| Holiday Ratings | |
| Recommended days | 3 |
| Budget | £ |
| Difficulty | Easy |
Why Helsinki
Helsinki was the first place I visited where I booked everything over the internet. It obviously doesn’t mean anything now but at the time it felt very strange emailing people and relying on online agents to deal with everything. It was actually a lovely break and we visited Tallin too so managed to pack quite a bit into a long weekend in Helsinki.
Suomelinna Fortress
Our first trip was a visit to the lakes and these were amazingly peaceful although the ever present mozzies meant you couldn’t sit still for too long! Next on the list was Suomenlinna Fortress, built on the islands surrounding Helsinki in the 18th century by the Swedes and then occupied by the Russians after a very brief battle. The British bombarded it in the Crimean War and it slowly faded from use until the Finns took it over in 1917.
Finnish lakes 
Finnish lakes
Suomenlinna 
Suomenlinna 
Suomenlinna 
Suomenlinna 
Suomenlinna 
Suomenlinna 
Suomenlinna 
Suomenlinna views
Helsinki Harbour
The next day was very relaxed, just wandering around the city and the harbour district before doing a dinner cruise in the evening. Even 15 years later this is one of my special memories, the weather was perfect and the scenery spectacular. We had a great meal and it was just us and a Finnish family celebrating their grandparents birthday as we watched sunset in the Baltic Sea.
Helsinki harbour 
Helsinki harbour 
Helsinki harbour 
Helsinki harbour
Helsinki islands cruise 
Helsinki islands cruise 
Helsinki islands cruise 
Helsinki islands cruise 
Helsinki islands cruise
Tallinn
On our final day we took the ferry to Tallinn, on the Estonian coast. The trip took about 4 hours but the crossing was relaxing and the ferry modern and clean. We had a guided tour of the city and then some free time before boarding the ferry back to Helsinki for our morning flight home.
The city has had quite a turbulent history with frequent Russian takeovers and they are now very proud of their somewhat tenuous freedom. We saw the monstrous communist era housing blocks and then spent a lot more time walking around the old city, including climbing a church tower and standing on a plank of wood suspended from the steeple so we could get the views!
Tallinn 
Tallinn 
Tallinn 
Tallinn 
Tallinn 
Tallinn 
Tallinn 
Tallinn
A lovely weekend in Helsinki and a mix of sights that made it seem a lot longer than the four days we actually visited for. There are no must see sights in Helsinki but it was a pleasant place to walk around and Tallinn was a beautiful medieval city with a huge mix of architectural styles.
2005
I constantly spent my half an hour to read this webpage’s posts all the time along with a cup
of coffee.
Well we can’t actually travel at the moment so I guess that’s the second best thing.
These are truly wonderful ideas in concerning blogging. You have touched some nice things here.
Any way keep up wrinting.
Feel free to surf to my web site :: InstaHeater
Hi there, I found your website by the use of Google even as
looking for a related matter, your web site came up, it appears to be like good.
I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
Hi there, simply was alert to your blog via Google, and
found that it is really informative. I’m gonna be
careful for brussels. I’ll be grateful should
you continue this in future. A lot of other folks shall be benefited from your writing.
Cheers!
Nice to hear, glad it was useful.