Oulu, Finland

 

Mike Tracy and I visited Kemira Chemicals OY in Oulu, Finland in early April 2002.  We had both a good business trip and good personal trip.  The photos below are primarily around the center part of Oulu near the market.  We also went out to an excellent Russian restaurant for dinner with our hosts.

 

 

Landing at Oulu

 

On the approach to the airport we penetrated a very low cloud deck.  The fields were mostly free of snow except along the edges where the trees protected the snow from direct exposure to the sun.  Lots of farm fields in this area of Finland.  There were lots of lakes too.  The lakes still had ice on them.  I'd say that Oulu is about 1 month behind Beverly (weatherwise) at the moment, but the days were already longer than ours.  So, it will not be long before the temperatures in Oulu will be similar to those in Beverly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pedestrian Bridge

 

This bridge ran from the city over to an island where a sports statium is located.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure what this building is in the city-center near the market.  The lower floor had a nice looking bar-restaurant.  I thought the archetecture was pretty interesting.  There's a picture below looking up at the Finnish flag on the corner of the building.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Market Place Square

 

There's this nice stage-like structure that has a canvas covering in the square.  I imagine that in the summer months there is entertainment of various types on this stage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Suola-Aitta restaurant on the Market Square.  Great food!  And the building is actually a log structure.  In the USA we would have the logs exposed on the exterior of the building as well as many places on the interior.  This building had exterior wood siding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The friendly traffic cop

 

In the old days, there was a traffic cop who worked mostly right outside the market.  He was a very popular guy.  When he died the people errected this statue of him in the place in the street where he often stood directing traffic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finnish Flag

 

The corner of the building in the picture four above.  I thought the detail there was very interesting.  This type of detail is on many of the older large buildings in the city.  It is also worth noting that many of the older buildings were mostly of wood construction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neat looking large wooden doors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Angle Window

 

Thought this window was interesting because it was not curved like the bow windows that are typical in the USA's older buildings (and even some newer ones).  There's also a lot of detailed woodwork on this building exterior.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike Tracy

 

My traveling partner.  This photo was taken inside the Suola-Aitta restaurant.  Notice the exposed logs that are the structural part of the building.  We'd do the same thing here in the USA.  The wood was beautiful.  Don't know what the type of wood was though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Market

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Juhani Paloniemi, Mike Tracy, and Petri Vihelä standing on the street corner waiting for Sten Myrberger (our CPI Northern Europe manager).  You can see Petri in photos when he visited us.  They are in this web site on the "late-winter" page.  We were on our way to this really great Russian restaurant not far from this Best Western hotel where Mike Tracy and I were staying during our visit in Oulu.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for taking this picture Petri

 

Clockwise around the table starting with me then Mike Tracy, Kari-Pekka Tampio, Juhani Paloniemi, and Sten Myrberger.  Excellent food and excellent company.  Mike Tracy and I had a great time with all of you.  Thanks guys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kari-Pekka, Juhani and our waiter.  You can tell from this picture that I was not the only one at the tabe who appreciated the great service. :-)  Thanks again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oulu is about 300 miles directly north of the Finnish capital  . . .  Helsinki.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click the Oulu logo above to go to the City's web site

 

 

 

Click the Kemira logo to go to the Kemira web site

 

 

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