[Photos taken 11 August 2023, posted online 29 May 2024. We have a brand new eruption as of today! Meanwhile, my back is still sore, but it has forced me to actually take some down time, and just read a book. Not a bad idea, come to think of it..!]
A visit to the old Suomenlinna Sea Fortress appeared near the top of about every to-do-in-Helsinki list, so that was our next activity. The fortress is located on an island a 15 minute sail from the “eastern” harbor, and was where visitors were received in the olden days, or cannon-shot-at if they attempted to sneak past it.
Finnur’s foot was so badly bruised from his ankle-twist the day before that he unfortunately had to spend the day lounging at the apartment, but we made sure to leave some supplies with him!
Friday 11 August 2023
Interesting recycling of cannons. This is part of a “fence” around the Suomenlinna Church.
At the start of the day we made our way to another coffee house to eat lunch. This one could accommodate all our special wishes, and we became repeat customers. (No worries, we’d already gone to the shop to leave Finnur with plenty of supplies!)
Yes, there is an actual swimming pool right there on the ocean’s edge.
Sailing, sailing…
Houses on a tiny island.
After a 15 minute boat-ride we arrived at Suomenlinna, which is actually a collection of eight islands, of which six have been “fortified”.
I apparently failed at expectation management, as it quickly became apparent that not every member was excited to wander around a random island for an indeterminate length of time.
Proof I was there…
It’s not everyday you get to stand on chains.
The youngest was sulking a bit at the lack of stuff to “do”, so it was an unexpected pleasure to stumble into an actual functional library.
She was thrilled to find her favorites. I would later try and fail to find that My Little Pony book in English. I guess some things are not universal after all?
Anna’s work.
It’s a lovely place, and you forget that what looks like a “river” is actually the “sea”.
We set a course for the “Toy museum” and were pleasantly surprised to also find a cafe and ice-cream store there. The entrance to the Toy museum is on the far end, to the left.
We stumbled on a guided tour, with actors in full costume. Unfortunately it was all in Finnish.
People enjoying some idyllic time on the rocks below.
We found some cannons, here’s one of them.
You could pretty much see every ship that would try to sneak past.
Sneaky bunker.
I’ve seen plastic decorations that look like these flowers. Pretty cool!
We kept walking, and again were sad that we didn’t understand Finnish. There seemed to be a lot going on.
The fortress ends with this southern gate, called the King’s gate. Apparently it was purposefully built to be impressive, to intimidate visitors.
It’s quite literally at the edge of the island.
Jellyfish in the sea.
I noticed a gathering of people, and it turned out to be a sea-taxi stop. As luck would have it, we only had to wait 5 minutes for the next one, but it wasn’t included in the transport pass. Seeing how energies were dwindling, we decided to call it a day, and sail back to Helsinki proper.
On a taxi, a sea-taxi!
We sailed past the submarine Vesikko that you can apparently go inside of, but it was tiny compared to the one in Estonia.
Too old and tired to play in a playground apparently.
Heading to the entrance, it’s a wild building.
The library itself was on the top floor, and to ensure accessibility, the shelves were all relatively low.
Board game rental! We also went down one floor and found a huge maker-space, with lots of equipment to make stuff. There was a surprising number of people there, using the facilities.
Yes, a very unique building!
I was curious to go see the ‘Rock church‘, and we had some time, so we took the bus there.
You have to pay an entrance fee, but it’s quite pretty, all hewn from the rock around it.
We enjoyed a bit of peace and quiet.
Gives a new meaning to being one with nature.
Heading out.
To our surprise, we discovered we were not the first Icelandic family to visit that day!
Unexpectedly, there was no public toilet in the church. You had to walk down the hill a bit, and then use a code to enter a public toilet there.
Pretty flowers by the exit.
Walking towards the toilet, it was where the tree is in the distance.
We decided we’d be better off just walking to the apartment, as the bus route would have been a bit convoluted. We found a lovely little park on the way.
