If it's Thursday it must be Riga

Monday 26 November

Muonio, Finland

We stayed overnight in a room above a petrol station in rural Lapland in Finland. Well, it is not as bad as it sounds. Yes, it was one of ten rooms above a petrol station, but they were clean, modern, spacious rooms and we had our own sauna in the bathroom. It is Finland after all.

We departed Tromsø in the snow and had intermittent snow and snowy roads until we crossed over the mountains and entered Finland. Whilst the snow abated the temperature dropped to well below -10C as we drove through the the northern high plains of Lapland Finland. It was much like driving through outback Australia for the isolation, solitude and stark beauty. If you breakdown there in the winter you'll be found with the spring thaw. Of course it is not only the temperature difference with Australia but also the latitude. At this time of year the sun never rises much above the horizon and daylight is short. Fortunately we had a clear sunny(?) day thus the low temps. Petrol stations are also cafes, motels and general stores where one can everything from souvenirs, clothes, hardware, and engine parts, particularly for your snowmobile. We arrived at the SEO Petrol station in Mounio, Finland at mid-afternoon and of course it was nighttime dark. Also, we realised that we had lost an hour as Finland is an hour later than Norway.

We were staying in Muonio because it was the closest place to Kolari with accommodation available. We were going to take the overnight car-train from Kolari to Helsinki the next day. However, before we set out for Kolari we had to post a couple of packages. So we went to the local supermarket which also included a Finnish Post Office. I don't think they do a lot of international parcels to Australia in Muonio, Finland and it was well beyond the young woman's English and postal skills to deal with us. Fortunately, the Manageress of the shop was fluent in English and knew her post office procedures.

Tuesday 27 November

Finnish Rail Overnight Car Train from Kolari to Helsinki

Kolari was a 50 minute drive and we saw several reindeer along the way, particularly one just along the side of the road. We had slept in and arrived about lunchtime. Kolari is mostly a railhead with a few summer holiday cottages a couple of petrol stations and a souvenir shop. It is the northernmost railway station in Finland. We had the lunch de jour with the locals at one of the petrol stations/cafe/souvenir shops. After lunch the vortex took over and local artisan souvenirs and jewellery were purchased. Resistance is futile! The shop had lovely reindeer skins and antler carvings but we didn't think that AQIS would appreciate them. So we settled for wood carvings, silver jewellery fridge magnets and postcards.

The woman who ran the souvenir shop noted that her husband worked at the railway station and we would meet him as he helped to load the cars onto the train. We had plenty of time at the station since the train departed at 18:30. Being Scandinavia the station was warm and comfortable, so Cath stitched and I worked on the computer. I also took a walk along the platform. The train was standing there when we arrived and was gently humming as the diesel engine kept the train warm. I came across the fellow mentioned at the souvenir shop and we had a long chat about our travels, Lapland, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, hunting and Australia. He noted that the snow was lower than anytime in recorded history in that part of Finland. It was usually half a metre rather than 10cms. I mentioned the 43C in Rocky to him and he couldn't imagine such a temperature. 14C is a hot day in northern Finland in the summer. A very enjoyable encounter. At 16:50 there was an announcement that cars could be loaded and Cath drove the car onto the train. Only drivers are allowed to drive onto the car train carriage and Cath noted that it was like driving onto the ferry except with a much narrower ramp and carriage. The train was warm and comfortable. We had a drink and then dinner. I had a giant meat pie with frankfurter. I had visions of the Yorkshire burrito, but it ended up being quite nice. A circular brioche style bun folded in half with savoury mince in the middle and a long frankfurter poking out at each end. Yummo!

Wednesday 28 November

Tallinn, Estonia

We arrived in Helsinki at 09:45 and drove to the city centre because we had a few hours before our ferry to Tallinn, Estonia. We had coffee and a cinnamon roll at shopping centre and, lo and behold, I found a modernist designed chapel in the plaza outside the shopping centre. Ripper! It is a lovely circular building covered in a light brown wood. The interior has even lighter wood with simple benches and pulpit. I was not allowed to take photos inside as photography can disturb those using the chapel for prayer or meditation. The chapel was designed by a group of Finnish architects as a joint project of the city of Helsinki and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. A Lutheran priest, a social worker from community and social services, and a nurse from the health service are on duty at all times to assist anyone who needs assistance.

The ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn is about 2 hours and when we arrived we were quite near the old city where we were staying the night at the Hotel Imperial. We knew we were in Eastern Europe with the brocade bed covers, heavy drapes, dim lighting and bottled mineral water in the hotel room. There were two parking spaces in a small fenced courtyard adjacent to the staff entrance and we got one of them. Otherwise we were informed that it was 6 Euros an hour parking on the street. It was already getting dark so we set off exploring the old city which is a remarkably well preserved medieval city with narrow cobbled lanes and more souvenir shops than you can shake a stick at. And gift shops where the vortex struck with a lovely stylised glass Santa. [edit: it's his fault - he keeps pointing out lovely things saying 'that's nice'].

