The Iron Curtain Trail

 Uukuniemi to Lappeenranta

Well I passed on another swim in the lake this morning tempting as it looked?

Immediately on leaving the campsite I came across this Tsasouna - a Russian Orthadox Chapel which looking at its site and build I assumed was old ... turns out it was actually built in 2009. 

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The two things I wantedj to do today were to visit the Simo Hayha Museum in Miettila and his grave in Ruokolahti.

I did both though the church in took some finding. Don't see why really,  it was very big and beautiful both inside and out.

I won't wear you down with details of Simo but if you are interested this is a good book.

I'm fascinated by the contribution he made to Finland's success in the Winter War and the fact that he lived to despite horrendous facial injuries from a banned exploding bullet used by the Russians

The graveyard at the church in Ruokolahti was used as the last resting place for a lot of the Finns killed in the Winter and  Continuation Wars and the  graves are as well tended as in our own Commonwealth Sites.

As with many churches in this part of the world the bell towers - magnificent buildings in their own right - are often seperate from the main church building.

I'd  been told I must visit the Sculpture Park near Parikkala

I did..... The Yorkshire Sculpture Park it is not. I found the work of Veijo Ronkkonen creepy .... partly I expect because a lot of the statues had real human teeth. No, not my thing.

At another church site I visited I saw again the graves of soldiers and civilians killed in the Winter War were maintained with care and respect. The church had obviously been destroyed ... the ruins were still there ... but the charring on and around the stones seemed to dark to have occurred 80 years ago.

On asking a local, as all the signs were  in Finnish I learned that the Church had been destroyed by arson on Christmas day last year... having survived the war I assume!