Adventures in Europe: Helsinki, Finland

My first view of Helsinki was this naval vessel across the harbour from our ship:

Once ashore we had to figure out Helsinki's transit system, which wasn't too hard to do.  The best part about the system are the trolleys which have good routes and good frequency, even on the weekend.  Once we were checked in at our hostel we headed out on a bit of a tour, which included a walking portion, and a long trolley ride that took us past many of the famous Helsinki sites.  They even make a sightseeing guide with a map for the number 2 & 3 trolley routes.

We saw Finland's parliament;

Narinkkatori (public square);

Senate square;

iconic Helsinki cathedral (which in contrast to Oslo's main cathedral, is much more impressive outside than in);

and Kamppi Chapel.

We crashed early, as we were both still fighting colds.  

The next morning we began our day with extended visits to the hostel's sauna, before heading straight for the harbour.   

We had the privilege of passing Bad Bad Boy (artwork Andrea could not appreciate because she lacks artistic taste).

Our transit pass allowed us to catch the ferry to the island of Suomelinna, about 15 minutes from the mainland.

Once there, we found out that Suomenlinna is every bit as lovely as advertised, and maybe more.  It combines fascinating history with charming culture and gorgeous nature.  Just off the ferry and up a little cobblestone hill we stopped for coffee and a shared piece of cheesecake on the patio of an old home.

That was lovely, and then we continued our walk, past the Suomenlinna Church, and on past buildings from Suomenlinna's past as a military fortress and current existence as a village, and its eternal home to nature.  Without a doubt Suomenlinna was the highlight of Helsinki for me, and we had picked a perfect day to visit.

After several hours exploring the island and enjoying the lovely day, we caught the ferry back to the mainland.

Back ashore we stopped by the open air market where we ate a late lunch of reindeer meatballs and salmon soup.

We turned in early once again, because we were so sick that even the couple hours of walking on Suomenlinna had worn us out.  

The next morning, Monday, we caught a bus out to Vantaa, where the airport is.  We had a reservation at a hotel there, so that we could sleep a bit longer prior to our early flight on September 2.

We checked in and then walked to the big Jumbo shopping mall, where we ate lunch and did some shopping.

I really cannot emphasize enough how awful we were feeling at this point, because even walking to and around the mall felt like a great expenditure of energy.  We spent most of the afternoon back at the hotel room lying on our beds and watching Finnish TV.  

We also made excellent use of the hotel's saunas, which are apparently a very important part of Finnish life, and are absolutely terrific for countering the symptoms of a cold.  

For dinner we ate in the dinning room of the hotel, and once again ate reindeer, this time in a stew.  And that, sadly, was how our northern European adventure ended, over bowls of reindeer stew which we could not adequately appreciate because our taste buds were so compromised by head colds.