Another wonderful morning wake-up in the hotel, and we packed up our things to head out on our journey back to the coast and on to Sweden.

First stop on the road was Myyrmäki church, designed by Juha Leiviskä and Pekka Kivisalo in 1984.

The light fixtures were amazing, and the whole geometry of the building that had to fit on this bizarre shaped piece of land was very clever.

Then it was back on the bus and off to Hvitträsk home and studio in Luoma, Finland.  This was built between 1902 and 1907 and designed by Herman Geselius, Armas Lindgren, and Eliel Saarinen.

My favorite part of the home was the philosophy that the tallest person in the house was 5’7, and the doors only needed to be tall enough to fit him.  It was like the house was designed for me haha.

This was another one of my favorite buildings, again partially because of the location and the view which were amazing.  More than that, the interior (which has been kept the same) is still strikingly beautiful and accessible in a modern context.

Because we had so much ground to cover that day, we ate our boxed lunches on the bus as we drove to Turku, Finland to see the Chapel of the Holy Cross crematorium, designed by Pekka Pitkänen between 1962 and 1967.

The entire structure was made of concrete, and the lighting was very intentional, which just made the whole place extremely somber.  Of all the chapels and churches we visited, this was my favorite.

It was also nestled in a wood setting, and with everything covered in snow, the whole place was very peaceful.  Then we walked to the Chapel of the resurrection funerary chapel, designed by Erik Bryggman in 1940.  Not as impressed.  Back on the bus we went to get to none other than Alvar Aalto’s tuberculosis sanatorium in Paimio, built between 1929 and 1933.

The building was very colorful, and light and fresh air were important to the philosophy of healing.  We got to go up to the patio where patients would be taken to enjoy being outside and the view.  We didn’t get to see any of the rooms, but window placement ensured that a patient could see outside even while laying down in bed.

Certain elements of the building were a little “tacky” by our standards, but we had to imagine what an institute like this would have been like in the early thirties, and that is when it becomes really amazing.

We also took a ride down on the first panoramic elevator in the world (so they say).  Back on the bus, and drive drive drive to the Viking Line (Part II).

We got to the boarding area a wee bit early, so we were sitting around in the “terminal” for a couple of hours.  By the time we got on the boat it was 9:00, and we finally got to have some dinner around 9:15 (because we all ran right to the buffet after throwing our things in our rooms.)  It was Haley’s 21st birthday, so we all had a great time celebrating with her.

Mostly this just involved dancing like jerks haha and I was certainly at the forefront of dancing like an idiot.  I probably fit pumped a million different times for Jersey, and then I can’t even tell you how much I did the “chicken dance” (one hand with thumb on forehead, and the other hand with the wrist at the base of the back, lke feathers? and then wiggle around dance floor.)  This whole evening was dedicated to Karli haha because I know she would have been right out there with me…

After dancing the night away, we found our ways back to our cabins and fell asleep because the next morning was the dreaded 5am wake up (we lost an hour going from Finland to Sweden) and the boat would be docking at 6:30am.