Helsinki

To Helsinki
Sat 29 May

We woke up at 4:45 am to catch the train to Helsinki and went to the dining room for an early breakfast as promised, to find it locked and a tray with a few points of very dry sandwiches and some dry croissants at the coffee station. This was breakfast for twenty people. “Not happy Jan!”

On boarding the train we had to hand our passports to the conductor so they could check the validity of our visas and to make sure we hadn’t overstayed, at the border, guards came through with a list and checked us against our photo in our passports before handing them back. At the next station Finnish Customs and also Immigrations Officers again checked our passports and we were questioned as to the contents of our cases and bags, the most thorough questioning that we have experienced in years, though as they didn’t have the advantage of X-ray machines they had to be sure that no prohibited goods were being carried.

A slow six and a half hour journey brought us to Helsinki Station were we had to turn our clocks back and hour from Russian Time, we are now seven hours behind Melbourne. We had a short walk to our hotel, arriving there ten and a half hours after getting up this morning. As we were very tired we went for a short walk and bought some rolls to eat in our room for tea and had an early night.

Helsinki and Suomenlinna Fortress
Sun 30 May

Helsinki was founded by the Swedish King in 1550 at the mouth of the Vantaa River and around a hundred years later was moved to its current location by the sea. In the early 1700s Sweden lost all its fortifications along its eastern border to Russia, allowing the Russian Fleet almost unimpeded access to the Baltic Sea.

In 1748 Sweden began construction of a major maritime fortress off the coast of Helsinki and in 1808 the fortress surrendered to Russia and for the next 110 years it was a Russian garrison. In 1809 Finland became an autonomous grand duchy under the Russian Tsar with Helsinki as its capital and following the Russian Revolution in 1917, Finland asked the Bolsheviks for independence and Helsinki became the capital of the Republic of Finland.

In the early stages of WW2 Russia attacked Finland with the view of obtaining greater maritime access, Finland fought back and eventually sided with Germany against Russia.

Helsinki is not a large city with a population of around half a million people but with a public transport system which must be the envy of cities many times its size. There are nine tram routes all of which go past Central Station, with trams types ranging from the most modern to the old “Toast Rack trams”. There are 25 to 30 bus routes which also go through the Central Station bus terminal and a Metro.

Tickets can be purchased from machines or the drivers and they have a card system which doesn’t have to be removed from their wallet when placed against the reader. On the tram the reader had four sections, I’m not sure if they were for ticket type but people swiped different sections of the readers and as a 2.50 euro ticket (2 euros if purchased from a machine) provides one hours transport over all modes, I can only presume it may have been for various types of concession. Tickets can also be purchased for from one to seven days unlimited travel. Metcard developers please note!!!

This morning we had a conducted walking tour around Helsinki which is an easy city to explore as most sites are situated within convenient walking distance of the city centre. Our walk took us past Central Station, many old buildings, parks and down to Market Square at the edge of the harbour. The square is full of many canvas shelters containing outdoor eating venues, farmer’s stalls and handcraft and souvenir stalls. It is from here that several ferries depart including the overnight Stockholm ferries.

In the afternoon we purchased a 24 hour ticket for 6.80 euros and went by ferry to Suomenlinna one of the largest historic Maritime Fortresses in the world. The construction of the fortress was commenced in 1748 on six islands off Helsinki as part of Sweden’s maritime defences. It was given the name Sveaborg, but the Finns preferred to pronounce it as Viapori.

After the fortress was surrendered to the Russians in 1808 for the next 110 years it was a Russian garrison and during the Crimea War in 1855 a large fleet of English and French warships bombarded the fortress for two days and nights causing considerable damage.

In May 1918 after Finland gained their independence it was renamed Suomenlinna, the Fortress of Finland.

Some of the highlights on our walk around the islands were the church, originally built as a Russian Orthodox garrison church but later the exterior was altered and it was converted to a Lutheran church, on the top of the steeple a lighthouse was built and still operates for both air and sea traffic.

The dry dock on the island is one of the oldest dry docks still in use and was used in 1760 to build ships of the Swedish Coastal Fleet. Today it is used to restore old wooden ships.

