Friday Bliss #201 -Götheborg II Sailing Ship in Helsinki

The original Götheborg / Gothenburg, a trading vessel that belonged to the Swedish East India Company, sank in 1745. Despite going down in the Göta älv river near Gothenburg harbor, divers were first able to explore its wreck in the 1980s. A full-scale replica Götheborg II was completed in 2005-2007. At its completion, the project had cost about 250 million SEK (almost $40 million), some 40% from public funds and the rest from sponsors.

The ship is now undertaking its second major trip. The journey will continue in the coming months across the Nordic capitals, Western Europe and the Mediterranean. In the spring of 2023, the ship will head through the Suez Canal toward the Indian Ocean with a destination in the port of Shanghai, where it is scheduled to arrive in late 2023.

Nearly 50 meters long and 11 meters wide, the ship is the world’s largest wooden ocean-going sailing vessel in service. The ship was open to the public in the South Harbor of Helsinki near Kauppatori, Market Place.  The ship was fun to see and it brought to my mind Caribbean pirates! Wikipedia offers more information on Götheborg II, also the photo underneath with full sails from there.

Wishing you wonderful & sunny July days!

🌞🌞

The link is open

FROM FRIDAY 7 AM TILL THE NEXT TUESDAY 4 PM

Helsinki time

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Behind the Scenes in Finnish National Theatre

The topic of Makrotex this week is BEHIND THE SCENES. 

I revert to a post of March 2020 (just before the covid outbreak) when I visited 

Finnish National Theatre. We were a small group who toured the backgrounds of 

all the four scenes and heard about the upcoming renovation project. 

The tour was interesting, because usually you concentrate in the upcoming performance 

and don't give a thought to things behind the scenes - how lights and scenes change, 

who builds and organizes in the background. 

Finnish National Theatre is an impressive granite building, completed in 1902.

The Main Stage has nearly 700 seats. This fabulous ceiling fresco was painted by 

Yrjö Ollila (1887-1932) and his team. It is called Thalia’s Mirror and represents 

many of the theatre’s actors and actresses.

Behind the curtain there was a rattling-looking rope battery, which is manually pulled 

to raise and lower the prop fabrics. The spaces were full of stuff, wires, and certainly also dust, 

not suitable for an asthmatic at all. The actors had to change their outfits in shockingly 

small corners - but everything seemed to work great and the stage assistants keep an eye on everything. 

Our group in the labyrinthine and messy narrow gangways and stairs was well guided by 

stage assistant Tuomas Wellamo, the mustached gentleman in the picture. 

❤︎❤︎❤︎

#colour collage #der natur donnerstag #gartenglück #how to survive november 

#image-in-ing #krapu #makrotex / behind the scenes #my corner of the world #tuesday's treasures 

Sunny Marine Helsinki ❤︎

Helsinki is called the Pearl of the Baltic Sea, and well deserves this praise. The city is surrounded by abundant waterfronts of The Gulf of Finland. The first photo shows the market place and behind it the Helsinki Cathedral and presidential residence that is now used for official purposes.  Since 1993 Mäntyniemi (Helsinki) has been the president’s winter residence and Kultaranta (Naantali) his summer residence. 

In Kaivopuisto Park there is a popular promenade & gathering place with sun, 

boats and marine feeling - and delicious icecream & cafés.

The original Götheborg / Gothenburg, a trading vessel that belonged to the Swedish 

East India Company, sank in 1745. A full-scale replica Götheborg II was completed 

in 2005-2007 and was on a visit to Helsinki and anchored besides the Market Place.

 The ship is the world’s largest wooden ocean-going sailing vessel in service. 

More about this stunning vessel in a future post.

Wishing Sunny Summer Days!

❤︎❤︎❤︎

#colour collage #der natur donnerstag #gartenglück #image-in-ing #krapu 

#makrotex / lovely summer #mosaic monday #my corner of the world #tuesday's treasures 

Addictio Chamber Choir at Temppeliaukio Church

The Temppeliaukio Church / The Rock Church, Helsinki is located on a rocky hill and has been excavated inside the rock. The church is round in shape and its dome is surrounded by a strip of narrow skylights. Inside the dome is copper and excavated granite is left visible on the walls. The church is one of Helsinki's most popular tourist attractions and, due to its good acoustics, a popular concert venue. Last Friday I attended the 15th year anniversary concert of Chamber Choir Addictio where my son Harri sings bass.

I lived for a while in that red building seen at the background.

HERE you can find stunning photos of the church and text in English.

The page is really worth a visit!

Addictio is a Helsinki-based chamber choir founded by its singers in the autumn of 2005.  

The choir was born out of the enthusiasm of its singers to form their own choir, where they could make as much music as possible, experimenting and to a high standard - not forgetting the fun.  

Their basic repertoire includes traditional and new Finnish and European mixed choir music. 

The present director is this handsome guy, Riku Laurikka (b. 1994) who graduated 

from the Sibelius Academy’s choir conducting class as a master of music in the spring of 2021. 

In 2017-2018, he studied at the University of the Arts in Graz, Austria. 

These are the well-known stone steps that lead from Oksasenkatu up to 

Temppeliaukio and the church.

Wishing a sunny week!

🍀🍀🍀

#der natur donnerstag #gartenglück #image-in-ing #makrotex / wall 

#mosaic monday #my corner of the world #tuesday's treasures 

Friday Bliss #192 - Cherry Blooming in Pink

I visited the pink hanami at Roihuvuori Cherry Park that was grounded by the initiative of

Japan born Helsinki entrepreneur Norio Tomida and the

 first 52 cherry trees were planted 

on World Environment Day in 2007. 

Now there are over 150 Prunus sargentii trees in the park.

Last weekend the park was packed with people, saw on the news. Even on Wednesday afternoon

there were crowds of people enjoying this pink hanami and sunshine.

Everybody was taking photos, included myself.

Happy Spring Weekend!

🍀🍀🍀

The link is open

FROM FRIDAY 7 AM TILL THE NEXT TUESDAY 4 PM

Helsinki time

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter