A charming book by Tove Jansson – Sculptor’s Daughter. A nostalgic recollection of childhood in Finland. So innocent, so positive. So appreciative of her environment.
Tove Jansson, 1914-2001
A Cycling Odyssey July 19, 2011
Given my interest in all things Nordic and a son who is keen on long distance cycling, I seized upon this book when it came out not so long ago. This past week said son was participating the a long distance endurance cycling challenge in Colorado so I thought it appropriate to be reading this book as he was cycling up and down those mountains. As it turned out, the book was also appropriate in reminding me of a trip that said son did maybe 20 years ago in Norway and Finland. That long-ago trip was in somewhat reverse direction from the cycling done by Robert Goldstein in Riding With Reindeer. And also it wasn’t done by bicycle, so far as I know. I’ll ask James when he gets back from Colorado to find out just what and how he did that trip north from Oslo to loop over the top of Norway and then south in Finland to Helsinki.
The Riding with Reindeer man did his trip ex-Seattle flying to Helsinki and then cycling intensively east and north, completing over 2000 miles. A great adventure. He did this trip in the summer of 2007 and the book has a 2010 publication date. If I’m not mistaken it was launched only a couple of months ago when the author gave a talk about the book at the Nordic Heritage Centre. I didn’t get to the talk, but I did buy the book at that time when I saw it in the Heritage Centre shop while browsing before my Norwegian language class.
Reading the book, I came away with a somewhat better knowledge of the history and geography of Finland. And his roughly day by day account gives a good feeling for the possible triumphs and hardships to be encountered in such an endeavour. There are some good black and white photos in the book but for some lovely colour photos of fishing in Finland follow the link.
Also I have just been reading the official blog of the Colorado High Country cycling challenge that James did. That makes for good reading and viewing also.
Janet's thread 