Subject: I DROVE to the North Cape!
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 1997 10:15:09 -0400
From: "Mary Byrne at Accurate" <mbyrne@Accurate.COM>
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Hi all,
We're back from our trip to Finland.  It was wonderful.  Started out with
the news that we could not get on the tour that we thought we had
booked to the North Cape, so we had to scramble in Helsinki to make other
plans.  It actually turned out to be better.  We flew to Ivalo, Finland
and rented a car.  Now we were above the Artic Circle, in Lapland.
A three hour drive to Lakeselv, Norway from which we made our assault on
the North Cape.  I felt like Hiliary at base camp about to climb Everest.
It was only a two hour drive from Lakeselv to the Cape, and sure enough
the Cape was socked in fog.  It didn't dampen my spirits though.  I was
on top of the world!
The midnight sun is for real.  It makes you want to start a hike after
dinner or do anything else but go to sleep because you know it isn't going
to get dark.  Also reminds you that you are living on a ball that is hurling
around in space.
When Dad settled in to his three day meetings I took a tour to the homes
of architect Sarrinen and composer Sibbelius.  Very interesting.  Saarinen
built his home with two other architects and they joined two houses with
a working studio.  All the furniture was designed by him and some of the
rugs were designed by his wife.  They had a circle of very creative friends
so paintings were done by known Finnish artists.
Sibbelius was also an interesting person.  He had no musical instruments in
his house.  He composed without ever playing the music.  He saw music as
colors -- his green tile fireplace was F major.
For my last day on my own I took a hydroplane to Tallin, the capitol of
Estonia.  That's like an old walled German town.  Not well maintained but
they're working on it.   My adventure there was to find some kind of long bag
to carry home a reindeer skin that Dad insisted on buying.  Saw orange
plastic tubing used in a department store over the manequins and  talked
the sales people into cutting a five foot length for me.  That was fun.
Didn't buy any souvenirs but picked up special rocks as I saw them.  Helsinki
is built on bedrock so I picked up a piece of red granite from the fortress
island in the harbor.  It's similar to the pink granite I have from the
bottom of the Grand Canyon and also from Egypt.  It is one world after all.
Those are the highlights.  I strongly recommend a vacation in Finland.
Now I'm interested to see what it's like in winter.  I heard that it is
not so dark as you might think, because the snow, northern lights and
moon glow give it a special illumination.
What is everybody else up to?
Mom/ Aunt Mary/ Mary