Travel Diary

First things first, we went downstairs and got our breakfast. There were ample options of meats, breads, and fruits to choose from. The breads were numerous and appeared freshly made. In fact, the breakfast serving area was a kitchen where I’m guessing workers prepared the morning meal choices just before guests began showing up. Oh, and the berry mixes were also sweet and tasty.

The first stop was to get tickets for a short ferry ride to a nearby island. We missed one departure by 10 minutes so we kept walking and found another place leaving in 10 more minutes. After we got tickets, we waited a few minutes and were soon heading out to sea.

The ride wasn’t long, and we arrived on a small island chain off the south of Finland. It was an island chain and titled Suomenlinna, a former fortress. We spotted a tour in English and listened a bit, but then asked about it, and it was a paid tour from the mainland. Certainly, it’s easy to tag along on such things, but it’s also not right. We went our own way.

The island offered a plethora of things to see. We made our way over little bridges and saw the places were military once were housed and where people still lived, presumably those who worked on the island.

Then there was the museum and video about the fortress’s history. We made our way around the outer parts where there was a small submarine that could be boarded. Nice. After that, there were numerous canons or artillery placements scattered around the edges of the island. They were no longer used but still impressive in size. We saw great walls with dank dark passageways inside and then reached an informative military museum that covered many wars involving Finland. Lastly, there were many fowl all over the place. As always, they posed well for photos.

There was also a customs museum, and I think anything and everything about history can be interesting, but this one...well, the history of customs just isn’t really all that exciting. We looked for a little bit. We tried. But customs?

There was some neat information about prohibition in that part of the world. That was okay. Otherwise...next!

We clambered aboard another ferry and headed back to Helsinki. From there it was back to the hotel.