This morning our group went to go visit some Alvar Aalto architecture near the small town of Jyvaskyla. We hopped a bus to the nearby small town of Saynatsalo to see one of Aalto's more famous buildings, the Saynatsalo Town Hall. The Hall was very cool - built in 1952 after Aalto won a design contest for the project. Even today, over 50 years later, the building is still very functional and fits the needs of the community well.

We then went on to visit Aalto's summer estate - his Experimental House, Sauna, and Boat House (which was actually built about 10 years ago when it was decided a shelter was needed for Aalto's personally designed boat). We had a bit of 'fun' on the way there, as the bus driver had apparently confused his bus with a roller coaster, or was trying to save his brakes for a special occasion. We eventually arrived in one piece, only to have it start raining in the middle of the tour. Fortunately, the end of the tour was the house, so we were able to stay in out of the rain and look around the house until the rain stopped. The Experimental House is quite literally experimental - Aalto ordered all kinds of bricks and tiles from throughout Finland, and set up different patterns and surfaces in the courtyard to see how they worked as materials, and how they aged. Even though Aalto and his second wife have both passed away, the house is still in use by other family members, and people involved with the Aalto foundation. Eventually, the sun came back out, and we got to wander about the grounds more.

We caught the bus back to Jyvaskyla (same roller coaster driver, unfortunately), and boarded the train for Turku.