Itinerary: a week-long trip to Scandinavia: Stockholm—Helsinki—Turku—Stockholm
Saturday we arrive at Arlanda Airport on the best day of the year: Arlanda is having an open house so buses between the airport and Stockholm city center are free! Easily finding the Queen’s Hotel, we were delighted to find our friend James had already left us a message. He joined us at the hotel and walked with us around downtown and then drove us out to his island, Little Essingen.
Sunday we toured the amazing Vasa Museum www.vasamuseet.se, dedicated to one of the world’s biggest flops. The Vasa was a Royal War Ship, intended to aid in the Thirty Years War, completed in 1628 and sunk 20 minutes after launching. Ships this large (47.70m×11.20m×4.75m) with 2 cannon decks were fairly new. The king, Gustavus Adolphus Vasa, wanted to awe enemies and allies alike so he ordered the dimensions, fittings, and decorations accordingly. One of his innovations was to have the cannon (then made individually from one-use-only molds) more precisely alike so they would take the same size cannonballs. This meant the top deck of cannon were as large as the 2nd deck and heavier than on other ships. This and a few other details (slightly too narrow, loose ballast) left the ship unsteady. The Vasa’s sister ship, the Applet was only 1.5m wider, but that was enough to provide the stability which the Vasa lacked.
Next we visited the Nordic Museum. We especially liked learning about the Sami, the indigenous people of northern Scandinavia.
We then had a lovely visit with friends James and Lissy and their darling girls, Angelina and Emily. Afterward we enjoyed strolling the island they live on. Stockholm sits entirely on islands.
Monday we saw the Stockholm Cathedral (Sankt Nikolai Kyrka), the German Church (Tyska Kyrkan), and the modest fall version of the changing of the guard, but failed to tour the Royal Palace itself, because beginning this week the palace closed on Mondays. Many tourist places in Scandinavia reduce hours and days open or close entirely as the weather cools. Speaking of which, the weather was fairly reasonable for us: cool and often overcast, but rain for the most part was rare and light for our vacation week.
- The German Church in Stockholm
Monday evening we boarded the Silja Symphony, overnight ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki. A 13-story cruise monster, with restaurants, shops, bars, and disco. I had booked the cheapest cabin, which turned out to be below the 2 car decks. “Sleeping with the bilge rats” was Jon’s phrase. But our waking hours were spent roaming the ship and watching the islands of the Swedish archipelago float by.
In Helsinki we spent our day walking, following a self-guided tour from the web. Having the GPS with us we learned later that we had walked 23 km! The lake in the middle of the city provides lots of lovely long views as you go around.
When the sea is not frozen most of the Finnish fleet of ice-breakers is moored at Helsinki’s north port.
In 1809 Russia took Finland from Sweden. Czar Alexander moved the Finnish capital from Turku to Helsinki in 1812 to reduce Swedish influence in Finland and bring the capital closer to St. Petersburg. The downtown core, Senate Square, was rebuilt in neoclassical style to resemble St. Petersburg, with the Lutheran Helsinki Cathedral dominating one side. Like most Protestant churches the interior is plain.
Topping a rocky hill is the Eastern Orthodox Uspenski Cathedral, with an unusual interior.
We made our way around Töölönlahti, the lake in the center of the city, warmed ourselves in the free Botanical Garden, but were too late to go inside the Winter Garden.
We usually enjoy the medieval, Renaissance, or Baroque architecture of Europe’s old cities, but Helsinki also has a neighborhood of apartment buildings constructed in Jugendstil (Art Deco) which we thought lovely (for apartment complexes!).
In Europe there is everywhere modern mixed with ancient. In Helsinki they are trying to build a reputation as a design center. So while there is plenty of the usual ‘concrete box’ modern (mostly apartments and office buildings), they are attempting to add new public buildings with some flair.
Nonetheless the one truly depressing hotel on this trip was in Helsinki. It sounded like it had ‘character’ and fit with our nautical theme as it was a sailor’s hotel. Low cost and good location could not make up for peeling ceiling paint and negligible mattresses. Although I can say the employees were as jolly as any other Finns we saw!
Wednesday we took a train to Turku. Founded in the 13th cen., it’s the oldest city in Finland. Until the Russians moved the capital (taking not only government but university, botanical garden, etc.), it was the most populous. It retains some of its importance as a port (3 million people pass through each year) and is now the 3rdlargest urban area in Finland. It also still has a strong connection to Sweden: over 5% of the population still claims Swedish as their mother-tongue. Just 15 years after the capital was moved to Helsinki, a fire destroyed most of Turku.
We found our hotel, the Bridgettine Convent Guest House, as pristine perfect as one could imagine, a pleasant contrast to my Helsinki choice. Then we went over to the Sibelius Museum www.sibeliusmuseum.abo.fi There we heard Tanel Joamets taneljoamets.edicypages.com/, a phenomenal Estonian pianist, in an all-Debussy concert. As an encore, he asked the audience to name a theme which he would compose to on the spot. Someone called out “concrete and glass”. He thought a moment. He played. I was awed. I could easily hear the theme.
Thursday we toured the castle, had lunch at a café built to house the Daphne (a sailboat made famous by Swedish-Finland author Goran Schildt), and visited the Forum Marinum www.forum-marinum.fi, an ultra-complete shipping museum.
Friday was perhaps the highlight of our entire trip because we rented bikes. We rode out to the island of Ruissalo where there is marvelous botanical garden. They were selling grapes they had grown in the greenhouses. Remember: this is Finland!! After the botanical garden we rode out to the end of the island and wandered about the rocky shore.
Friday night was another ferry crossing. To our dismay this trip was worse than the first, partially because Friday is party night so the ferry was crowded with young people, out to get drunk and/or laid (kinda fun to watch though!). There were ship-wide announcements at least to midnight and a harsh wake-up alarm at 5:05 a.m. (the ship docks at 6:10 and has a short turn-around). And since the ride was shorter (leaving at 8:15 p.m.), we saw no great scenery.
Saturday, our last full day, started badly with the early alarm, but after a lovely hour walk in the rain with our suitcases, our arrival at Malardrottningholm Yacht Hotel was perfect: they checked our room and despite the early hour, it was ready so we could register and leave our luggage there. They also said we could partake of the buffet breakfast. We even napped a bit before leaving for the century-old steamboat ferry to Drottningholm Palace. After a tour and lunch, we ferried back to the yacht, had dinner on board, and slept well.
Sunday was to be a just-get-to-the-airport day, but we had learned the city hall would be open for tours at 10 a.m. And we were glad we chose to add this. The building is very elaborate and magnificently decorated. It is the venue for the Nobel Prize banquet.
