Because Nautica would not reach the port of Helsinki until 11:00am, guest lecturer Dr. Sherry Hutt had the opportunity to make a presentation this morning, which of course we attend. As she starts her lecture, she discusses conversations she has on board. One concerned being at the Team Trivia event that is held every Sea Day. She references it this way: “Trivia – the blood sport of cruising!” We all laugh because it is so true. Some people do take it way too seriously.
At any rate, her lecture is entitled “The Design and Defense of Helsinki.” The title of her lecture intrigued us as we confess to knowing very little about this country.
In a nutshell, Finland the country we know now is very new, having achieved its independence in 1919. Prior to that, the land area that is now Finland was part of Sweden first, and then the Russian Empire after that. These two empires have fought over Finland for centuries, and the Finnish people have had the unenviable task of living between these two belligerents. And if it weren’t the Swedes and the Russians from the 16th through the 19thcentury, it was the Germans and the Soviets during World War II. No matter what position the Finns took in that conflict, they were going to get – and did get – whacked by one of those two dictatorships.
It has not been a peaceful existence for the Finnish people – until today. Here is a paragraph from Wikipedia about modern Finland: “Finland was a relative latecomer to industrialisation, remaining a largely agrarian country until the 1950s. After World War II, the war reparations demanded by the Soviet Union forced Finland to industrialise. The country rapidly developed an advanced economy while building an extensive welfare state based on the Nordic model, resulting in widespread prosperity and one of the highest per capita incomes in the world. Finland is a top performer in numerous metrics of national performance, including education, economic competitiveness, civil liberties, quality of life, and human development. In 2015, Finland was ranked first in the World Human Capital and the Press Freedom Index and as the most stable country in the world during 2011–2016 in the Fragile State Index, and second in the Global Gender Gap Report. It also ranked first on the World Happiness Report for 2018 and 2019. A large majority of Finns are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Churchand freedom of religion is guaranteed under the Finnish Constitution.”
Our tour is completely a boat tour, but there is a bus waiting for us anyway to make the arduous half mile trip to the boat. That’s the beauty of booking an Oceania excursion. The population of the ship’s guests is so senior that covering every step of it is taken care of. We arrive five minutes later by the Market Square in the heart of the city, along with another twenty tour buses from all over. That’s Europe in July for you. Mobs of us tourists everywhere.
Our boat is named Katrina, and our guide Thor (we wonder if that is really his name) will make commentary along with a guide named Tuija from another Oceania bus. The participants on the two buses number no more than fifty, so there is plenty of room. Thor is in his fifties, with a very fun sense of humor. We are welcomed on board by Captain Leo and his assistant Monica. (Quick aside: we do not think these are their real names, because Finnish – and Swedish and Danish, for that matter – are almost unpronounceable to American tongues. I think they must use these names for our convenience, which is very thoughtful.)
We ease out of the dock and join the other hundred tour boats on this beautiful day. Steve stays on the upper deck in the sun so he can take tons of photos, the subjects of which he will later be unable to identify. Cathy goes below to avoid the sun altogether.
Thor and Tuija give us tons of information, some of it statistical. We will go into Random Fact Mode because the subject changes rapidly as we motor along:
- Helsinki the city has a population of 650,058. The urban area has 1,268,296. The entire country only has 5.52 million people, so it is ranked as the most sparsely populated country in the European Union. It is 721 miles in length from north to south; equivalent to the distance between Boston, MA and Raleigh, NC.
- Helsinki is located on the tip of a peninsula and is also made up of more than 300 islands, making a boat tour a great way to get a quick impression of the city.
- The Baltic Sea has low salinity, so it freezes over easily. One of the results is that Finland produces 60% of the world’s icebreakers, some of which we will see on our tour.
- During the heavy tourist season, there will be up to seven cruise ships in the harbor at one time. We spot at least a couple, one of which is from Oceania Cruises rival, Seabourn.
