Rauma Off The Beaten Path

Rauma is that small that sometimes you can feel almost like in a village, there is a small stream here between the old city and the old church. You can walk by the stream if you just walk till the end of the old city to the east side.

It is Over 500 years old and is located on the way from Turku to Rauma. It is famous because the Marshal of Finland C.G.E. Mannerheim was born here in 1867.
When visiting Helsinki you cannot avoid seeing the Mannerheim statue just in front of the modern museum of art.

>> Why he is so important? Simply because without him we would not be living in a country called Finland!!

The manor house is one of the rare examples of palatial architecture in Finland.

Most people in Finland have a summer cottage where they like to spend their spare time and where sometimes they grow their own fruits and vegetables. But my wonderful hosts have TWO of them!!! This is one of them, located in the middle of the woods and which is very beautiful and spacious! Thanks so much to the Lehtos for all their hospitality and the wonderful meal we had in this house (homemade smoked fish, some berry pie and other simple but delicious stuff)!!! Kiitos for all your friendliness and kindness!

One of Rauma's best qualities is that it's building up an active summer. The definite high point of summer in Rauma, like in all of Finland, is Juhannus, the midsummer festival celebrated on the summer solstice. In Rauma it's celebrated with a rock festival called Raumanmeren Juhannus that gathered many tens of thousands of people to the Otanlahti beach in 2001. The performers are more or less Finnish, so this is an excellent opportunity for visitors from abroad to get familiar with Finnish rock/pop music, the Finnish Juhannus, and the Finnish drinking culture all in one!

Another one of Rauma's summer attractions is the annual Night of the Black Lace, in late July. It's the high point of the Lace Week, and is celebrated by wearing black lace, and enjoying the bustle in Old Rauma when shops keep their doors open late into the night to service all the lace-wearing festivalgoers. It's a very cute and charming event that I can warmly recommend!

The Poroholma camping site/marina and the Otanlahti beach/swimming pool. On opposite sides of the teeny Otanlahti cove (perhaps a few hundred meters across), this is a great place for camping-inclined people to visit. The beach is not big by any means, in fact it's downright tiny, which will show you very effectively why all the Rauma youth want to get out of the city. :) Still, during the summer it's a very charming place to visit, and definitely an integral part of experiencing what Rauma is like. Just don't go during a Friday or Saturday night, because it's also a popular place for youth to get drunk in, especially at school's end! I've done it several times myself!

I took a photo of this beautiful old wooden house because I really think it is beautiful one and nice yard. Very typical for Rauma old city.

Have a look at the very nice pages of Mannerheim at: Click Here

The castle is surrounded by an English landscape park with a bath house (which used to be at the sea shore).

I found this very amusing. There were two big holes in the fence, so the dogs could put their heads out and see what's happening on the street. (they are not stuck there)