Finland - Turku to Helsinki

So at the end of the last blog we had just arrived in Turku, Finland.  We parked on the waterfront and went for a walk along the river and through town.  The area was buzzing on a busy Friday night.  One feature was the number of restaurants on boats, one of which was Aussie themed.

The next morning we woke to persistent rain, which put a significant dampener on our exploration of the city.  We first went to the info centre and asked a few questions of the attendant there.  Again they were pretty sketchy on things in the area around Turku (example 'yeah that is supposed to be good, I've never been though' - that was about a UNESCO World heritage site less then 2 hours away).  They really should get there people out to visit things so they can comment.  We had our umbrellas and jackets so we set off around the town and tried to make the best of things.  We saw lovely buildings, including the art museum and indoor market hall.  We bought corn at a stall in the market square and went to the Lutheran Cathedral before the weather forced us to pack it in.  We had planned to shop at Lidl and carry it all back to the van and did so despite the weather.  Some complaints (Dale) were made while hauling our loads through the rain and we were thoroughly bedraggled when we got back to the van for lunch.  So rather than walk we drove down to Turku Castle, which was in the opposite direction than we had been in during the morning.  Nicky went out and took some photos, but I couldn't face the rain again. We drove south to a town called Hanko, 2 hours away and the weather steadily improved and was okay in Hanko.

Museum like display in the Turku Indoor Market

 Cathedral

The next morning we drove to one of the beaches in hopes of doing some bird watching (well Dale anyway).  We found out later that the observation tower we wanted to see was not open to the public, but we found instead some old Soviet fortifications from World War 2, which was very interesting instead.  We parked in Hanko town and again went to the info centre.  The woman there was very helpful and told us about a special event happening in Finland today, that occurs 4 times a year.  It is pop up restaurant day, and anyone could take part and sell food at a stall/from your home whatever (I (Dale) imagine NZ food safety would have a fit).  There were 4 in Hanko and she wrote them down for us and marked them on the map.  In our guidebook, a page featured a self guided walk which lead us past many beautiful buildings and wooden houses.  We reached the Hotel Regatta and to our surprise saw 12 Ferraris parked up outside.  We had walked past 4 before we realised and had to double back.  Dale had a great time taking photos, and other people were doing the same.  Half way through our walk, we stopped at a Thai pop up restaurant.  According to the woman at the info centre, 3 of the pop up restaurants were Thai and 1 was waffles.  The Thai was delicious, we had been craving Thai or Chinese as we had not had it for a while, and the Chicken curry, rice and spring roll went down a treat.  We finished our walk by seeing the water tower, the Lutheran church and the former casino building on the seafront.  We found Hanko to be a lovely place, and great that something was happening there on a Sunday nearing the end of tourist season.  Tourist season was definitely winding down, after serving us the poor info girl was being given grief by another tourist about the fact that the tour boats that go out to the islands had finished for the season, as if somehow she had control over this.

On the way to the campsite, we wanted to stop at 2 more bird observation towers marked on our map.  Again the logo on a tourist map curse struck again as we got to the first one and walked through a field but could find no sign of it. We found the 2nd one, however not exactly where it was marked on the map!  Luckily at least there were some birds! The campsite was good and it had a kitchen, very similar to what New Zealand campsites offer. It was reasonably priced at 20 euros and we got to choose our pitch and completed all our jobs (waste disposals, showers and dinner).  However the campsite attendant was promptly nicknamed Mr Grumpy as he was pretty miserable about the whole thing.

It was raining the next morning, we had seen the forecast the night before and I was surprised when it cleared and came out sunny about 11am.  We explored Ekenas (the town the campsite was in).  There is no Tripadvisor listing for 'Things to do', so we spent our time walking to the marina and through the old town and past the church.  We then drove to Friskars village, which is now an arts and crafts hub with a museum as well.  It started in 1649 for ironworking, and in 1967 they produced the iconic orange handled Friskar scissors.  We had a long walk, and then hit the road again to Helsinki.