- On our quick bus ride to the dock. Thor tells us that, of all the ports in the world, Helsinki ranks either 1stor 2ndin the highest number of passengers arriving or departing by boat.
- Once we are in the harbor and spot an enormous Tallink Silja ferry as well as another Viking Lines (not to be confused with the Viking cruises firm) ferry equally as large, he fills us in on why the high passenger count. First he tells us that there are up to 20 sailings a day to Tallinn, Estonia alone. Now of course, there is a great deal of trade and travel between Sweden, Finland and Estonia, as well as other countries. But what drives this particular lane is booze. Sweden and Finland tax alcohol very, very heavily. Estonia does not (They tried to bump the taxes a few years ago, but quickly saw the error of their ways).
The journey from Helsinki to Tallinn, Estonia only takes 2-3 hours, depending on the line you take. It only costs 20 Euros. And the fare is refunded if you buy at least 100 Euros of booze (duty free) on board. So this is a huge business it itself besides the regular truck and passenger traffic. The ships carry up to 2,500 passengers and are actually heavier than the ship we are on.
The lane from Stockholm to Helsinki is slightly different because it takes around 16 hours each way. Swedes or Finns board and party all night. They spend the day either touring the city of arrival or sleeping in day cabins. Then they take the boat back from whence they came and party some more, buying duty free alcohol in huge quantities to take home.
In either case, Thor tells us that Finns are allowed 100 litres duty free (which translates to 57 1.5-litre bottles – an enormous amount.
So that’s the story about Helsinki’s astronomical passenger count. By the way, Thor’s opinion is that Silja has better food but Viking Lines has better bars!
- We pass by a huge construction crane parked right near the shore in what looks to be a park, with no visible construction activity going on. Why is that? Our guide supplies us with the answer: it is indeed a construction crane used for its intended purpose … most of the year. However, during the tourist season, this 130-metre high crane (425 feet) is used as a Bungee Jump!
- Like Sweden, citizens of Finland are outdoors as much as possible in the summer. In fact, there are a half million summer homes spread out through the country. There are 180,000 lakes in Finland and 40,000 islands in the Archipelago Sea alone.
- We spot cormorants, which we are told are birds not native to Finland. They found their way to the country in the 1970s, and the fishermen don’t like them because of the number of fish that they eat.
- Helsinki is growing very fast, just like Stockholm. In other words, the country is urbanizing just as is happening in the rest of the world. Housing is getting expensive. Sound familiar?
We are having a lovely ride, and so much information that Steve can’t keep up with it. He takes photos of two impressive buildings on islands in the harbor, but can’t recall what they are. Will have to research.
The highlight of the tour is when we pass through and around Suomenlinna (pronounced Semolina like the grain to Steve’s untrained ears) Fortress. Its history characterizes Finland’s history. Wikipedia does a good job of describing it:
“Suomenlinna (Finnish; until 1918 Viapori), or Sveaborg (Swedish), is an inhabited sea fortress built on eight islands about 4 km southeast of the city center of Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Suomenlinna is a UNESCO World Heritage site that is popular with tourists and locals, who enjoy it as a picturesque picnic site. Originally named Sveaborg(Castle of the Swedes), or Viapori as called by Finnish-speaking Finns, it was renamed in Finnish to Suomenlinna (Castle of Finland) in 1918 for patriotic and nationalistic reasons, though it is still known by its original name in Sweden and by Swedish-speaking Finns.
“The Swedish crown commenced the construction of the fortress in 1748 as protection against Russian expansionism. The general responsibility for the fortification work was given to Augustin Ehrensvärd. The original plan of the bastion fortress was strongly influenced by the ideas of Vauban, the foremost military engineer of the time, and the principles of the star fort style of fortification, albeit adapted to a group of rocky islands.
“During the Finnish War, Sweden surrendered the fortress to Russia on 3 May 1808, paving the way for the occupation of Finland by Russian forces in 1809, and the eventual cession of Finland to Russia at the conclusion of the war. Russia held the fortress until Finnish independence in 1918. Finland then managed Suomenlinna through the Defense Department until turning most of it over to civilian control in 1973.”
