Travelog for: Meleca

After seeing the Old Town for "across the river" I got to do some window-shopping in it!  There are many specialized small shops in Old Town. Mainly handicrafts. The first shop we photographed is called Riimikko and it sells toys that are made of wood and tin etc. Basically everything else but plastic. In that open space in the middle of the photos is a market place. It's full of different booths in the summer, selling all sorts of crafts. That "box" that is painted with clothes is one of many (and this one's the biggest): the local art school kids got to paint over the electricity boxes to make them look nicer (before they were dull grey/brown). Their theme was shops

My host attended yet another Postcrossing meetup in Helsinki. She said it's her last in a longer while because she has to cut expenses... But that's what she said on the meetup before this one...

I met some celebrities! The Post had issued stamps if old Finnish rock (& pop)stars and most of them were there to give autographs  My host is too young to be a fan but she got some autographs anyway 

There were lead singers from Popeda, Yö and Mamba! Plus one woman: Maarit.

In the group photo  (taken by Huppu68 as my host missed that) are also the designers of the new stamps: Minni Havas, Klaus Welp and Inge Löök (also famous for her granny postcards). Klaus Welp is the one who designed the rock stamps.
Group photo from left to right: Mamba-singer (Tero Vaara), Minni Havas, Yö-singer (Olli Lindholm), Klaus Welp, Maarit, Popeda-singer (Pate Mustajärvi, he was really nice to my host) and Inge Löök.

My host was too distracted by the celebrities and the meetup that she forgot to give me a sightseeing tour!   

Instead she took me to this Post Museum at the Main Post Office in Helsinki. There's an ongoing exhibition of Finnish Post  - how mail was delivered in the past, stamps, postcards... etc.

"The Post Museum exhibits, researches and preserves implements and material connected with the over 370-year history and the present of Finnish postal service."

This is what Wikipedia has to say about the history of Finnish Post:
In the war of 1808-1809, Russian troops conquered Finland. The country had formerly belonged to Sweden and was annexed to the Russian empire at the Peace Treaty of Hamina on September 17th, 1809. Finland became an autonomous Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire. The Russian Tsar Alexander I (1801-1825) promised that Finland could uphold the existing religion, the basic laws and privileges of the social order.

Finland was allowed to manage its affairs and employment of its own civil servants. A parliament began to assemble from the year 1863 - the same year where Finnish language got official status and became equal with the Swedish language. In 1865, Finland got its own currency - pen and mark - which quickly turned out to be stronger than the Russian Rouble. From the 1860s, trading - import and export - grow rapidly. Population grew from 1 million in 1809 to over 3 million by the end of WW1.
Commemorative honoring Leevi Madetoja, 1987

When Alexander III ascended the throne in 1881, a process of making Finland a more integrated part of the empire started - many attacks were made in the Russian public on the special rights of the Finnish people and efforts were undertaken to abolish these special rights granted to them, and by many small steps this led to the Russification of the Finnish Post.

Today there was also an exhibition of one postcard artist (he does other stuff too) Osmo \"Omppu\" Omenamäki. The posters and most of the cards in the iddle are made by him.

I got to do my own stamps in the museum too - too bad it only got printed on paper 

There was also posters about Postcrossing! The blue framed posters at the end of the photos...

Now I have to say goodbye Finland as I'm off to Germany! Thank you Finland!

Oh my god, this was a fast way. I am already at BlackCats house. She has not loaded her camera akkus, but tomorrow or at the weekend there will be an update from me !

I am happy here, I hope it will be a good time !

Love,
Meleca

Hello !

Today we went to the Margarethenhöhe. It is a part of Essen.

Here are some infos of wikipedia:

Gartenstadt Margarethenhöhe: Founded by Margarethe Krupp in 1906, the garden city with its 3092 units in 935 buildings on an area of 115 ha (284.2 acres) (of which 50 ha are woodland) is considered the first of its kind in Germany. All buildings follow the same stylistic concept, with slight variations for each one. Although originally designed as an area for the lower classes with quite small flats, the old part Margarethenhöhe I has developed into a middle class residential area and housing space has become highly sought after. A new part, Margarehenhöhe II, was built in the 1960s and 1970s but is architecturally inferior and especially the multi-storey buildings are still considered social hot spots.

And finally some photos of me:










An old street sign !


This is at the kindergarden.







And at the end we saw the tram !





Cool, or?

It was a nice day. I hope we can do it again one day.

Today we went on a farm with ostrichs and emus and such animals.
We made a lot nice pictures at the farm.


Here you can see me in front of the field where the ostrichs were walking around.



And I saw the fields around it.



And here are some zoom ins from the ostrichs and emus.









It was a nice day.

Today we went to the water castle in Borbeck. Borbeck is a part of Essen.

Here some informations from Wikipedia:

Schloss Borbeck is the central cultural institution of both borough and district. An institution of the cultural office of the city of Essen, it regularly hosts exhibitions and concerts. A permanent exhibition on the history of the abbey  and the city  has been established in 2006. Essen's public music school has been conducting classes here since 1999. The register office has set up a special room for marriages. The 55 ha (135.9 acres) park is open to the public and the largest park in the northwestern part of Essen. A street nowadays separates a smaller part in front of the castle from the rest of the park; this smaller part mostly consists of hilly lawns and includes a former boxing  arena, which is now used for concerts.











I really loved the day there. Nice castle, or?

Today we visited the castle ruin Altendorf. It is not a big ruin, but a nice place.

Today we visited the Landschaftspark in Duisburg. Here some infos from wikipedia:
Landschaftspark is a public park located in Duisburg Nord, Germany. It was designed in 1991 by Latz + Partner, with the intention that it work to heal and understand the industrial past, rather than trying to reject it. The park closely associates itself with the past use of the site: a coal and steel production plant (abandoned in 1985, leaving the area significantly polluted) and the agricultural land it had been prior to the mid 19th century.

Today we visited the abbey Saarn in Mülheim, which is close to Essen. I don’t know something about the abbey, but it is on the Industrial road. It was built in 1214.

Behind me you can see the Henrichshütte in Hattingen.

Hattingen became part of the Hanseatic League in 1554 and became an important trading town. In 1720, there were 52 operating coal mines within the municipal area and Hattingen became one of the first industrial cities of the Ruhr region. Steel production started in 1853, when the Henrichshütte was founded. The Henrichshütte became one of the most important employers of the whole region and dominated the town until it closed in 1987.

I'm on the road again!!!
Together with 5 other TVs I travelled to another host who will now take care of us and who will reorganise my journey.
3 TVs, Muumipeikko, Miegalyteand Lupus-Tigger gave us a nice welcome.

When Katrin came home today she was really happy. She has finished her Bachelor'S Thesis and now she has finally at lot of free time again. That's got for me and the other TVs because we hope that she will spend a lot of time with us now.

We are visiting Katrin's boyfriend this weekend. He lives in a small town in the state Niedersachsen. While he is at work, we had a walk through the town.

The first thing that caught my eye was the different landscape. In every direction you can see hills.


Nature is everywhere. Here we are sitting in a stone wall. Maybe it was part of the wall of the castle, but Katrin doesn't know anything about it.


Aren't these roses wonderful?


Some of the buildings in the city center are really old. This one is from the 17th century.


The mascot of the city: a donkey! There is a story behind it, but we couldn't find any information about it.


Then we came closer to the castle which is the center of the town. This is the watchtower...


... and  this is the view at the castle. It is not easy to take a good photo of it because everything is really narrow.