Travel Reports
Tampere
Spies, sport and some strange creatures called Snuff and Sniffkin are ready to greet you in Tampere.
For some it’s Disneyland, for others Legoland. But if I want to relive my childhood in a theme park, I have to go to Finland. To Naantali, to be precise, 16km outside of Turku on the south-west coast of Finland, where Moomin World sits on a beautiful island swarming with men and women dressed as Moomintrolls, the Snorkmaiden, Hattifatteners and Fillyjonks!
There is no particular reason why this paen to the brilliant and whimsical creations of the artist Tove Jansson should be in Naantali. She spent time in Paris, Stockholm and Germany, but was born and lived for most of her life in Helsinki. Nor is there any particular reason why the Moomin Museum should be in Tampere (pronounced Tamper-ay). But that’s where Jansson sent hundreds of her original drawings before she died, and it makes a visit to the city an unexpected joy.
The museum opened in 1987, by which time Jansson was acclaimed as one of Finland’s greatest living authors and artists. Her eccentric childrens’ book creations embodied the liberal, bohemian ideals of her unconventional background, and made some decidely philosophical references to tolerance and the powerful effects of nature. In Moominvalley in November, for example, she dealt with the subject of grief and loneliness while Comet In Moominland can be read as a warning against impending ecological apocalypse. The author Alison Lurie summed up one of her characters, Groke, as a ‘walking manifestation of Scandanavian gloom,’ since wherever she sat saw the ground freeze over, and everything she touched died!
It’s fitting, then, that the Moomin Museum should be located in a cavernous space in the City Library Metso, with low level lighting and an almost eerie hum below the cacophany of chattering children. Young Finns are still enchanted by the books and crowd round the five-storey, 2.5 metre tall, interactive, blue Moominhouse to watch the moomin life unfold before moving on to watch effervescent children’s entertainers re-enact Moomin stories on the museum’s tiny stage. Thankfully for us adults the kids have less interest in the original illustrations that adorn the walls, which gave me time to wax nostalgic over Snufkin, Sniff and Thingumy and Bob.
Continuing Tampere’s museum trail you could take in the Werstas Labour Museum, the Shoe Museum or the Lenin Museum in the Workers Hall where he spent time plotting both the Bolshevik Revolution and Finland’s independence from Russia. And then there is the Spy Museum.
It’s a small, if packed, display of gadgets that wouldn’t look out of place in a John Le Carre paperback- except that everything here is fact not fiction. If you can fight off the hordes of excitable children you can turn your hand to cracking codes, hijacking emails or altering the timbre of your voice. The informative English language guide delves into the icy world of a very real James Bond and the ‘female spy who made Mata Hari look like a ballerina.’ But best of all is the Agent Test which lets you discover how good an agent you would make and which secret service organisations might accept you into their employ. The only thing missing is a well-stirred martini served on arrival…
Tampere isn’t just about museums, however. The city’s ambience and architecture are slightly underwhelming at first glance; think Soviet Russia with pine furnishings and a lot more shopping. But first impressions can be faulty. Wander off the main street, Hameenkatu, and you’ll find a city wedded to its industrial past, a city that can resemble Manchester (it’s nickname Manse means precisely that) where old red brick warehouses have been turned into craft boutiques and chic restaurants.
It was once the industrial powerhouse of Scandanavia thanks to its proximity to some bubbling rapids, the Tammerkoski, which link two of the city’s many lakes. This gave it the energy supply to power the textile mills that kept it wealthy for 150 years. The mills have now closed down, but the chimneys remain intact. For the best view of this industrial heritage take a trip up the Nasinneula Observation Tower, where you’ll see how the city is surrounded by water and verdant forest.
For a bit of a wheeze I decided to take a Nordic Walk through the forest under the misapprehension that I might see some weird wildlife, like an elk or a bear. For an uptight city sophisticate Nordic Walking feels like a comedy activity, but apparently there is a precise science involving the angle and length of the poles. With not a spot of snow in sight I traipsed through autumn leaves trying to master the rhythm with little success and a lot more mirth. Oddly, for a nation that learns to ski before it learns to walk, this activity was only invented in 1997 as a training sport for cross-country skiiers. However, it has proved so popular it has even taken off in Japan. Next stop, Canal Street, perhaps?
If Finns know how to flex their msucles – their national sport is the alarmingly fast ice-hockey – then they also know to relax. Saunas are taken before breakfast and no-one would dream of buying an apartment without one as standard. Tourists head for the Holiday Club Finland Spa Hotel for the amazing pool which blasts you with teasing jets of water at irregular intervals. I could have stayed for hours and would have done had I not been required to lie down on a bed of hot peat in order to be pummeled by an expert masseur. Where was Alison Lurie’s Scandanavian Gloom now?
Essentials:
Getting There: Ryanair flies to Tampere daily. Tickets start form £1.63 (excluding taxes and charges ‘which will not exceed £15.20’). www.ryanair.com
Accommodation: The Scandic Tampere City Hotel is a clean modern, well-equipped and centrally located hotel at the end of Hameenkatu. Rooms cost from £34 per person, per night (based on two sharing). Log on to www.scandic-hotels.com for rates and current special offers.
Eating Out: For a real blast go to the Viking restaurant Harald where you can eat wild boar under the watchful eye of a stuffed bear and chuckle at the tongue-in-cheek menu. Hameenkatu, 23.
Playing Away: Tampere’s one gay bar is called Mixei, which means ‘why not?’ Entry costs €5. Otavalankatu, 3.
Andrew Copestake
