Tampere day tour and tourist attractions

It was a beautiful Sunday when we had our day tour of Tampere. We were on a road trip all the way from Pori and feel blessed to have such nice weather in Tampere that day, making our short tour an enjoyable one. A day in Tampere won’t be enough to cover all the city’s interesting sights but you can visit most of the famous attractions with a sightseeing bus tour.

We visited first the famous Moominvalley museum where the kids enjoyed seeing miniature Moomins characters creatively presented in a series of tableaux. Next stop was at the Alexander Church (Aleksanterin kirkko), just a few meters walk across the street. We did bring along a map of Tampere but got a bit disoriented though. We also visited the Orthodox Church of Tampere (Tampereen ortodoksikirkko) and hiked along the streets, noting the interesting architecture of some buildings.


It’s me and my happy steps taking a rest, enjoying the beautiful sunny weather in Tampere
at the riverside park, with a nice view of the Tammerkoski (and the TAKO factory
building) behind.

The Moominvalley or Moomin Museum (Muumilaakso), the first stop of our day tour

Alexander Church (Aleksanterin kirkko)

Façade of the Alexander Church

Tampere Orthodox Church (Tampereen ortodoksikirkko)

These are some photos of the buildings in Tampere:

At two in the afternoon, we went on a sightseeing bus tour which allowed us to speed by the city’s travel attractions with an English-speaking tour guide explaining each point of interest along the way. I wish she was more entertaining as a tour guide though.

As a general travel tip, if your vacation period is very much limited, it’s best to hire a professional tour guide. Check with your travel agent for tour guides that speak your preferred language as most travel deals can be customized whether it’s a Barcelona weekend trip or some cheap holidays Turkey package.

Here are some shots taken from the window of the bus (a few photos show some reflection in the glass window):

The sightseeing bus tour dropped by the Kaleva Church (Kalevan kirkko), a unique modern building designed by Architects Reima and Raili Pietilä.

The Kaleva Church (Kalevan kirkko) with interesting cloud formation in the background.

Inside the Kaleva Church

Our tourist bus also went up an elevated district in Tampere and we all alighted from the bus to enjoy this scenic view of a lake which, if I’m not mistaken, is the Pyhäjärvi Lake. Our tour guide explained to us that the small town of Nokia, former home of the notable Finnish telecommunications company of the same name, is located at the other side of the lake.

Scenic view of the Pyhäjärvi Lake

Here are more shots taken during the sightseeing bus tour:

At the Tammerkoski

One of the dams along the Tammerkoski

Tampella is no longer in operation, but it is part of Tampere’s industrial history as a notable
manufacturing institution.

After our sightseeing bus tour which was about two hours, our next stop was at the Tampere Cathedral (Tampereen tuomiokirkko), a beautiful stone building based on the National Romantic architectural style.

Tampere Cathedral (Tampereen tuomiokirkko)

Colorful summer blooms in front of the Tampere Cathedral

We ended our day with a Holy Mass at 6:00 PM at the Tampere Catholic Church (Katolinnen Kirkko) where we had a nice chat with some of the church goers afterwards. We were in high spirits on the road trip back to Pori as the car was filled with lively stories and happy memories of our day tour in Tampere.