Helsinki was our first port of call without an excursion
booked. The ship docked at 9:00, so our
plan was to go to the 9:15 trivia, and then take the shuttle from the docks to
the center of Helsinki. Mike, Ivy, Troy,
and I were the only ones who showed up for trivia, and this time Mike and Ivy
knew the answers to the questions, so they helped us think through the questions.
After sitting around and talking about past travels for a while (they’re both
crazy world travelers), Troy and I broke off to figure out the shuttle.
The shuttle dropped us off in the center of town around
10:30. Our plan was to go down to the
open air market and take the ferry over to Suomenlinna to explore the island
for a few hours. When we got to the
marketplace, we just missed the ferry, so we walked around for 20-25 minutes
and did a little souvenir shopping (got my magnet!). Then, we boarded the ferry and took off for
Suomelinna. Finland reminds me a lot of
Maine – the colors, plants, water, and scattered islands are all very similar
to Casco Bay.
Suomenlinna was a sea fortress that opened in 1748, when
Finland was part of Sweden. Then, in
1808, the fortress changed hands in the Finnish War, and became a Russian Naval
Base. In 1918, the fortress is annexed
by Finland during the Finnish Civil War.
Eventually, (after very little military success), the fortress has been
named an UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the island has five museums, several
hundred private apartments, a cathedral, a brewery, restaurants, and a number
of other attractions.
Troy and I started by going through the overview museum,
which highlighted the fortress’ less-than-spectacular military history, and the
process of turning it into a national monument.
For the material that the museum had to work with, they did a great
job. We then walked to the northernmost
part of the island, where we stopped for lunch, and wrapped around and walked
to the southernmost part of the island.
We took a longer route and walked around the coast, where there are
still a number of canons, and took in the incredibly gorgeous scenery. We also timed this perfectly, because we got
to Kings Gate, which was our ferry pick-up point, approximately five minutes
before the ferry and six minutes before the rain.
By the time the ferry dropped us off on the mainland the
rain had stopped, so we walked up to market square, got a glass of wine, and
sat to people watch for a little bit.
Finland really makes it incredibly easy to be a tourist. In many of the places we walked through,
there were young adults in green serving as tourist information points, which
was hugely helpful. We caught the bus
back to the ship around 3:30, where we got some food, hunkered down, and
prepared to watch the ship leave port.
Later on, Celebrity threw a “white party” in the grand
foyer. Everyone wore white, the foyer
was done up nicely with sheeting and ice sculptures, and they had a lot of fun
entertainers (juggling, dancing, etc.).
It was super crowded, but we were glad we stopped by.
Stockholm tomorrow!
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