Our Helsinki stopover
An early morning flight brings us to Helsinki, Finland’s capital and the only country on our trip with no relation to Michael’s family.
The King of Sweden founded Helsinki to rival Tallinn (our next stop). Growth was slow, and most citizens died during the 1710 plague. In the early 1800s, Russia annexed the region, and the local Finnish population was able to encourage significant growth. The city now feels calm but full of life, a soft sea breeze flowing in from the northern Baltic Sea. Locals mill about in the town market overlooking the beautiful seaport with its many boats. We feel welcome the moment we set foot on Finnish land.
Helsinki’s sister cathedrals
The beautiful Orthodox Uspenski Cathedral oversees the town from a large hill near the seaport. Its sister cathedral, the Lutheran Helsinki Cathedral, is in the centre of town.
What links the two cathedrals? Money. When Helsinki was founded, Alexander I decreed that 15% of the salt import tax would fund the two cathedrals. The neoclassical Helsinki Cathedral was finished by 1852, and the Uspenski Cathedral, built in the Russian Revivalist style, was finished shortly after in 1868.
Town centre
A solo ‘walking’ tour takes us through the rest of the inner city, on and off the trams that remind us of home. We pass the Swedish Theatre, the Esplanadi Park and the surprisingly stunning architecture of the Central Railway Station.
Lunch
Lunch is a Finnish pancake (or two) at a little street stall in Market Square. We site overlooking the port, watching the boats sail in and out. One of them interested us, a one-and-a-half-hour cruise in the Helsinki archipelago.
Helsinki Archipelago
The boat tour takes us past Helsinki Zoo on Korkeasaari Island, a fleet of icebreakers and through the Degerö Canal. A recorded commentary tells us about Finnish history and the famous people who live on the islands. We see a local swimming beach full of people enjoying the beautiful weather. You could call it peaceful, except the beachgoers filled almost every square metre of sand.
We also cruise past Suomenlinna, an inhabited sea fortress and a vital cog in Finland’s history. We decided fairly quickly to visit the fortress tomorrow and book tickets after finishing the cruise.
Reindeer
When in Rome, eat reindeer (Poronkäristys) with beer and salmon soup (Lohikeitto). As you can see, the salmon soup is delicious, and the beer is hard to pour. We’d only just started the reindeer, but it turned out to be equally delicious.
Suomenlinna
Suomenlinna is an inhabited sea fortress built across six Finnish islands. The Swedes built the fortress in 1748 to protect themselves against Russian forces. It didn’t work, and the Russians annexed Finland in 1808. The Russians used the fortress to protect the area during the Crimean War and World War I.
The Fins gained independence in 1917, but not for long. In 1918, a civil war broke out between the socialist Red Guards (supported by Russia) and the non-socialist White Guards (supported by Germany). The White Guards won; however, with Germany defeated in World War I, Finland emerged as an independent, democratic republic.
Forces remained on Suomenlinna, particularly during World War II. However, they diminished rapidly and by 1972, the island was handed over to civil administrators. Today, only the Naval Academy remains on the island.
The Dry Docks
Our walking tour takes us through the dry docks, the oldest docks in Finland and one of the oldest operational docks in Europe. Previously used to build boats and aeroplanes, the Viaporin Telakka Ry Foundation now use the docks to repair wooden sailing ships.
Ladies should always go first.
A high-ranking officer’s daughter falls in love with a foot soldier, but her family doesn’t grant their blessings. The young couple decide to end their lives by leaping off a fortress wall into the pond below. The soldier jumps first. His heavy boots drag him to the bottom of the pond, and he drowns. The young lady jumps next, her big skirts and pants trapping air in the water to become a float. Cold, scared and losing interest, she calls out for help. An officer passing by comes to her rescue. The young lady falls in love with her rescuer, gains her family’s blessings and marries him soon after. According to our tour guide, that is how the saying ‘ladies should always go first’ came about.
Bastion Zander and the castle fortifications
We wander around the fortifications built during the mid-18th century. Michael takes some time out to pretend to fire a cannon.
Kings Gate
We visit the Kings Gate, an iconic Finnish sight. The gate is built on the site where Sweden’s King Adolf Frederick (the fortress founder) anchored while he inspected the fortress’ construction in 1752.
Suomenlinna Church
Finally, we visited the Suomenlinna Church, built as a Greek Orthodox garrison church for the Russian troops of the Suomenlinna sea fortress in 1854. It originally had five onion domes. It was converted into an Evangelical Lutheran church during the 1920s. Today, its central dome doubles as a lighthouse, making it one of only a few churches in the world that double as a lighthouse. The signal blink is the Morse code for the letter “H” for Helsinki. It is a very popular wedding church and one of the first landmarks for people arriving in Helsinki by sea.
The ferry to Tallinn
We returned to the mainland of Helsinki to pick up our bags and were told a fast ferry would depart soon. Running along the dock with our heavy backpacks, we make it with minutes to spare, leaving us time for a quick photo and saving us almost two hours. Onto Tallinn and our next big adventure.
