Seurasaari, Finland
Seurasaari Farm
During our week in Helsinki, we used our extremely useful transit passes, which gave us access to all the city busses, trams, underground and municipal ferries! From our cosy Hotel Anna, we took the #24 bus to the end of the line at Seurasaari. This is an Open Air Museum on an island very close to the city, where you feel as though time has gone backwards – there are farmhouses, a 17th century church, cottages storehouses and mills.
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Costumed Interpreters
Costumed interpreters, like Kirsi Liikanen and Minna Aro stay in the houses, and though busy with needlework or birch bark weaving, they delightedly explain the artifacts and describe the life in those times.
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Loom
Constance was smitten by the big loom in the farmhouse.
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bread rack
The rye flatbread is stored on the rack up in the rafters… you have to reach way up to get it with the pair of bread tongs leaning on the wall next to the window.
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Kivi’s Cabin
Aleksis Kivi was a famous Finnish author in the 19th century. This is a reproduction of the cabin that he wrote some of his plays in!
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Seurasaari Strawberries
Constance’s favourite thing about Seurasaari – wild strawberries.
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Quimper Hittys 
We are enjoying the travelogue! Constance’s strawberries on a stem look wonderful.
We loved the Finnish way of collecting wild strawberries…they tasted very delicious!
Living history museums are one of my favorite things to visit! Thanks for sharing the wonderful photos!
You are welcome- we love that kind of museum too, and this was one of the best we have ever been to.
I am curious about the rye flatbread…stored on the rack over the window…obviously it would get kind of
hard?? how was it eaten? Did they dunk it or use it as a “plate” to put other food on and then eat the whole
thing as a meal?? Enjoying the photos and the descriptions…a LOT!!
We acquired a special spiky rolling pin to make näkkileipä, the Hittys are thinking of helping me make some sometime soon. The flatbread is called knäckebröd in Swedish, sometimes called hard tack in the US, or rye crisps. It is hard and crunchy, like a cracker so it keeps a long time.