Today one of the Finnish treasures of the century is celebrated, the composer Jean Sibelius. It’s also a day for Finnish music. He’s one of the best known people abroad. Especially for classical music lovers. He composed ‘Finlandia‘ which is usually played on special occasions. You can hear the song in ‘Die Hard 2: Die harder’ and other places as well. This is a flag day to remember the day he was born.

His home is ‘Ainola‘ where he and his wife Aino lived. There’s more about the place and photos in the link. Very interesting reading I must say.

Here’s a few photos I took when I was there in summer 2012. I used to study in the same town but only walked past it. I wanted to show my parents the town so we went to see this a bit closer on the same trip.

Ainola was a really nice place. It was in the middle of a forest. It had a big garden with flowers. I could imagine how they would had walked there everyday. Maybe entertaining guests. I could definitely live in a place like this. Peaceful and quiet. So if you’re want to see Finland in the summer, visit this place. I wish I could have went inside the house that is now a museum but unfortunately we didn’t have time.