Sunday 30 september 2018
Helsinki
This is about two trips outside central Helsinki, both involving ferries and Yet More History.
On Friday we spent most of the day on the collection of islands called Suomenlinna (Finnish) or Sveaborg (Swedish), where a fortress was built in the 1760’s to guard against Russia. This photo of a photo gives you a great view:
with mainland Helsinki in the background. The fortress was built by Sweden (which ruled Finland at the time), with major financial support from France, because Russia was threatening from St. Petersburg. At the time, Helsinki was a small impoverished city, and the massive construction effort made it a boom town. In addition to the military fortifications
there was a whole community of homes, a school, a church, etc. People still live there today, some in quite large homes, as it’s just a short ferry ride away:
I don’t usually comment on the weather, but Friday was really beautiful, though chilly by San Francisco standards, and windy on the hills. We walked all over the site, getting a sense mostly of the military history, from the days of cannons
to a WWII submarine, which saw action from 1939 to 1944
with a crew of 20 men, jammed into that tiny space. Some of the controls seemed just as crowded and for anyone who has seen “Das Boot” (a movie you could almost smell), some areas were close to oppressive:
One last memento of Suomenlinna is this marker at a small bathing beach. We liked the boots:
On Sunday, we took a two-hour boat trip to Tallinn (Estonia), joining once again a horde of people on a cruise ship. Duty-free shopping and drinking are major activities, except for people like us who only want transportation.
It’s easy to walk from the port to the old town, though Sunday’s rain and wind damed us down at the start. We forged ahead and were happy to see the first of the Old Sights
near the city wall.
The museum made it very clear that Estonia’s history is one of domination and/or occupation by other powers, including Sweden, Poland, Russia, Germany, and the Soviet Union; however, it also emphasizes the country’s traditions and especially the Estonian language. They’re determined to hold their own. An early map of the world included Estonia (but I admit that that feature escaped me)
and I learned that the Minox camera was invented here:
(Family members will remember RRB’s Minox.)
As is our tradition, we climbed the town hall tower, whose steps are the steepest and narrowest we can remember conquering. From the tiny viewing area at the top, I got this unintentionally out-of-focus shot that captures the weather
and from the top of a hill, here’s a crazy chicken to end a rainy, windy, but excellent day:
The MHB Foghorn 