Alvar Aalto built himself a summer house here on Muuratsalo, an island in Lake Päijänne's northern waters near Jyväskylä, and called it the Experimental House. He began it in the early 1950s, and the idea was literal: the walls of the square courtyard are patched with dozens of different bricks and tiles, laid out as samples to see how they weathered through Finnish winters. It is a low whitewashed building with a courtyard open to the sky, and it sits between the pines and the water. Nearby, in Säynätsalo, his town hall of dark red brick is a gem of Finnish modernism.
The region is the Finnish Lakeland, a country made of water. Lakes lie in every hollow, and the land between them is covered with spruce, pine and birch, with granite outcrops and boggy meadows. Jyväskylä, fourteen kilometres away, is a university city of some eighty-five thousand with a lot of Aalto buildings in its streets, and a good museum devoted to him. Muurame, a few kilometres closer, has fuel, supermarkets and cafes.
For the rider, the pleasure is calm. The roads are smooth, the bends are gentle, and the traffic is light, apart from the summer weekend when everyone heads to their lake cottages. Bridges link the islands in the Päijänne, and crossing them gives good views over the water. Take it easy, because speed cameras are common and fines in Finland are linked to income. Watch out for elk at dusk. In June the light lasts almost all night, and the midsummer period is magical.
Visiting hours at the house are limited, and access can be restricted, so check in advance. If you miss the opening, the lake and the woods are good consolation. Take a flask, find a flat rock by the shore, and watch the water. Finnish summers have a smell of pine resin and warm lake water that stays with you. The Petäjävesi Old Church, a wooden church from the eighteenth century and also a UNESCO site, lies a short distance away through the forest and makes a good second stop, with a long timber roof like an upturned boat.