Finland - land of lakes, islands, and the odd moose.

Finland...
Land of legendary distance runner Paavo Nurmi, and a nation which always does well in the Winter Olympics. What else? I knew they had lots of inland water and islands and they love saunas. We set off to discover it.

Our first day in Helsinki, cold and breezy, we went to the markets, where we all bought some goodies, then I spied something that took my fancy. A reindeer hide - big, soft and beautiful. I had to have it! It's now on it's way back to Oz.
From there we walked 2km around the beautiful foreshore to Market Square, where we jumped on a boat for an hour and a half's cruise around the island stuffed waterways off Helsinki. Very scenic and beautiful, and we got our first look at the many "Summer Houses" dotted around all the islands. Every Finnish family seems to have one.
At 4:30 we met our Helsinki "Greeter" - Niina, who took us for a walk to the beautiful Lutheran Church in the Rock, followed by a bus/tram/walk to her favourite place - a quiet waterside park and stream where she loves to run. The birthplace of Helsinki.

A leisurely start next morning had us on the ferry to Suomenlinna Sveaborg, the island fortress of Helsinki, now a World Heritage site. We did a walking tour of the island with Henri, a young guy with a monotone, deadpan delivery. Very knowledgeable, but you had to concentrate hard, and every now and then you realised he had just said something quite funny, but it was almost lost in his deadpan voice.
A really interesting place to walk around, with the old fortification walls in good nick, old cannons and buildings.
 Back on the mainland, we walked up the hill to the impressive Lutheran Cathedral. Quite simple inside. Rather minimalist, the Lutherans, compared to the Russians and Catholics.
Then back down the hill to check out the Ateneum Art Museum, which had a display of the works of Tove Jansson, a much loved finnish artist, writer and character.

Packed and ready next day, we trammed it down to the Central Railway Station to pick up our VW Golf, and by 11 were finding our way out of Helsinki, with the help of Sheila the sometimes erratic GPS, to our base for the next 4 nights - a cabin in the trees at Kerimaa, a golf resort about 5 hrs drive north east.

This was Finnish lakes country. Every turn of the road revealed another beautiful stretch of water with islands everywhere. It was bloody cold, 6-7 degrees - the Finnish summer had deserted us! Our first excursion was to the nearby town of Savonlinna, where we walked across a bridge to Olavinlinna, the medieval island fortress first built in 1475 and added to over the ensuing centuries. We did the usual guided tour.
On the way back to our comfy little cabin we stopped at Kerimaki and checked out the world's largest all timber church, built 15th century, with a seating capacity of 3,000. Pretty impressive.

Next day the sun came out and it was a bit warmer. Our destination was Punkaharju, a narrow peninsula of land separating lots of water. We drove it, then had a walk of a couple of hours through beautiful green forest with lake views the whole time. Lunch at Valtion Hotelli - a lovely old resort hotel now brought back to life.

A walk around a few holes of the golf course was first on the list in the morning. Lynne the golfer was salivating. Another visit to Savonlinna followed, for a one and a half hour cruise around the islands of Lake Saimaa on the beautiful old steamer Punkaharju, built 1905 and proudly owned by the young skipper. We were the only passengers. The skipper expected a full boat load the next evening, the "official" start of the Finnish holiday season.

Our next port of call was Jokelan Kartano, a quirky old country guesthouse with an equally quirky host family. A bit Fawlty Towers. Built in 1886, the old place needed some TLC, but had a certain charm about it. Raila, our hostess loved to talk, about anything, including politics to another couple (The Russians, as she called them!), and was very entertaining. The place was next to a river where a young local guy had built the biggest river swing I've ever seen. After demos from the kids, Lynne and I had a go - very swoopy. That night we were invited by the family next door to a summer solstice bonfire and party. Lovely people and lots of fun and dancing.

Tooling on to Turku, a highlight of this morning was rounding a bend and there was a moose standing in the road. Seeing us, he trotted off into the trees. We stopped in Hameenlinna to check out another medieval fortress - Hame Castle. Arriving in Turku, just about everything was closed for the Mid Summer holiday. Wierd. Everyone just leaves town.
Cold and rainy next day, we set out to explore along the river Aura, had a look at Turku Cathedral, wandered the Maritime Museum and climbed over a couple of square riggers, one a 60 metre timber ship, the Sygin, undergoing a big refit to make it seaworthy again, and the other a giant steel vessel, Suomen Joutsen, used for a long time as a Finnish navy training ship, and now a floating museum.
We also had a look at Turku Castle, another fortress originally built in the 14th century.

Monday 23rd, still cold and rainy, we boarded the Viking Line ferry for the 11 hour cruise through the Finnish Archipelago to Stockholm.     
  



 

  

St Petersburg

They say St Petersburg is the most European of the major Russian cities. The Venice of Russia.
Yep, after Moscow, it did have a more cosmopolitan buzz to it.
After our fast train from Moscow we checked into our hotel, found a late dinner, and hit the cot around midnight.

Next day was a very "religious" day. Amongst a host of places visited, the highlights were probably the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, built on the site where Alexander II was murdered, and St Isaac's Cathedral.
St Isaac's is nothing short of stupendous. It's massive - has the 4th highest cupola of any cathedral in the world, took 40 years to build, finishing in 1858. It has 28 massive red granite columns around the outside, each weighing 114 tons, the granite for them having been shipped from Finland. The architect was 30 years old when the building was started, and 70 when finished, dying a month after completion. A life's work, I guess.

That night we went to another opera. The Csar's Bride. Once again, love, love spurned, intrigue, dirty deeds, and death. Just can't get enough culture!

Day 2 in St Petersburg was spent mostly at The Hermitage Museum in the beautiful Winter Palace of Peter The Great. This place is huge - you could spend days in there and not see it all. Our guide, Irina, left us there at 2pm, and we later walked back down Nevsky Prospect, the main drag to our hotel, stopping for a sangria and afternoon nibble at Singers Cafe, then visited yet another cathedral across the road.

Our final day kicked off with a bus ride out of town to Peter the Great's summer retreat, the magnificent palace of Peterhof. Fabulous place with wonderful gardens and fountains, all gravity fed from inland lakes.

Back in St P around 2, we caught a late lunch, wandered down the road to pick up tickets for our late night excursion on the canals, back for a clean up before the "farewell" dinner on the company, then out again for an exploratory of the St P Metro, and finally fronted up for our 12:20 boat departure.

It was freezing and drizzling rain, but undeterred we mopped down some top deck seats, wrapped ourselves in blankies, put up the brollies and settled in. We had also brought along a small bottle of Russian spirit to warm the insides! The beautifully lit buildings were stunning at night, and we thoroughly enjoyed the trip. Only problem was that due to a problem with the opening of one of the many bridges, we were 30 minutes late disembarking and were then faced with a 30 minute walk back to the hotel. We fell into bed at 4am. Buggared. But it was a funny night.

Next morning, a tad dusty, we said our farewells over breakfast, and headed for the station to pick up our fast train to Helsinki.