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Published: April 24th 2009
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Näsijärvi
Enjoying the view lake-on, vice lakeside ;) After an exciting sauna party and a late night out in Tampere it was well worth sleeping in this morning. Liz and I did make it up in time to grab the hotel breakfast though. The highlight of this was her agreeing that their scrambled eggs are definitely not good. She'd been trying to defend them everytime I described them to her, but now she agrees they are an abomination of what we call eggs. It's nice to be right on occasion 😉
Breakfast over, the friendly (and quite attractive) staff of the hotel restaurant gave us walking directions to Näsijärvi; this is the frozen lake I've walked and talked about earlier. It was chilly, but a beautiful day out and I figured Liz deserved the experience of seeing hundreds of people treating a frozen lake as their public playground. Kept warm by her marvelous Mittens a la Wegscheid, Liz and I trudged out to the tent cafe near the middle of Näsijärvi. We hungout there for a few, enjoying the view and the experience, before jaunting off to the other side of the lake and the Näsinneula tower restaurant. Having worked up quite an appetite during the walk we
Mittens a la Wegscheid
Liz staying toasty warm in her custom mittens. decided to have a snack at the restaurant while we took in the altitude-assisted view.
Following our break for fine-dining, and even finer scenery, we wandered back towards Tampere city center. Enroute we passed a small cluster of boutique shops where Liz bought some locally made jam to take back to France. We also passed the Finlayson Palatsi, the restaurant where I'd booked a table for us this evening. Having never been by it before I think I made a good choice, it looks incredible. Closing on the city center we snuck just off the main drag to acoffee shop / waffle house I've blogged about before so Liz could sample the best waffles in Finland. That done we proceeded to Stockmann to load up on sauna supplies, i.e. sauna vihta, a bundle of tender, leafy birch branches. This is used to gently, or not so gently, whisk, whack or smack yourself which is said to open up your pores and otherwise enhance your sauna experience. We also got some oils for scenting the sauna water. I figured I might as well try it all.
Sauna gear in hand we headed back to the hotel for a pre-dinner
Näsinneula
Liz and I enjoying our food and vew from atop the tower. sauna. A few Lonkeros later and it seemed like Liz really enjoyed her first true Finnish sauna experience. Who knows, maybe we'll see one of these at Chateau La Lauzette in the near future 😉 After the sauna we cleaned up to make our dinner reservations.
Arriving at the Finlayson Palatsi is quite an experience. The word "Palatsi" translates to something akin to "Little Palace". It was built in 1897 as the home of Finlayson factory superintendent. It's extremely decorative, apparently of the Neo-Renaissance style. Surprisingly, this is a style I'm not all that familiar with, haha. Anyway, today it's a restaurant. And since Liz is visiting I thought we needed a nice place to dine and chose the Little Palace. I'm not sure if it's because it's fancier than I thought or that they're not that busy, but we had our own private dining room. A sizeable room with a huge hutch, a great fireplace and a grand window facing out the front of the building. All the better to admire the Neo-Renaissance stylings on our own terms. The food was great too!
Well, having had a late night before, a relatively long day today with a
Finlayson Palatsi
Liz and I out front of the Little Palace. Yes, the restaurant fills that entire building. maybe too relaxing sauna experience we called it a night after dinner. I think Liz enjoyed her first full day in Finland.
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