Naantali - or the beautiful Moomin Island

There are so many places in Finland that show nature in the most beautiful way possible...for example the small island Naantali! This little town is one of the main attractions in whole Finland and is located app. 14 km west of Turku. The biggest part of the Naantali area is located on small, separated islands - most of it beautiful farmland and forest, just like a Finnish fairytale!

 

At that special day, we had even the perfect weather to visit Naantali: the sun was shining at its brightest, blue sky and mild temperature! The picture above shows a typical view of Naantali: blue water, an island part with green forest and reeds moved by the fresh wind - a scenario just like on a perefect holiday postcard! :-D 

As already mentioned about Reposaari, so is Naantali a place of silent and quiet atmosphere as well. In this way you can enjoy the beauty of nature in Naantali in an even more intensive way. But to be clear, Naantali is not quiet, silent and pretty lonely all the year... In summer, the Moomin World opens his doors to worldwide visitors! First for all who do not know Moomins, here is a extract from the Wikipedia quote: 'The Moomins (Finnish: Muumit)(Swedish: Mumintroll) are the central characters in a series of books and a comic strip by Swedish-Finn illustrator and writer Tove Jansson, originally published in Swedish by Schildts in Finland. They are a family of trolls who are white and roundish, with large snouts that make them resemble hippopotamuses. The carefree and adventurous family live in their house in Moominvalley, in the forests of Finland, though in the past their temporary residences have included a lighthouse and a theatre. They have many adventures along with their various friends.' Today you can find Moomins themes everywhere: on clothes, cups, toys, candies, papers...the list has no end. Moomins are really, really popular here in Finland. There is no stay in Finland (no matter how long it is) without getting in touch with the Moomins. But the popularity of Moomins also affects the price of Moomins articles: it is really expensive! There are e.g. cups (and they are rather small) whoch costs about 15 euros or even more. And now, I introduce you the world famous Moomins:

Well, now, to come back to Naantali: on one of the islands there is the Moomin World. This theme park is completely based on those Moomin stories by Tove Jansson. The park consists of different Moomin houses, playgrounds, a stage and some cafés. The most popular building is the blueberry-coloured Moomin house which is, of course, open to all visitors. Unfortunately, the park was closed when we visited it, but still we could walk through the whole area, but without visiting the interior of the buildings or seeing any shows. Nevertheless we got a good impression of the 'magic of Moomin World'! And for me (in Germany Moomins are not well-known, if even at all) it was quite new and funny to see such kind of theme park. The Finns really must love Moomins - they even give them a whole island for themselves ;-) But to be honest: for children (and I guess for some adults) it must been one of the best days in life to visit their 'popular friends', the Moomins! To wrap it up: Naantali and Moomin World were great, like a journey to a magical place in the westcoast of Finland!