Today is independence day in Finland, so here is an extra post with a puzzle to match.

A Ravensburger collage with images from Finland. Finland is called Suomi in Finnish. The bottom image on the left shows the tower of the National Museum, and on the left is Parliament House (it just looks like a grey block here). The top image on the right shows Olavinlinna, a 15th Century castle located in Savonlinna. Every summer it is the scene of an international opera festival. Underneath is an image of Helsinki seen from the sea, then a landscape from Lapland (I think), and on the bottom, I think there are fisherman’s huts.

I loved doing this, it was so much fun, and, of course, brilliant quality.

This is probably what many people think of when they think of Finland, a cottage in an isolated winter wonderland.

Helsinki is definitely at its most beautiful when seen from the sea.

This autumn landscape is probably from Lapland.

I don’t usually do borders first, but it worked well with this puzzle.

This may be the oldest Ravensburger I’ve ever done. According to the Jigsaw-Wiki, it’s from 1972, so not quite as old as me 🙂

Unfortunately, this was not a good experience. Apart from the four missing pieces, the pieces that were there were extremely worn, falling apart really, and, even worse, dirty. Probably ancient food deposits. And I paid good money for this. In fact, this puzzle is not going to make anyone happy, so I decided to throw it away. I never thought I would be throwing away a vintage puzzle, but  I’m afraid this has come to the end of its life cycle.

The image is from the Engadin in the Swiss Alps. Since the box looks rather different from later Ravensburger boxes I thought some of you might be interested in seeing it: