Day 11 – (If we’re still tracking days.) We flew onto Helsinki where we met up with our niece Kendall. She had arrived from California via London about an hour before us. We got the train from the airport to the city center. Managed to find our accommodations, quickly got settled and headed back out the door.
We met up for dinner with one of my former host sisters. I was an exchange student in Finland many years ago. It was great to see Hanna again and reconnect. She had chosen a restaurant along the water. It was a beautiful evening with great company.
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Niece Kendall in tow, we started out the next morning. After a quick bite, we walked over to the Temppeliaukio Church or the Rock Church. It was built into solid rock and has a copper dome roof. The construction was completed in 1969. It is said to have excellent acoustics from the rough rock walls.
We then made our way to the Suomenlinna fortress. It’s a sea fortress. Building on the island started in 1748. Throughout the years it was used to defend the Kingdom of Sweden, the Russian Empire and the Republic of Finland as the land had been under the control of various governing bodies throughout history.
Then we walked for a bit around the downtown center and kept fighting the off and drizzle.
The next day was beautiful. We set out early to walk around before check-out. We found the summer art installation by Amos Rex. That museum is closed on Tuesdays so we couldn’t visit.
We walked around some checking out the Cathedral, the weird-shaped structure that we found was the Visitor Info building and the indoor market.
Made it back and took the tram straight to the ferry terminal. Tallinn, Estonia is just a hop, skip and jump away from Helsinki. It’s just 2 hours by ferry. We had gotten to the terminal really early and we able to easily change our tickets for the earlier ferry.
