Morning in Haparanda was a bit grey. We discussed with Flemming whether to see Haparanda first or go to the island of Seskarö, and we both voted for Seskarö.
The island is connected to the mainland via a bridge and some intermediate islands:
Seskarö is about 20 km2. The island’s history can be traced back to 1540. At that time, the population of the area consisted of farmers, fishermen, and hunters. In 1892, a first sawmill was built on Seskarö. The population grew rapidly through immigration and in 1920 about 3,000 people lived on the island. The sawmills employed about 700 people and the community had a rich life with schools, specialty stores, charcuterie factory, brewery, photo studios, church, police, cinema, theatres, several orchestras, political associations, library, sports, and so on. In 1928, the era of prosperity was over when both sawmills closed down. Today Seskarö has around 500 inhabitants.
We drove around, and stopped for an al fresco lunch in one of the small harbours. There was a table with benches, a toilet with a water sink, a hot shower, and a place for cleaning up fish. All that for free, and the visitors were encouraged to make a donation, especially for use of hot shower:
It was a nice place, and we spent some time there, enjoying the beautiful nature surrounding us:
Seskarö church was built in 1928-1929:
It was simple and elegant inside:
The matching chandeliers were donated by the local sawmill in 1928:
And one of the old machines from the sawmill exhibited outside:
Seskarö’s school:
We thought Seskarö was just a small island used mainly as a summer residence, but were actually surprised to learn about its life, and so many inhabitants.
After Seskarö, we went back to Haparanda, and did some sightseeing there. Flemming on the photo below is pointing at the sign “Ikast 2002 km”. Ikast is a small town in Jylland, Denmark. We laughed a lot that it was mentioned there, together with Paris and Rome:
Haparanda city is adjacent to Tornio in Finland. Flemming and I wanted to visit Tornio, just to drive through it. We knew that anyone coming from Sweden would be questioned on the border (because of the COVID-19 situation), but we decided to give it a try and drove there:
We were stopped, and asked to go back to Sweden which we did:
We finished the day with a good dinner in our River Motell’ restaurant, and had a couple of drinks:
Even when the weather is not for flying, one can always have a good time!