A day trip to Tampere

Hello from my home in Matinkylä! This is NordLetter #19, a weekly newsletter on living and walking in Finland. Previous editions can be found here.

If you enjoyed this, and know someone else who might, please consider forwarding this to them. It would help this grow and make me happy. 😄

This was a busy week. We were invited to four of our friends' houses on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. So of course, on Saturday we visited Tampere. This is also Prerna's last week in Finland before her trip to India. I am a little sad and a little excited, both at the same time. Excited for Savya to meet his grandparents. And sad to be away from the both of them.

/tampere

There are many inter-city trains to Tampere. We took IC-43 from Helsinki Central to Tampere. There were 2 stops on the way. One in Pasila and the other a little further along in Tikkurila. We started at 09:19 and had reached Tampere by 10:58.

The train ride was very comfortable and a joy. We had booked a private cabin which was basically two window seats and a partition which reduced the noise to a bare minimum.

Tampere is the second oldest town in Finland. It does not have an 'old town' though. What it is famous for is the observation tower in Sarkanniemi. And so that's where we were headed as soon as we had left the train station.

/to Näsinneula

We took the scenic route as it took us across the Tammerkoski rapids and the Central Square.

We stopped at the Alexander Church. There is a beautiful spring/sculpture at the same place. I saw an old couple sitting there and I told Prerna this is what I want in life. And she said, no I don't want to use a cane to walk.

We do look at life differently, she and I.

Just as we crossed the road we came across a beautiful black building, with a striking rounded design.

Prerna asked me what this was. I looked at the board. This was a library. The central library in Tampere, like Oodi in Helsinki. Man do the Finns know how to build libraries. Beautiful inviting spaces.

As we continued toward Sakranniemi, Prerna found someone to talk to.

And I found the Näsikallio Water Fountain.

A little further up, and we saw it. The observation tower.

Näsinneula/Särkänniemi

Sakranniemi is an amusement park with rides, plus an aquarium and a planetarium. We were here for the observation tower though. I took our tickets and we were in.

Näsinneula is the tallest free-standing structure in Finland and at present the tallest observation tower in the Nordics. There is a revolving restaurant at 124 metres.

We took the elevator to the top (120 metres). We could feel the pressure difference as we were going up. The elevator is fast and there's music and lights while you go up.

The tower provides an excellent bird's eye view of Tampere.

The ticket includes juice/coffee/tea at the Neula Sky Cafe. We took a croissant and a pastry additionally.

It started raining as we got down from the tower. We were stuck in the building for a bit and then eventually decided to buy 'rain coats'.

The city looked beautiful drenched in rain. I guess rain does do that. It freshens everything up a bit.

We took a break and had lunch.

Tampere Cathedral

The cathedral is a Lutheran church, built with granite and has a red roof. It was built between 1902 and 1907. There was organ music playing when we entered the church. It crescendoed while we were sitting in the church. There are beautiful frescoes painted by Hugo Simberg, including a winged serpent on a red background at the highest point in the church. This was all the rage when it was first painted, with people considering it a symbol of sin.

I did not feel it was particularly sinful. But that's just me. A century later.

Lenin museum

For the final stopover on the trip Prerna wanted to see a museum. The Lenin museum was the only one open till six (the others closed at five, so plan in advance!).

I did not have too many hopes but it surprised me. We spent the next hour at the museum. Just reading and looking at things. The museum is not as much about Lenin as it is about Finland and Russia's shared histories. It was compelling.

Moro Sky Bar/Torni

Moro Sky Bar is an astonishing sky bar with a tremendous view over the city of Tampere. The Sky Bar is located in the 25th floor of Solo Sokos Hotel Torni. We ordered a long drink and a mojito along with some French toast with berries and ice cream. It was great.

We walked a lot in Tampere. Around 12 kms per my watch. You could buy a day ticket and use the trams or buses. We decided to walk.

I loved the colour of the trams. They seemed better than the green we have in Helsinki. I did not like the colour of the buses. It seemed an old design. I much prefer how buses look here in Helsinki.

That's it. Those are my two tid-bits from the trip.

/techStuff

Instagram starts letting people create AI versions of themselves

A weird bit of news. Turns out IG was doing celebrity AI bots earlier.

How would this be useful? I don't know.

Is it weird and a bit creepy? Yes to both.

The Apple Watch has reached the limits of its potential
The hope for an apple ring. My view about this has changed from an Apple ring to replace the watch, to Apple Watch + Ring. Remove the Apple Watch at night sort of thing. Or wear Apple Watch at watch appropriate times. Going to office. Doing a workout and so on.

The consequences of generative AI for online knowledge communities - Scientific Reports
Stack overflow traffic decreased. Younger devs who were asking basic questions stopped coming. Complex questions were asked now. Reddit dev communities did not see any impact.

/reading

The Universal Foundations for a Good Life - Scott H Young

This is the thing about good ideas - they seem simple and obvious. And yet, no one has written it down in the same way. That's how I felt while I was reading this.

If We Want a Shift to Walking, We Need To Prioritize Dignity
All of these things are there when walking here in Finland. 🙂

Publishing your work increases your luck

Motion begets motion, progress begets progress. Pick the smallest thing you can do and get started.
Most of us really enjoy the building aspect but start to get a little shy when it comes to telling people about the stuff we’ve built.

And that is all we have for this week. See you next time.