In short, the fortress was built by the Swedes to keep control of Finland from the Russians. But the Russians took over in 1809 and used it to keep control of Finland from the Swedes. Finally, an independent Finland took control in 1918 and put their military there. In 1973, it came under civilian control. 600 people make the islands their home, and it is a favorite spot for locals to picnic during the summer.
The Finnish Naval Academy is still garrisoned here. The five islands have become somewhat of an art colony as well, and the complex is one of Helsinki’s biggest tourist attractions. It even sports an old submarine named the Vesikko, built for a Dutch engineering firm in the 1930s. The dry dock is still operating as a private business.
We continue our tour of the harbor area, passing swimming areas, new construction (Helsinki is growing rapidly, and much of the expansion is huge apartments on islands where bridges are being built to connect them with the mainland.
We also pass a point on an island with several small beat up old buildings on it. They are saunas. There have been attempts to tear them down, but each time the city attempts it, they fail. It’s kind of a squatter’s field or hippie village. Finns love their saunas, and most residents admire the independence of the owners because they just won’t give up despite all the development going on around them.
We now pass by the anchorage for many of the country’s icebreakers. As mentioned before, Finland builds 60% of the world’s icebreakers, and they are docked here in Helsinki during the summer. This fleet includes the Polaris, the newest one that runs on both diesel and LNG. Heightened interest in the Arctic due to climate change has made these ships indispensable to keeping Arctic sea lanes open.
We now are heading back into port and pass by Nautica and see that one of the anchors is being painted. There is a large maintenance crew on board and they use every port opportunity to paint some part of the hull.
We dock right at Market Square, a place packed with vendors selling all kinds of food (especially fruit) as well as souvenirs. We aren’t really in the market for anything today, but we wander around for a few minutes. The entire market area is crowded with local shoppers as well as hundreds of us tourists.
The crowding starts to get to us and we decide it’s time to head back to the ship. There are so many tour buses that it takes a while to find ours. We would walk back to the ship except for the fact that our guide is responsible for us. Eventually we find it, board and reach the ship in a few short minutes.
We aren’t sailing until 7pm, so we nap and then sit out on our veranda admiring all the marine activity. Of course that includes the MS Viking XPRS ferry cruise leaving Helsinki for Stockholm. Steve is becoming a little bit obsessed with these vessels. Many local ferries connecting the islands with the mainland, tour boats and more tour boats, and pleasure boats of all kinds.
Fabulous dinners tonight. One of our favorite crew members from the Around the World cruise got on board in Copenhagen: Benson from India. We especially remember him for this exchange: CATHY: “It is really hot today.” BENSON: “Yes, it is hot. I am from India, and if an Indian tells you it’s hot, then it’s HOT!” He has gotten a well-deserved promotion.
Cathy has a cured beef appetizer and lamb curry for her entre and Steve has clam cakes and spiced beef tenderloin roast. What a meal.
We really did not do Helsinki justice. What a beautiful city – from what we saw. I don’t think we were more than fifty feet from the water the entire day, and our guides taught us a great deal about their country. They are free from unwanted influence from their Russian neighbor, are one of Europe’s most prosperous countries, and their tourism industry is booming. They are a friendly and proud people and we are delighted to know so much more than we did twenty-four hours ago. That is what this journey is all about.
Time for one last photo and words about these huge ferries plying the Baltic Sea. Steve is, of course, fascinated by all this transportation. And so much of it is by sea because the major ports are so close to one another. Stockholm and Helsinki are 250 miles apart by sea but 1,000 miles by land. Stockholm to Tallinn, Estonia is about the same. Helsinki and Tallinn are only 50 miles apart. St. Petersburg is 157 miles from Helsinki and 158 miles from Tallinn. The most efficient way to transport anything is via these enormous, modern ferries. And so we end this post with is photo of one of them passing directly in front of Nautica as we leave for St. Petersburg.
