It's less than 7 km away. A much nicer (although small) town, nice hotels, good restaurants. But I don't normally bother to go there because those 7 km can be the longest 7 km - border crossings can be brutal!
But it's early summer and I had a reason for being there for more than a day (3 days, actually). So I crossed into another world...........................
View from the Svetogorsk hotelroom
View from my Imatra hotelroom!
Svetogorsk
Imatra!
The outside of the Svetogorsk hotel
The outside of the hotel in Imatra (it's a old castle, originally built in 1903 for visiting wealthy Russian nobility)!
OK, so the comparison study is pretty clear, and we have a winner!
Imatra is located on the Vuoksi River. It was founded in 1948 after the Second World War. By some, it's considered the 1st real tourist town in Finland, thanks to the 1772 visit by Russian Empress Catherine the Great.
It's always interesting to me how different Finland and Russia are, even two towns that are steps away from each other. Finland became an independent state in 1917 (it was part of the Russian Empire). And when I'm in Finland, I always feel like people are saying "Look how we turned out!".
Imatra's not big - maybe 25,000 people.
But everyone was enjoying the nice weather in the "city center" while I was in town.
Imatra has a dam. The Imatrankoski Rapids, which run during the summer evenings (unfortunately, they didn't open while I was in town)
Imatra has a gorge.
But my favorite thing to do is just walk along the river path, breathe in the fresh air (we don't get much fresh air in St. Petersburg), and enjoy the scenery.
A fishing shop and boat launch.......
Birch trees
A bird hangout
The train trestle leading out of town
Along a portion of the path, I found a section with private houses, right on the river, all with their own boat docks. I would take any of them!
Livin' the life.............
At first, I thought, "ooh, naked people". And so I had to zoom in & take a picture.
They aren't naked, but might as well be! Flesh-colored bathing suits (especially Speedos) are weird.
Finally, and on a more somber note, I stumbled across this small cemetery, in honor of local heroes who lost their lives during the 2nd World War
What a nice town
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely town. Made it worthwhile to deal with the border crossing. Cemeteries honoring the War dead are so sobering.
ReplyDeletewas a good place to spend a couple years, would like to re-visit someday but as each year passes Ric and I grow a bit older and the thought of a very long trip seems less appealing. thanks for the pics so very nice to see old stomping grounds. :-)
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