We arrived about 4.30pm on Monday after our day in Ekenas and Fiskars.  We parked at a beach location we had heard about from another online blog.  This location is 3km walk from the city centre.  Dale had found out that there was an outdoor movie screening of 'Moulin Rouge' in a park next to the Helsinki music centre.  It was a late start- 9.45pm, but we'd had a quiet day so managed, and got back to the van about midnight.

The next morning, we walked to Senate square and the Cathedral, looking at the Parliament building on the way.  The parliament does offer free English tours at 1pm each day, but we decided to skip that as our timing wasn't right.  I (Nicky) was very impressed when arriving at Senate square as it is magnificent.  The Cathedral stands atop with steps leading down to the square and statue.  Around the edge of the square is full of tour buses, and during our stay we have seen our share of tour groups!
We visited the info centre, then we had our lunch in the adjacent Esplanade park.  The park is small, and you are still in the hustle and bustle of the city. The market square was across the road so that was our next stop.  At first I (Nicky) wasn't too impressed, as the fruit and vegetable prices were the highest I've seen so far.  However once I started looking at the other stalls I really started to enjoy myself.  There is the usual tourist stalls with reindeer soft toys, magnets and wooden boxes, butter knives and salad servers.  Other stalls were selling reindeer products: skins, horns, and we even saw whole fox skins at one stand.  There are also food vendors selling traditional Finnish food from Lappland.

 

 

That afternoon we went on the municipal ferry to Suomenlinna, a fortress and UNESCO site. It is 15 minutes on the ferry from the market square.  It would have cost us 4.40 euros each, and we decided to buy a day pass for 8 euros each.  The pass lasts 24 hours, and we could then use the trams and buses that night and the following morning.  I wasn't sure at first, and it was all Dale's idea, but I did confess to him later that it was definitely the right choice!  The fortress was nice, and we spent 3 hours walking around the islands, and we also went into the Customs museum there.  It is a good activity if the weather is sunny, I think it would be miserable in the rain.

Our second day in Helsinki started at the Rock church.  When we arrived I was a little underwhelmed as it doesn't look much from the outside.  However, once inside it is amazing as it is built into the rock and there is a big copper dome in the ceiling.  We had arrived at 10am because they offer music performances every weekday at that time.  There was a man playing the piano and we stayed for about 50 minutes.  After that time, I was getting tired of the tourists (tour groups being lead in and out for about 10mins each) taking endless photos and talking, when they should have been admiring the building and the music.  We caught the tram to the market square for another look (I liked it enough for a second look) and took photos of Uspenski Cathedral.  We returned to the main Cathedral, as the day before it was shut for private prayer.  We got there for 12pm as Dale had found out there was an organ recital on.  The tourists were better behaved and remained seated this time, probably due to the staff presence, also the doors were closed/locked so noone could come and go.

Rock Church

 Organ Recital

In the afternoon we lunched in a city park called the Winter Gardens, before visiting the Workers housing museum.  This is a little out of the city centre, but well worth the trip.  It is a living museum of the housing built in 1909 for workers of the city.  There are several apartments/rooms (as these are one room dwellings) fitted out to show different time periods.  You can only view the rooms by tour, which it seems are at no set time, but based on when people arrive.  Hence we had our own private tour and loved it.  It was my favourite attraction here so far and it is also free.  Our final stop was the Sibelius monument, passing the Olympic stadium on the way.

Winter Garden

 Worker Housing Museum

 Olympic Stadium

 Sibelius Monument (10 points if you actually heard of him, composer apparently)

We woke to rain this morning, but we are planning a quiet day as we board the ferry to Russia tonight!  We are headed to St Petersburg.  The van will stay in Helsinki, as we are going on the St Peters line ferry and then 2 nights in a hotel in St Petersburg.  The reason we have done it this way, is because through St Peter Line you qualify for a 72 hour stay in Russia, visa free.  We also don't have insurance to take the van to Russia and would also need to organise our own visas, if we didn't opt for this option.  This trip is an extra cost, but one we thought worthwhile, as we don't know when or if we would go to Russia otherwise.
Bye for now.