Day 1
We arrived in Helsinki via all night ferry, (Janet will review this trip in a separate post). The boat is packed and once again it is a cattle call leaving. We are in a hurry today, we have a walking tour starting soon, we breakdown and take one of the waiting taxi’s.
We are huge fans of public transportation, and this taxi ride reinforces our support of the bus/train method of transport. €50 for a short drive in a smelly van. We drop our bags and head out to the central square.
Helsinki is a labor of love, the fourth of the Scandinavia countries. Rick Steves calls it “sadly overlooked corner of Europe”. We are here 2.5 days and we made the most of this poor step-child of Scandinavia countries.
Our walking tour has a good guide. Our group large, but the guide had a microphone, was local, had a wealth of knowledge and had a good pace.
We see all the top sites, the National Cathedral, and Russian Cathedral, government building, statues, squares and many stories about the long history of occupation, resistance and independence. The city has 100 miles of underground tunnels, the entire population can shelter. Military service is mandatory, this city remains prepared. Our guide talks about the people, they are happy, safe and keep their country clean. Finland has been ranked the happiness country in the world for many years, and they are very proud of that. He attributes the happiness to a closeness to nature, family and the importance of a weekly sauna, there are 5 million people in Finland and 3 million saunas. Parents start taking their children at age 2. .See some photos with places named below.
After the tour we went to a late lunch/dinner at a local cafeteria, per our guide, the cafeteria is the most common lunch option. It was busy at 4:00. They list the mains at the door. As we people watched we see several people grab tables by leaving all personal belonging and 2 babies left in prams while the parents went for food. It does appear to be a very safe country!
The ferry boat
Day 2
Our day starts with a ride on the city ferry boat to Suomenllina Fortress, €6 including the entry, our best deal yet.
This is a massive military fortress spread out over two of the five islands that create this archipelago. There are several inlet bay areas around the island. The fortress has multiple castles, connected between ramparts and stone walls with a stone headquarters and soldier quarters, supply buildings, and residential homes for officers and supplying merchants. The architechs and military planners kept on getting funds approved by the king, so they kept on building. This was the gift of generosity that keep on giving and giving. Having walked the entire grounds, my impression is that the fortress should have acted as a full-time military college, like West Point and Annapolis combined, since it had a dry dock and ship yard in one area. The King had ships built there and later, in WWII the ship yard was utilized to resupply, refuel, and repair German U-Boats. Finland had its issue in WW II. At first Germany took control, and then Russia’s counterattack against the 3rd Reich included Finland., and russia stayed in control through the cold war.
Dry Dock Ship yard
Historically, the Fort never was a successful battlefront compound, although put under siege often. One defense of an attack fell short because the cannons installed were never improved over the long history of the fort and thus under powered with poor range. The fort faced 77 enemy ships and was bombed continuously for 47 hours. The fort was set ablaze as ammunition storages exploded. Another siege defense was lost due to poor generalship. The commander had the men, ammunitions, food stores, and the fort walls to withstand a Russian army siege. But after several attacks that had done little damage, he had no stomach for more fighting-and surrendered the Fort. It was considered to be a great win by the Russian government. The Finnish Commander faced personal humiliation, from the government and his soldiers, for the rest of his life according to the museum information. The Museum on the base was particularly good with a short film setting out the the overall history.
Submarine
There was lots of walking –we simply got tired, but we found a Pizzaria inside one of the ramparts that had outside canopy seating. Pizza was not great, but the cold beverage in the shade was a nice respite. (the oven baked crust was thin and good, but tomato sause tasted like sweet ketchup.)
Walking back to the dock, we stopped at a moored Finnish Submarine of 1950’s vintage. Could have gone inside, but we were just too tired. It looked like a snub-nosed US WW II submarine; much shorter.
When we got back to our hotel it was take out sandwiches and salad in the room.
We did take advantage of the Finnish Saunas at the hotel, segregated between men and women. Nice set up, relaxing, we are happy.
One of the bays at the fort
Day 3
Our last day in Finland and we are up early to make the most of the day. We start by walking to visit an inspiring architectural structure build within a smallish hill of granite. At one time the rock-hard site was to be the foundational support for a traditional Lutheran church but the architects offered a more creative vision. They designed and built their church, The Temppelliaukio, inside the granite mound. The circular structure is amazing. Part of the walls sculpture the existing rock where other walls curve with large cut granite blocks. The honor tob nature continues as the roof above is a circular structure with metal spines intersecting a middle point with glass windows and a huge copper disc affixed to the center of the room. Just spectacular. The church spirit arises from the rock. The only obvious holy artifact is a small, single cross made of wood set on the small altar table. You can walk on the exterior as you can hike a granite bolder. With trees and bushes growing out of the exterior rock you feel for a moment like you have set foot in the holy land. This was a really impressive church.
Great public transport
In a religious state of mind, we took the trolly to the Uspenski Cathedral, originally an Russian Orthodox Church that has traditional Byzantine form. When questioned, the caretaker of the church said this church had moved away from the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow and now affiliated itself with the Constantinople Patriarchate, that formerly was in Istanbul, Turkeya. Interesting to me, as the Greek Orthodox faith was historically affiliated with Constantinople.
We finished the day by visiting the Helsinki National Art Museum. There was a special exhibit about Eero Nelimarkka, acclaimed artist and one of the country’s best painters. He flourished with rural landscapes but often depicted urban scenes. As his reputation grew, he painted more commissioned portraits. He traveled to France to study and spent time in Seattle, US. In his life he opened an Art Museum and an Art School for Painters. We end our day with cake and coffee in the lovey cafe. See Photos.
Back to our hotel for rest, then out again for bookstore perusing Moomin books in English for the grandkids, we find several great stores and our bags are now much heavier! Last on our list for Finland was to try the famous Salmon soup and Reindeer. Our restaurant was more touristy than we like but the food was good and the Reindeer was just like American pot roast, but not as good. In the end Finland; Helsinki did warm our hearts; we are glad we visited.
Salmon soup and black bread