Wednesday 28^th June

It was another glorious morning albeit one that started at 3:50 am, but Mark waited until 6 am to head out for his early morning bike ride.  On his return we both went out for a walk.

It’s at this point I think it best to mention that visitors to this region should take careful note of the curtain fittings in their chosen accommodation. The curtain fittings in our apartment, are quite attractive, but they are just not up for the job. They are made of a Blockout style fabric but are a simple rod-pocket design that hang up and out a bit from the window cavity. Under normal circumstances, having the sun filter through around the edges of a curtain near sunrise is quite pleasant but not when sunrise is at 3:50 am! This region calls for window fittings that have a blockout roller blind and a curtain with a pelmet. Just saying! Maybe then if I woke at 4 am I wouldn’t think, judging by the light entering the room, that it’s time to get up! I’m off now to check the window fittings at all my future venues that we have over the next month.

It was an interesting walk down and along the harbor front. Much of the area is still a fully commercial working pier but many of the old warehouses, of which there seem to be a disproportionate number given the population, are being reimagined into lovely residential apartments / condos. There was also a surprising number of young women out riding electric scooters; some looking like they were off to work and others to the gym. The area is flat and there are plenty of bike lanes that help but their obvious comfort and confidence with this mode of transport through the city was encouraging. There were also a few people swimming and Mark noted the water seemed surprisingly warm given the whole harbor had been ice not that long ago. We didn’t think the water looked that clean so we won’t be heading back for a dip! We were already wishing we had at least another night or two here which is a good sign. I’d definitely allocate a minimum of 5 nights if you ever plan to visit Helsinki.

It ended up being a bit of a quiet day which we both were happy about as were feeling a bit fatigued. It’s been much warmer here so perhaps that is dragging us down a bit. We visited the Library of Finland which was more for the architecture as the building inside and out is rather beautiful. Check the photos. After that we visited the Bank of Finland Museum which was rather interesting but unfortunately most of the displays were simple printed slides and the Helsinki City Museum which I found rather disappointing. I had thought there might be some interesting chronological potted history of Finland but I should have realized from the name of the museum that this was not going to be the case. I wouldn’t be hurrying to add either of these to your Helsinki ‘to do’ list.

We ended up back at Old Market Hall for lunch and then wandered through the Stockmann Department store which was kind of like a large version of the original Sydney city David Jones, complete with food hall and dining on the basement level. The clothing prices were all rather high, despite many items being on Sale but we ended up finding a pair of shorts at a boutique on the way home. There was a lovely cafe / bakery along Bulevardi that we had wanted to try out and Mark had a beer there on our way home. So we ticked a lot of boxes despite not doing all that much at all. We were home by 3 pm for a rest and only popped out again for a drink at the bar downstairs before having a quiet night dining in.

 

Thursday 29^th June

It was another glorious morning and ideal weather for our visit out to Suomenlinna, the fortress island located 1 km off the coast of the Helsinki harbour front area. Mark started the day with a bike ride but I have slept poorly so missed having a morning walk.

Our plan for the day was to purchase a day-travel ticket and use this to visit the fortress island via ferry in the morning and take a tram ride to visit some nearby neighbourhoods in the afternoon. We stopped off along the lovely tree-lined Esplanade for Mark to have a coffee on our way to the ferry and, as we sat there at a charming cafe, we continued to delight in the beauty of all that is Helsinki.

The ferry across to Suomenlinna takes about 20 minutes and they run every 20 minutes back and forth. We had found another audio guide from a newish company called Voice Map and we used this to navigate our way around the Fortress.  It was great as the route took us to all of the main sites worth visiting and the commentary provided useful background about each one. It would have been meaningless meandering otherwise. You need at least 90 minutes for the audio tour and I’d also wear decent sand shoes, not leather soled sandals or shoes, as the cobblestones are rather large and irregularly shaped and placed unevenly across most of the pathways on the island. You need to watch your feet quite closely in a lot of areas!

We picked up some interesting bits of information along our tour and I’ve noted these below:

• Finland is 75% forest
• Finland is known for its excellence in Design and Architecture
• Finland has been rated by the EU as the happiest nation on earth for about 6 years running. This is considered in part due to the proximity to abundant nature and waterway as well as access to good quality and free welfare, health care, and education
• There is a strong focus on reading education in Finnish culture
• There are 2 million saunas in Finland, more than the number of cars. Saunas in sports arenas, Parliament and shops
• Speeding tickets are based on income in Finland. Some multi-millionaires have fines of almost €100,000.

The return ferry had us back at the Harbour front just after 12.30 and we ventured back to the Old Market Hall for lunch. From there it was off to catch the Number 6 tram to visit the ceramics museum in Arabia as this had been a suggestion we found in a guide book in our apartment. PS: we have no idea why this area in Helsinki is named Arabia, despite googling.

The train trip out to the museum was rather interesting as I had been expecting the cityscape to change during the 25 minute journey but there was little change at all. The outer suburbs seem to be filled with the same multilevel apartment blocks as the inner city. The museum ended up being just a couple of rooms showcasing the history of glass and ceramic-ware dating back to 1873 to and up to present day. Some of the ceramics were beautiful but the visit was rather short and really just filled in about 20 minutes at the end of the tram trip. This museum visit definitely isn’t something I would say is a ‘must do’ if you’re ever in Helsinki but we were glad to have taken the tram trip none the less, and with good reason as you’re about to find out!

There was one big upside to the tram trip though. On the way out of the city centre we saw that there was a huge Helsinki Craft Beer event that, apparently, just happened to be starting today. We decided we would visit on our way back into town and I think that’s why Mark was busting to get out of the ceramic Museum.

The craft beer event was great and very well supported, especially considering it had only just opened a couple of hours before we arrived. It runs for three days and there are 39 different craft beer tents and a number of food trucks. I think Mark was sorry that we were leaving for Stockholm tomorrow, otherwise I’m sure we would be back here again. We stayed long enough for him to try a few different beers and then it was back on the Number 6 tram to head home.

We’d had a great last day in Helsinki and had dinner out at Levant, a middle eastern restaurant just round the corner. Our 4 days in Helsinki had been wonderful and we wished we had planned for a few more. For anyone considering a visit to the region I would definitely try to allow for at least 5 nights staying in Helsinki and then maybe another 1 or 2 nights to take a trip out of the center and to visit other parts of Finland, as we had heard some other regions nearby were well worth a visit. Next stop for us is Stockholm. We head there tomorrow and have 5 nights staying in the center of the Old Town.