In the courtyard of one of the many garrison building is the tomb and memorial of Augustin Ehrensvard who was the first commander and supervised the fortresses construction. Further round the fortress near a jetty is the monumental King’s gate built as an entrance to the fortress, on the site where the King of Sweden landed in 1752 to inspect the construction.

As well as the many garrison buildings on the island there is a veritable rabbit’s warren of underground rooms and chambers around the islands perimeters, most of these have cannon and musket gun ports opening to the island’s approaches and on the western end of the largest island are the large powder magazines and large breech loading guns left by the Russians.

While walking around the island we saw a sign pointing to the “Beach”, I suppose that’s what it was but we have seen sand pits at some child care centres as large and I think you would need to wear a wet suit to swim in the water.

After many hours walking we returned to the mainland and took the 3T/3B tram which travels in a Figure 8 in both directions around Helsinki. The complete circuit takes about an hour and passes many of the places we wanted to visit tomorrow and our 24 hour ticket allows us to use it as “hop on, hop off” transport. After completing the circuit we had dinner at a Nepalese restaurant and had another early night.

Helsinki

Mon 31 May

A reasonable night’s sleep but when Ann stood up first thing in the morning she had a violent back spasm which continued all day causing her considerable pain and distress. In spite of her discomfort Ann, wanted to continue our sight seeing so after breakfast we set out to catch a 3T/3B tram.

Our first stop left us with a short walk to a nearby park where the sculpture entitled Passio Musicae is situated. This consists of what depicts a cluster of organ pipes and a bust of Jean Sibelius and is a memorial to the great composer.

Back on the tram to the Temppeliaukio (Temple square) Church, fondly known as Church in the Rock which we consider along with the blue glass church next to the ruins of the King Wilhelm church in Berlin as two of the most memorable churches that we have visited.

The site was selected as a location for a church in the 1930s, but the plan was interrupted in its early stages when WWII began in 1939. After the war, there was another architectural competition but for economic reasons, the suggested plan was scaled back and the interior space of the church reduced by about one-quarter from the original plan. Construction finally began in February 1968, and the rock-temple was completed for consecration in September 1969.

The interior was excavated and built into the rock, but is bathed in natural light entering through the glazed dome. The church is used frequently as a concert venue due to its excellent acoustics. The acoustic quality is ensured by the rough, virtually un-worked, rock surfaces. Leaving the interior surfaces of the church exposed was not something that was in the original plans for the church, but the orchestra conductor Paavo Berglund and the acoustician, Mauri Parjo, contributed to the plans. The back wall of the altar is a majestic rock wall, originally created by a withdrawing glacier.

The church furnishings were designed by the architects and organ builder Veikko Virtanen manufactured the church organ, which has 43 stops. There are no bells at the church, and a recording of bells is played via loudspeakers on the exterior wall.

On entering the church we were amazed at the fact that it was circular and excavated from solid rock and the roof above our head appeared to be a woven dome shaped basket and the organ pipes made of copper. A pianist was playing classical music on a grand piano and the sound appeared to be coming from all around the church, however it was a most annoying that some tourist weren’t treating it as a church and their laughing and shouting showed a lack of respect for the place and the musician.

We sat in the church for over three quarters enjoying its grandeur and the music before walking to catch the tram to our next chosen spot, the University Botanic Gardens.

On the way we stopped at the Central Station to take a photo and as the gardens were in the opposite direction we crossed the road to catch a tram from the other side. Wrong!!! The tram travels in a Figure 8 and the cross over point is at the station, we should have continued in the same direction. After almost completing a circle we left the tram, crossed the road and continued back the way we had come, to the gardens.

The gardens appear to be part of the teaching facility of the university as every plant in the gardens, even grasses were labelled and many young people were employed weeding the formal beds in front of the glass houses, which were not open to the public and some appeared to contain grasses and cereals which were growing under lights.

Leaving the gardens we caught the tram back towards the large Lutheran Cathedral and Ann’s back was still troubling her we made this our last visit before returning to the hotel.