Kvarken Archipelago and Vaasa

The graphic shows how the ground is rising over 4000 years.

We spent two nights in Vaasa so we had time to drive out to Finland's only natural UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Kvarken Archipelago. All the others are cultural. It was added to the UN list in 2005 when it was added to Sweden’s High High Coast across the Gulf of Bothnia. Together they show how glaciers change the landscape. Here in this Finnish archipelago, we can easily see how the land is left as a glacier retreats.

You can see old boat houses in the background.
The land has risen enough that they had to be abandoned.

Eventually these boat houses will also have to be moved.

During the Ice Age, Kvarken was under 3 km of ice. The pressure pushed the land a full kilometer below its normal level. When the glacier retreated it left behind a series of parallel ridges rising from the water. The hiking trail follows these ridges and leads to a high tower where one can get the overhead view. Called De Geer moraines these are best seen from above. What we see from ground level are the thousands of boulders left behind. Today we see them as tiny islands or rocky points protruding above the water making piloting a boat here a real adventure.

Viewing tower

Views from the tower

We can also see the evidence of the land returning to its normal level. At first it rose at about 1 meter per year. Today, the uplift has slowed to about 8 cm per year, a little over three inches. In about 2500 years this land will rise enough to fill in the part of the Baltic Sea joining Finland with Sweden by land. We see the uplift in the abandoned boat houses in the distance. The water is no longer deep enough to accommodate the boats so they have been abandoned and the entire town was moved to its present location. This will happen again before too many more years have passed.

Boat houses

Time for a snack

We bought a couple of presents from this Swedish-speaking woman.

The changing landscape also creates an interesting mix of flora and fauna with a variety of birds and 16 plant species endemic to the Kvarken. From a human perspective another unique installation here is Kalli’s Inn built to facilitate viewing the Northern Lights in winter. The bathroom has normal walls, but the rest of each cabin is made entirely of glass including the roof. While this does not create much privacy, it does provide a magnificent nighttime view of the Lights. We aren’t sure if it is open in the summer. While some of the reviews indicate it might be, the gate at the entrance was locked on the Sunday we visited.

Not much privacy, but a great view

We stopped back at our hotel to relax a bit with a glass of wine before venturing downtown to dinner. Before eating we walked along the shoreline a bit finally deciding to eat at Faro’s where we had a wonderful fresh shrimp mixture either as an open-faced sandwich or baked potato stuffing. A Napue Gin and tonic from Kyrö Distillery was the perfect pre-dinner cocktail. Our waitress spoke perfect English without accent even using proper idioms. She told us she had been an exchange student in Minnesota where she perfected her use of English. Another of the waitresses was from the Seattle area. She has moved permanently to Finland to be with her boyfriend whom she met after traveling the world for two and a half years. She says she struggles a bit with the language, but plans to stay.

Tomorrow we are off to Turku with a stop at the Sundom Crater formed millions of years ago when a large meteor landed here.

Buildings in Vaasa

This used to be the railroad station

A cute tourist train

Public art

Dinner and dessert

Metoria Söderfjärden

On our way from Vaasa to Turku, we made an interesting stop at Metoria Söderfjärden where one of those huge asteroid/meteors hit earth 520 million years ago creating worldwide devastation and a huge crater for future humans to wonder at.

The Visitor Center

The meteor is supposed to drop showing how it really happened.

Over the millennia, the crater slowly filled with sandstone soil and water creating a wetland that was drained in the 1920s to create what we see today, a vast 6.6 kilometer diameter circle of farmland. It is a beautiful site as one drives to the epicenter of the crater and the visitor center. The variety of green and yellow crops are like candy to the eyes as one looks out to the rim of the crater and its ring of trees.

Linda and Cherie checking out the poster about the sun

The posts are for each planet (no post for Pluto)

The folks who designed the visitor center used the site to teach some interesting science along the way. As we drove in, we were greeted by a sign offering an app explaining the signs we would be passing. Each sign represents a planet (no Pluto) spaced to represent the real distances between them in our solar system. Of course the sun is at the center where we found several old buildings repurposed as mini-museums. One of these holds old farm equipment. Another houses meteorites from around the world. A cafeteria is in the old threshing barn. The old pumphouse is here along with an energy barn: a few solar panels and a windmill to exhibit green energy sources.

Along the side of the exhibit site is another set of signs, this one representing the timeline since the meteor smashed into two just about the earth 520 million years ago. Again the distances and between signs represent the times between events. The last sign tells us that human time is shown by the thickness of the piece of paper that information is printed on.

We climbed the bird watching tower to get a better view of the overall scene. This is not bird season. During the fall the caldera is filled with cranes on their way south. Metoria Söderfjärden is their main feeding ground as they fly to their wintering grounds. We did not see it, but there is supposed to be a telescope and small observatory here, too.

Finally, they have a model of the asteroid landing in the crater. In theory, pushing a button activates the asteroid to glow and crash into the crater. We pushed the button Andrea nothing happened.

Raspberries

With that we drove on to Turku where we will spend two nights before boarding the ferry to the Åland archipelago where we will search for ancestral links. The drive was interesting in that we passed a lot of farmland especially in the area around Vaasa. While we did see a couple of potato fields, almost every field we saw was planted in some sort of grain. The Finns do make great bread and are so in love with rye bread it has been officially named the Finnish bread. We remembered that is the reason the ‘boys’ at the Kyrö Distillery decided to make rye whiskey. Forests became more dominant again as we approached Turku. We continue to be disappointed that we have seen no moose or bear.

Petäjävesi Old Church

As we left Jyväskylä we stopped in Petäjävesi to visit the old church there. A UNESCO World Heritage site, the church was built between 1763 and 1765 with the bell tower added in 1821 A new church was built in 1879, but the old church has been kept up and is still used for Sunday services, weddings, baptisms and concerts. It stands today as an impressive example of early Finnish wooden architecture.

 We wandered the graveyard before entering the church marvelling at many different styles of headstones. Some older ones were made of wood or simple metal crosses. While most of the stones are of granite with names etched on the stone, a few were more ornate with a gold-like printing and more elaborate decorations. Differences reflect the wealth of the deceased. Evidently most of the headstones are gone from the more than 9100 graves said to be there.

Inside the church is beautifully constructed. Decorations in the medieval tradition are carved and painted throughout adding and interest to the color to the sanctuary. The pulpit is especially interesting with St. Christopher to hold it up and carved angels surrounding Jesus and the four evangelists. The paintings were done by Carl Fredrik Blom, an itinerant artisan painter, in 1843.

The pews are still numbered reflecting the ancient practice of purchasing a pew when financially able to do so. The closer to the front, the better I assume. The floorboards are not attached; they are simply laid over the joists underneath. A door in the floor leads to a wine cellar. A lovely candle chandelier graces the point where the nave is crossed by its wings. Balconies allow seating for maids and farmhands. Originally women sat on the left side of the church to separate them from the men on the right side.

Typical of early Finnish churches, we were glad we had to opportunity to visit and learn more about these early churches.