Dinner on the lake

Last night I met up with the group from TAMK for a cruise on the southern lake - Pyhajarvi, meaning "holy lake". It is shaped like a letter C with Tampere and Nokia in the north and Lempaala in the south. We met at the harbour in Tampere and then sailed around the lake as far as Nokia. I had never realised Nokia was a place - I  had assumed it was a company name, but it would seem the original phone company started in Nokia. It was one of the largest and most successful employers in Finland, but unfortunately recently has not kept up with the technology developments and no longer is so successful here. A lot of people have lost their jobs or moved to the company that took them over and not found it very satisfactory. I have spent ages trying to find a map and this was the best I could find

The southern lake is at the bottom of this map of Tampere with the northern lake at the top and the rapids running straight through the middle of Tampere

It was a beautifully warm and sunny evening. We set sail about 7 and cruised round the lake and then back having a leisurely dinner. Here are some of the views:

Some of our party

another group

leaving Tampere

another cruise ship

Dagmar from Czech Republic

an island and the lake side

steps from a house leading down to the lake

The bridge just before Nokia

Our boat

Linda from Kenya, Dagmar, Chris from Chester and the other lecturer from Kenya 

We had a really pleasant trip. Our group (above) chatted to one of the lecturers from TAMK for most of the journey as well as spending some time outside as it was such a lovely evening. We never did find out the name of the male lecturer from Kenya as he was very quietly spoken! We got back at about 10pm and I then caught the bus home so got in about 10.45 - it felt really late as it had been a long day, even though it was still completely daylight.