Trip to Finland - birds of South-Western Finland

It is much easier to take photos of plants than birds. Therefore this article is short.

The common crane (Grus grus), also known as the Eurasian crane, Kranich in German, kurki in Finnish, is a bird of the family Gruidae, the cranes. The Common Crane is a large, stately bird. It is 100–130 cm tall with a 180–240 cm wingspan. Crane is slate-grey overall. The forehead and lores are blackish with a bare red crown and a white streak extending from behind the eyes to the upper back. The species is a long distance migrant predominantly wintering in northern Africa.

You cannot avoid seeing cranes when driving through South Western Finland in June. These are having lunch at Purmojärvi. Cranes eat everyting, plants, roots, leaves, seeds, potatoes, fruit, fish, snails, crabs, rodents, small birds, Cranberry got its name from cranes.

Trip to Finland - Plants of South Western Finland - Evijärvi

In this article I will present some of the plants that, in the eyes of an expatriate, are characteristic to South-Western Finland. Some of these plants are ignored because they are too ordinary, but in my eyes they are friends from time past. Combined with smell they bring up memories from childhood. Most of the photos are from Evijärvi.

First and the most beautiful is the birch tree, Betula, koivu in Finnish. There are many different subspecies. The one in the photos is Betula pendula, rauduskoivu, silver birch.

Trip to Finland PART 2 - South-Western Finland: Evijärvi

Evijärvi is a small town located in the lake district of Southern Ostrobothnia region of Finland. Yes, lake district! Most Finns don't know that there is a lake district in Southern Ostrobothnia, that is supposedly all flat. Evijärvi has 2 600 inhabitants. Language is Savonian dialect of Finnish, which is quite special, since Savonia is in the East of Finland, Evijärvi is in the West. There is a particular reason for Eastern dialect in this region.

This bay of lake Evijärvi is located in the village of Ina It is the North Eastern corner of the lake. The plant in the water is Nymphaea fennica, or pikkulumme in Finnish.

Trip to Finland PART 1 - South-Western Finland: Hämeenkyrö - Ikaalinen

Finland is still pretty unknown entity for most of the Europeans. I hope this writing and photos give some more insight. In this part of the travel diary I visit Pirkanmaa, the region around Tampere. The towns visited are Hämeenkyrö and Ikaalinen.

From Western Europe (whatever it may mean) there are basically three ways how you can reach Finland. The easiest way is to fly. The cheapest airliner is Ryanair. Other methods are by car through Germany, Denmark and Sweden and then the remaining 10 hours on a ferry, or, the third method, take a ferry straight from Germany, either from Rostock or Travemünde, some 30 hours.

I took Ryanair from Frankfurt Hahn to Tampere.

Exploits of Don Esaias - Attack on the sea

Don Esaias doesn't stop surprising me. He always go through adventures. Despite of the dangers, he manage to come out of them as conqueror and hero. One time he met an angry bear and had to wrestle it down with his bare hands. Here's the photo:

National day cycling trip Winseler (L) - Bastogne (B) - Houffalize

There are couple of nice cycling tracks in the border area between Luxembourg and Belgium. Most of them are built on railways that used to serve the forest industry and passenger transport, but became unprofitable when the road network developed. This time we did what used to be railway number 164 from Wiltz to Bastogne, but starting in Winseler, Luxembourg, where we parked the car and took bicycles down. You can also take train to Wiltz and start riding from there. Railway 164 was in use from 1888 to 1967.

The track follows this little ravine called "Wiltz". I am sure there are trouts here.

Off the beaten track - cycling trip Mertzig - Lac de la Haute Sure - Heiderscheid - Mertzig

For some reason there are no official cycling routes in the hilly area south of Esch-sur-Sur. In the Lëtzebuerger Vëlos-Initiative map that area is empty what comes to cycling paths. Off the beaten track usually means to "be in a place where few people go, far from any main roads and towns" (Cambridge Dictionary). I am sure the real sportsmen, those who ride expensive road bikes and wear cycling team clothes, go there, but we foreigners who see bicycle more as a means of transport, do not, probably because of loooong uphills. I wanted to try, starting at Mertzig. I climbed up to the high plateau of Eschdorf and then down to the Lac de la Haute Sure to Lultzhausen. From there to Esch-sur-Sure - Heiderscheidergrund and back up to the plateau at Heiderscheid. From there to Kehmen and down to Feulen and back to Mertzig.

After the ride Bofferding beer refresh the muscular body of the cyclist. Here in Niederfeulen.



Don't miss Lada Niva in the background. Lada Niva is the legendary Russian 4x4 off-road vehicle (VAZ 2121) described by its designers as a "Renault 5 put on a Land Rover chassis." The production of Lada Niva started in 1977 and became an off-road bestseller in many countries, especially in Brazil.