It does have a lovely town hall square and a Christmas market was there with a bright tree and glogi (warm, spiced wine). It is usually disgusting stuff but glogi was palatable perhaps because they used a lighter red wine, more sugar and some good spice. Tallinn has some excellent towers along the remaining parts of the old wall. Indeed, it is noted for its wall towers, but at night they are difficult to see so we decided to have a quick in the morning. Cath had asked the receptionist at the hotel where there was an Estonian restaurant and we didn't want pizza. He recommended Pepperjack near the town hall. It was a hoot. It is in a restored 16th century merchant's house built by Hans Pepperjack and the staff wear 16th century Estonian costumes, which look much like 16th century Baltic German costumes, since Tallinn was a Hanseatic trading city and dominated by Germans. Nevertheless, the beer was good and the meal was good including a traditional Estonian thickened cream dessert. It was good fun.

Thursday 29 November

Riga, Latvia

Next morning we did a quick walk around the old wall and found to our surprise that the celebrated wall towers were literally behind our hotel. That's the problem of arriving in a new place at night, but we got our photos and headed off to Latvia.

Arrived in Riga, Latvia near sunset and went to our studio apartment for the night. Cath had demanded an apartment with a washing machine so she could do the laundry. It was a good idea. We stayed at the Modern Riga Central Apartment, which was probably built in the Soviet era but has been updated to modern standards. Clean, roomy and warm. Riga had destroyed most the of old city walls and built modern buildings in the old city as well so the ambience was a mixture of old and new. There were Christmas markets in the squares and we had dinner in a traditional Latvian cafeteria chain called Lido in the old city. Pork and mushroom sauce. It was a theme in eastern Europe. After dinner we retired to the flat and did laundry. Three loads in the front loader took till midnight, but Cath was a champ and got is all done. It was mostly all dry in the morning.

Friday 30 November

Kaunas, Lithuania

We stopped in Kaunas, Lithuania, because it was on the way to Poland and it looked more interesting than Vilnius. Kaunas had been the capital of Lithuania before Vilnius. We stayed at our "home away from home," the Ibis. The Ibis hotels in Europe are pronounced with a soft "i" on the first letter, which takes some getting use to in comparison with the Australian pronunciation of Ibis like the bird. I had read that Kaunas had a long tree lined pedestrian boulevard stretching for more than a kilometre from the new town to the old city. So, we set off in the gloaming to stroll down this lovely boulevard. The first few hundred metres were lovely and then we were confronted with the ugly sight of construction for the remaining kilometre of the boulevard. We were reduced to walking over dirt paths with the boulevard obscured by chain-link fence and hoardings. At one point we had to dodge a backhoe. OHS is not a high priority in eastern Europe. I'm sure that some hapless pedestrians and few political enemies of the local council are buried in the construction.

We eventually made it to the old city and had a coffee and sweet at a local chain of coffee shops called Vero where we were old enough to be everyone's grandparents in the shop including the staff. But the coffee and sweets were good, the place was warm and had good free wifi, thus why all the young things were there doing their homework or chatting to their boyfriends/girlfriends. After our repast we walked on to the castle but it was getting colder and darker so after a quick look we headed back to our hotel. We took the Soviet era trolleybus, Number 5, from the castle to our hotel feeling very much like comrades in the unheated trolleybus, which seemed colder than out on the street. We had a lovely meal at the Ibis, yes, you guessed it - pork with mushroom sauce and potatoes, and vegetables, surrounded by Romanian construction workers in their Hi Viz vests, rather than tourists, and practicing our three words of Lithuanian - including skanus (delicious) to the kitchen who, via the waitress, had sent their 'best wishes' with the pork loin (for 5 euro 50 - boy we are so not in Norway now). Excellent!

