Visiting Tampere

The town of Tampere itself has been likened to an English Manchester (even the football team is Tampere United) being a once thriving textile centre but now more focused on technology and the services industries The town of Nokia for example is just a few miles away where the most famous Finnish company started.

Tampere, the third largest city in Finland, is located between two large lakes and almost where ever you go in the area there are beautifully scenic lakes and seemingly endless trees (the country has around 170,000 in total). To get an excellent view of the town and surrounding area then a trip to the "Näsinneula" is well worthwhile, a 168m tall observation tower with a very nice restaurant at the top which slowly revolves giving excellent views for many miles in 360 degrees whilst you enjoy a meal.

An overview of Tampere.

Tampere has quite a few other attractions,

• The "Särkänniemi" amusement centre has an aquarium, planetarium, dolphinarium, and amusement park.
• There are several museums and art galleries, including the only Lenin museum outside of Russia located where Lenin and Stalin first met. a spy museum, The Central Museum of Labour,
• Moominvalley Museum Original illustrations by Tove Jansson, the creator of the Moomins.
• Lake cruises and tours.
• Fishing
• Tampere Hall is the biggest concert and congress venue in Scandinavia, hosting a whole range of events - up to 300 a year, from exhibitions to rock concerts.
• Some very pleasant little districts around restored textile buildings, that now house bars, restaurants and shopping.

A view of part of the amusement park from the observation tower.

The centre of Tampere is quite compact and walking is easy, a little further afield there is the world's tallest gravel banks, the Pyynikki and Pispala ridges, left over from the last ice age, worth a little drive up to the top just to say you've been there, though in truth unless you knew it was there it does just look rather hill like and the Pyynikki open air summer theatre, unusual in that the stage remains still but the audience is on a rotating platform.

Figures from Tampere's history line a bridge towards the town centre.

It's the sort of place that is well worth a visit for a day or two, there is plenty to do and is very much free of the "sameness" of many places, lots of quirky shops and restaurants and it's easy to get a flavour of what Finland is all about.

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