also took about 2h. We spent a whole day in the Särkänniemi Adventure Park! I could see some of the rides but we didn't go on many as we were there with kids. I did go on a car ride with the 4 year old (the 2nd photo)!

I also saw the dolphin show in the most northern dolphinarium of the world! The dolphins were very skillfull! Later I got to go on Näsinneula Tower which I mentioned earlier. It's the tallest observation tower in the Nordic countries. The top of the tower stands at a height of 168 metres but we were at 124 metres (by the way: the lifts travel at a speed of 6 metres per second). It's like half way to Eiffel Tower  The views were quite amazing from up there!

The next day: before heading back home we visited the Moominvalley of the Tampere Art Museum. On the way there we saw this nice church - we tried to find information on it in the Tampere tourism website but we didn't have any luck - or rather my host got lazy   

Anyway, the Moominvalley Museum is situated in the same building as the library (see 2nd photo). We weren't allowed to take photos in the Moominvalley exhibitions but we could take a few in the first hallway and in the "event room" where that game was (I'm on the game with Roo and Alfie Langer). There you can see some of the original works of Tove Jansson, the creator of Moomin. We did visit the next door Moomin shop too, but took pics only on the outside. Would I be a fashionable elephant if I was wearing Moomin clothes?

There was a bicycle event nearby: I saw this car with a light on the roof driving fast - and a bike trying to catch it! Later we saw some more of the city center and biking event - and the Moomin! I really met a real Moomin! What a great way to end a trip to a country 

So this was my visit to Finland, my next destination will be the UK! Sayonara!

I've now started my journey towards the UK! Thank you Finland! Domo arigato gozaimasu!

When I arrived in London I was greeted by Travel Ted (who, I must say, was looking very handsome indeed). He told me that once I’d freshened up from my journey he had a lovely surprise for me.

It was a very lovely surprise indeed. Travel Ted had arranged for a photo shoot to help me complete my mission to become a fashionable elephant.

Watching TV in the evening I had no idea of the peril I was in as Travel Ted’s unwelcome guest, Greedy, crept up behind me with an elephant-sized meal in mind. It was very lucky that Travel Ted arrived just in time to save me. Afterwards he put his arm round me, which made me feel all warm inside. My hero!

Today I went sightseeing in central London. Unfortunately I had to go on my own because Travel Ted was grounded as a punishment for kicking Greedy. This is apparently unacceptable behaviour irrespective of how naughty Greedy was.

The sun was shining and I had a nice day anyway. First I went to Trafalgar Square where I saw Nelson’s Column and the famous lions. There were lots of boys climbing on the lions but they were very big and I was a bit scared of them so I kept my distance.

Next I crossed the Golden Jubilee footbridge across the river Thames. From there I had a good view of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament as well as all the river boats. Finally I had my picture taken in front of the big wheel called the London Eye.

Travel Ted is so kind that he has helped me to complete another mission by taking me on an aeroplane. He even told me a story about Dumbo the flying elephant to stop me from being scared.

Two hours later we arrived in Italy, but this is just the beginning of the journey as our hotel is in Switzerland.

Lugano is very pretty. We walked a long way through the gardens at the edge of the lake. We saw an enormous fountain and met a funny looking rhino.

Locarno is nice too. I liked to sit on the hotel balcony and watch the world go by.

Today we had a big adventure. On the slopes of a nearby mountain we visited the sanctuary of Madonna del Sasso. A monk told us all about how difficult it was to carry all the stones and materials up there in order to build and even today there is no road. We got there by funicular.

We took a cable car further up the mountain, where it looked very pretty and Swiss (although the cavalry fort and ‘Indian camp’ was a bit of a surprise).