Saturday 1 December

Dwor Anna, north of Lublin, Poland

Our original plan was to have two nights at the Ibis in Kielce, Poland, but upon further investigation I had found that there was a restored 15th/16th century manor house that was a small hotel and function centre just north of Lublin. From the mid16th century to the mid 17th century the manor was owned by a minor Polish nobleman named Czerny who was a follower of the protestant Minor Reformed Church, or Polish Brethren. This religious group was an non-trinitarian church and are often referred to as Arian, referring to the 4th century Bishop Arius who disputed the concept of the essence of Christ within the Trinity at the Council of Nicaea. His view was deemed heretical by the council although it remained popular for many centuries. The Minor Reformed Church of Poland was founded by a breakaway group of Calvinists who disagreed with the concept of predestination amongst other elements of orthodox Reformed theology. George Williams, the distinguished church historian at Harvard Divinity School and authority on the Polish Brethren, described the movement as Evangelical Rationalists. An Italian humanist Faustus Socinus was the leading theologian of the movement. The movement was also known as Socinanism. It existed in southern Poland for a little over a 100 years until it was banned from Poland by the counter Reformation. Followers had to affirm the Catholic faith or leave Poland. The remnants of the Polish Brethren, or Arianski chapels was my interest in visiting this region of Poland. So, I was extremely excited to spend a night in the restored one-time Arian manor house. Our room was small in a vaulted room on the top floor. There were only four hotel rooms in the old manor and I think our room would originally have been a servant's room. The restaurant was on the 2nd floor which would have been a large dining room for the noble's family and from where he would have conducted the business of the manor lands. There was a function on that night so we couldn't have dinner there. We had dinner in the bar area in the vaulted rooms on the ground floor. Prior to dinner we had some beer and watched ski jumping on the television with the staff and some of the folk from the function who were interested in a couple of the Polish ski jumpers. For dinner we had beer, mushroom soup, and you guessed it again, pork with mushroom sauce. But all very good. However, I must admit that I was so excited to be in the building I could have eaten cardboard with mushroom sauce and still have been happy.

Sunday 2 December

South central rural Poland near Kielce

Next day was a full day of chapel ruins and chapel visitation in rural Poland. First cab off the rank was the Arianski chapel ruins at Palac Karskich about 120kms from Lublin. It is located opposite the Catholic Church, and we arrived just as the faithful were coming to Mass. It was not unusual for Catholic churches to be erected near, adjacent or on the ruins of an Arianski chapels after the Polish Brethren were banned and exiled. The 17th century manor house and square Arianski chapel were adjacent to a 18th/19th villa now also in ruins. Five kilometres away in the small farming village of Ublinek was a more extant chapel which was being restored for rural tourism by an EU development grant. The building probably had been used as a barn for 500 years. We then drove on to Rakow, another small town in the region which had been the centre of the Polish Brethren in the heyday of movement. There had been an Arian Church which was destroyed and on its ruins the Catholic Church was built. There was a printing press and an Academy for theological training. It was where the Racovian Catechism was written, the basic religious teaching of the Socinian movement. Nothing physical remains of the Brethren in Rakow. We walked around the market square and then had a lunch of pierogi (with some sort of local cheese) in front of the fire at a local pub.

Next was a restored Arian chapel in Ludynia, considered the best existing example in Poland. Unfortunately, it is located in a public reserve that was closed when we arrived so we could only take some photos from afar. Our final stop of the day was an Arian manor house about fifteen kms west of Kielce in the village of Chelmce. We got there at very last light and took a few photos of another 16th century stone and brick building, which is also being restored, but also looks like it has been used for agricultural purposes for the last five centuries. We drove into Kielce in darkness and checked into the Ibis. Because it was Sunday the restaurant was closed. We walked to the town square and had dinner at the Rockabilly Grill Restaurant. No pork and mushroom sauce tonight. BBQ pork ribs and too much Bulgarian red wine. I thank lovely Cath for indulging in my obscure interests. [edit: Eric was as excited as I've ever seen him about finding them - partly just because we did and partly for his geographical successes in mapping them - it was a joy to see].

Monday 3 December

Town Hall Square, Krakow

Next morning we stopped for coffee in the Town Hall square in Krakow, and of course, Cath found some lovely things to buy. It is a beautiful city of which we had a mere glimpse. After our voyage of discovery through rural Poland to find the 5 different ruins of 16th century Polish Brethren chapels; Krakow, considered as it is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe was a delight too. Our Polish adventure had been wonderful!

Cath noted that one of the extraordinary things about humans is that the brain adjusts to almost anything,,, In Australia, a vehicle travelling toward one on the wrong side of the road would produce panic and consternation. In Latvia, Lithuanian and Poland it produces a mere glide further to the right to enable three vehicles to be alongside each other where the roads were only meant for two… The semi-trailers require a little more thought - but not much!! Then, of course, there is the speed limit on these narrow two lane highways - it's only a guideline….

After the challenge of Norway and the remarkably easy 1087km trip on the car train - very exciting driving onto a train - just like a ferry only smaller - which saved us at least 3 days driving through Finland, the drive through the Baltic States was really a fly by on the way to Poland but we feel we have the sense of the history if nothing else. As Cath kept saying when we visited Russia - the soviet era, with which we both grew up, is only a very small part of long and luminous histories for these countries. And they glory in the past, especially when the medieval / renaissance and baroque have greater tourist appeal (except to old socialists like Eric).