M & M - Is that you?

Helsinki, Fri 4th - Tue 8th July

Friday:

Our trip was organised through Inntravel, who also organise most of the walking holidays that we do.

We flew from Edinburgh to Helsinki and stayed at the Hotel Cumulus Seurahuone, "an elegant Art Nouveau building close to the main shopping district", in other words not a bad hotel, just across the road from train and bus stations but hear busy (noisy) streets, once was grand but needs a lick of paint.

Helsinki is 2 hours ahead of Edinburgh so we ate late, found a good Italian joint recommended in our guide book - "Mamma Rosa". From what we've seen so far most of central Helsinki has been built in the last 100 years or so, lots of medium-rise (4/5/6 storeys) apartments.

Despite hearing a lot about the mozzie problem here we'd seen no sign of them, and since it was pretty warm we slept with the window open and didn't get bitten.

Saturday:

It had rained overnight and there was a heavy shower as we had breakfast. The rain had cleared by the time we went out, we spent the morning wandering around the harbour area, the Cathedral, sitting in the sun outside the Orthodox Cathedral (which is on a wee hill) until we decided we'd get sunburnt if we stayed any longer.

Down at the harbour, there was a food-market in full swing. Morag was forced to buy some Spanish cherries (3euros/litre tin) and apricots (2euros/litre tin). Some stall were in the back of small boats, despite the fact that they didn't seem to be selling fresh-fish, mostly smoked fish and sometimes potatoes and turnips (not quite "the day's catch").

In the afternoon we visited Temppeliaukie Church, partly carved from rock, then the National Museum. The museum had a lot of pre-historic stuff but we were mainly interested in how Finland had escaped from the Russians, gained independence from the Swedes, and about the civil war in 1918. There wasn't enough about that more recent history.

After a nap and a shower we headed to a big Tex-Mex burger place for dinner. What's this I hear you say, what about the local cuisine? As we see it, the local cuisine will be pretty similar to what we will find in Tallinn, and it'll be a lot cheaper there. Eating out is pretty expensive here in Helsinki. The mexican place had some wine on special for £17, so we had a bottle of that. The normal wine list started at £28/bottle.

Sunday:

Today we went for a day-trip to the fortress island of Suomenlinna. In the 1700's the Swedes built fortresses and gun emplacements on the island to help protect the harbour from the Russians.

Seems that all the locals like to head to the island on a Sunday too, lots of them sunning themselves on small beaches, rocky outcrops, whatever. It was a pretty warm sunny day, so we had ice-creams in the shade rather than take part in the lobster bake.

It was still pretty early when we got bake to Helsinki, and our ferry tickets we good for the tram too, so we hopped a #3 tram which does a big circuit round the city. After that Morag explored the shops and then had a sauna at the hotel while I caught up on the diary and had a nap.

In the evening we hit a small informal noodle-bar, then caught another tram for a journey round Helsinki. Early observations about the age and style of most of the living accommodation holds true, some places are very nice art-deco and some quite grand. Still broad daylight when he got back to the hotel at 11pm.

Monday:

The usual buffet brekky and the usual weather (warm and sunny), we headed to the bus station for tickets to the village of Porvoo (pron: Porrrvoo). Fares were 32euros each, and that was the cheap local bus, not the express bus, ouch). The trip took about 1.5 hours, very green flat scenery on the way. It's a nice wee town with a river that's wide enough to allow a wee harbour.

In Porvoo there are some nice old buildings, a wee church on top of a hill, stone buildings on cobbled streets, and cute wooden places down by the river. It's a nice wee place without being exciting. After a bit of a wander wee had a picnic lunch in the shade in the park before heading up the hill to the church and round the back-streets.

Presume it was the same scenery on the way back, we both had trouble keeping the eyes open. Went back to the Tex-Mex place for dinner but decided against the wine. After dinner we went for a long walk-about, getting back at 11:30 still in broad daylight.

