Monday, March 21, 2011

Fighting windmills

I was biking home from downtown when I noticed something that I decided was worth stopping and taking a picture. Oulu is a coastal city and so we get enough wind for windmills. There's even one big one built quite near the city center. It's rated 3MW, is 90 meters high and the wings reach 135 meters. The first photo is taken near the city library, on one of the bridges crossing the river.
The Windmill, about 3 kilometers away as the crow flies.
I had some free time and the weather was great, so I decided to go closer and get more pictures of this landmark. The wind mill is on the southern end of an island, so I crossed the river. I found one road which went towards the windmill. All went fine until I came to a gate. The south end of the island is also harbour area and has restricted access. The road was blocked by closed gates and nobody seemed to be around to let me through, so I had to return and try another route. Which was a recreational path on the sea side. Too bad it has no winter maintenance. There was a path made by walkers, and I cycled on it until there was a camp site. A lot less people walked on after the camp site so the path was uncycleable, even with a mtb.
The path and the camp site is very close to the coastline. From where I'm standing, it was maybe 40 meters to the sea. I'm maybe a kilometer from the windmill, but the trees block the view. If I walked out of the woods on the ice, I'd have a better view. But as I said the windmill was on the south end of the island. That also meant the windmill had the sun behind it, and with the white snow reflecting the sun it was impossible to get scenic shots of the damn windmill. So the first picture was the best one.

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