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Tallinn, Tue 8th - Fri 11th July

Tuesday:

This is M-day - married 10 years ago to the day. And on this day we're catching the ferry over to Tallinn, but time first to wander down to the market at the harbour and more cherries. Also discovered the covered food market, lots of stalls where you can buy your cooked reindeer burger and some small counters where you can stand and eat it, this will be a good refueling point on our way back through to the airport on Friday.

Our ferry tickets cost about the same as the bus tickets to Porvoo, we must be the only people on the ferry taking full suitcases with us, everyone else seems to be locals heading over to Tallinn for some cheap shopping. The trip took about 90 mins on the hydrofoil, at the other end we walked into town to our grand old hotel - the Hotel Schlossle. On the edge of the old town, the building has been there since 1636 and has just 23 rooms. Our room wasn't quite ready yet so we sunk down into the big leather sofas and waiting for 15 minutes. In retrospect we should have asked to change room, it turned out ours was above the sauna in the basement, so very hot. And as it was on the ground floor we couldn't leave the window wide open. It was quiet though.

Since it was a special day we decided on a grand meal, the hotel restaurant didn't have an inspiring menu (but it was v. expensive), but their sister hotel had a much more interesting menu, mainly Russian, so we booked there. Our feast consisted of: Dolma of Bear (don't know if it was really bear or just called that), salted vodka salmon, lamb with plum, rabbit stew - washed down with a Wyndhams Bin 555 Shiraz (well, this region isn't known for it's red wines).

Wednesday:

Bucketing down with rain. Great brekky, some buffet stuff then eggs benedict, mmmm-mmmm! Could have even had some bubbles. Headed out into the rain into the tourist office and bought "Tallinn cards" for 205 eeks each, these get us a bus/walking tour and free access to museums for 24 hours. So headed for the bus tour, thankfully the rain was just a drizzle now.

The tour bus drove through some lovely old suburbs, now being restored thank goodness. You could see rows of high-rise ugliness in the distance though. We headed out to a nearby village where the rowing events were held during the Moscow Olympics, then back to Tallinn where we jumped off the bus and had about an hour of walking tour around the city walls and into a few of the old churches.

Afterwards we headed back into the main square for a walk round, it is a lovely old town. Unfortunately it was still showery so we headed back for a nap, then in the evening had a nice meal in a local Estonian restaurant (owned by the same people who owned the hotel as it happens).

Thursday:

Uh oh, we got really slack at this point and didn't keep the diary up-to-date. From memory, it was another fabby breakfast, still showery weather though. We walked up into the main square where the good folk of Tallinn were holding a medieval festival in our honour, with market stalls and local traditional performances - some pretty good dancing I must say.

Morag did the big climb up to the top of the church tower on the edge of the square for good views of the town while I minded the bags. We headed round the edge of town for a look at some of the defensive towers round the old walls, then ducked into the maritime museum, where one of the moving exhibits was about the recent sinking of the ferry "Estonia", back in the 80s?

Since it was still showery we headed also into the Health Care Museum, for some entertaining and sometimes gruesome displays about human health. Then back to the town square for another look at the entertainment and a wander about some of the shops, Morag on the lookout for some Russian linen, which she found and purchased.

In the evening we went to what we think was the pick of the Tallinn restaurants, a small homey place called Restoran Vanaema Juures, (at Rataskaevu 10) for some real Estonian tucker, it was excellent.

Friday:

Last day of the trip so sipped on some bubbles with our eggs benedict this morning. packed up and headed back to the ferry terminal for the return to Helsinki. yes, stopped at the refueling point near the ferry terminal for a reindeer burger and some smoked salmon (Morag is eating the salmon in the photo, I had already finished my Rudolph burger).

Then caught the airport bus back to Helsinki airport and the BA plane back to London and then Edinburgh. Managed to get upgraded on the way back so it was more bubbles on the flight - a good way to start and finish the day!

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Aye, that's us: July 2003, Finland and Estonia

Finland - Helsinki

Estonia - Tallinn

Helsinki, Fri 4th - Tue 8th July

Friday:

Saturday:

Sunday:

Monday:

Tallinn, Tue 8th - Fri 11th July

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday: