Spring 2017: Finland, with a side trip to Tallinn, Estonia

On the morning after our Road Scholar tour of the Dalmatian Coast ended, we had a hotel van take us from Herceg Novi across the Montenegro-Croatia border to Dubrovnik airport, where we boarded a Finnair flight that would take us to Helsinki.

Click on any photo to enlarge 

All photos © 2017 Tom and Marcia Murray 
 

It was raining when we arrived (the first rain we had seen since a light shower on our first day in Vienna), and we had a long wait for our luggage, but when we finally emerged from the secure area of the airport, Marcia’s cousin Seija and her husband Ilkka were waiting for us. We got in their car and headed to a condo that their son Mikko owns, not far from central Helsinki, where we would spend the night.

After settling in we went out for dinner to a restaurant, Kuurna, that specializes in very fresh, very local ingredients. We both enjoyed a main course of cod, which we suspect had been swimming in the Baltic only hours earlier.

We had told Seija and Ilkka that we hoped to use this trip as an opportunity to see Tallinn, Estonia, which is only two-and-a-half hours from Helsinki by ferry. They agreed that this was a good idea, and made all the travel arrangements including ferry tickets and hotel reservations in Tallinn. We left Helinski on the Eckerö Line ferry Finlandia at 8:30 a.m.

We arrived in Tallinn by 11:00 a.m....

and checked into our hotel (the Sokos Viru), located just outside the entrance to the city’s historic old town. The hotel opened in 1972, at a time when Estonia was part of the Soviet Union. The Viru was reportedly the only hotel where foreign nationals were allowed to stay in Tallinn, and the KGB set up listening devices that would allow them to monitor guests' conversations. Today the hotel capitalizes on its spy-tinged history with a room full of equipment from that era, apparently left behind by the KGB, where it offers guided tours for a fee. Our schedule didn't permit us to take the tour, but perhaps next time...

This is the view of Old Town from our floor in the hotel. The red-roofed turrets at lower left are the Viru Gates, built in the 14th century.

Tallinn's Old Town is on two levels. The Lower Town is centered on Town Hall square...

and is home to many shops and restaurants, including the one where we would have lunch. Ilkka had made reservations at Rataskaevu16, which as it turned out, was rated #1 out of 779 Tallinn restaurants on TripAdvisor. 

We chose simple meals that included pumpkin soup, an Estonian cheese plate, salted fresh salmon and asparagus salad with fresh baked bread. Everything was expertly prepared and artistically presented, and the food was delicious. Our table was near the entrance, and we watched as a steady stream of would-be customers came in, asked if they could get a table, and were politely turned away.

After lunch, we headed up a street with a steep incline toward the Upper Town, where major government buildings are located, as well as embassies of other countries, large churches, and some private residences in well-maintained historic buildings. The government buildings include Stenbock House, which is the headquarters of the prime minister...

as well as the Estonian Parliament building.

On a plaque below Stenbock House, we found this tribute to Boris Yeltsin, who as the first president of the Russian Federation, following the breakup of the Soviet Union, played a key role in Estonia's independence.

The two most prominent churches in the Upper Town are the Orthodox Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky...

and the Lutheran St. Mary's Cathedral (also known as the Dome Church).

There are a couple of points in the Upper Town that provide great views of the Lower Town, with its many churches and towers.

That evening we walked to Olde Hansa, a medieval-themed restaurant where only candlelight was used in the dining area.

The servers were like performance artists, never straying out of character as they presented food that could have been prepared and served in the middle ages. It was another memorable meal.

We enjoyed Old Town Tallinn, but we also enjoyed our walk from the hotel to the ferry terminal the next morning. We were surprised at how westernized Tallinn felt, given its relatively recent history as part of the Soviet Union.

We were especially impressed with the creative reuse being made of older buildings in this part of the city. We saw a couple of places where an existing structure was being used as the support for two or more additional floors, in a modern but (we thought) compatible style. This one was particularly striking.

After our return ferry trip to Helsinki, we drove north to Seija’s and Ilkka’s lake house, about 290 km (180 miles) to the north. This is a wonderful place, which they built from the ground up, using local logs and other materials.

We visited here in 2011, but since then the former sauna has been converted to a cottage with a bedroom, and a new building has been constructed (in the foreground in the photo below) that includes an enlarged sauna, a bedroom, and an additional sleeping loft.

There's also a small piece of land sticking out into the lake, with a pier on the end.

The following day, four of Seija’s sisters came to see us (in this photo, Seija is in the center, next to Marcia).

 

Other than Seija, none of them speak English, and we speak no Finnish (although Marcia does remember a few words from her childhood, when she was surrounded by Finnish-speakers). But with Seija & Ilkka doing most of the translating, we did find a way to communicate with each other, and everyone enjoyed the warm, sunny day by the lake.

Entertainment was provided by their daughter, Annukka, and her boyfriend Lauri.

Another daughter, Johanna, was also able to join us for part of the afternoon.

Annukka's dog Muru, a Lapp reindeer herding dog, was a constant presence at the lake house.

Muru and the other family dogs all enjoyed chasing balls into the lake, retrieving them, and shaking themselves dry (preferably near one or more people).

Our room was in the sauna building, and one evening as we returned there, we found that we had this hedgehog for a neighbor.

The long days meant that, as late as 11:30, there was still plenty of light outside.

The next day would be our last full day in Europe on this trip. We drove from the lake house back to Helsinki via secondary roads, instead of using the main highway between Helsinki and Tampere, as we had on our trip north. This was a much more scenic trip, taking us across hilly topography and within sight of numerous lakes. 

Our first bathroom stop just happened (!) to come at a railway museum in Haapamäki, whose web site makes the claim of being the world's largest steam locomotive park (or at least that's how Google Translate handles the word "höyryveturipuisto"). They weren't operating on this weekday, but maybe next time...

We crossed a couple of large bridges over lakes, including the Kärkinen Bridge, a 1997 cable-stayed structure over Lake Päijänne, Finland’s second-largest lake. Aside from railways and other forms of transportation, Tom's a bridge fan, too, so this was definitely worth a photo.

We came across another suspension bridge a couple of hours later, as we passed Päijänne National Park, so we got a picture of it, too.

That evening we had another fine meal, at Three Crowns restaurant in Helsinki, and then took a walk around this quiet section of the city.

The following morning, we were up early for our trans-Atlantic trip to Washington, D.C., where we would spend several days visiting our son Ricky and our Washington-area friends. We said goodbye to Seija and Ilkka at the airport...

but before we left we got a commitment from them to let us return their generous hospitality when they come to California. They wouldn’t commit as to the year this would happen, but we are confident that it will.

After a lengthy check-in process at Helsinki airport, we boarded a Lufthansa flight for Munich, where we changed for our flight to Dulles Airport. We were surprised when the in-flight map showed that we were passing over central Massachusetts, and one of the towns displayed was Rutland (population 7,973), where Marcia grew up.

By the time we checked into our hotel that evening, we had been up for a full 24 hours, and were now seven time zones west of Helsinki. Still, the time adjustment seems to come easier for us when we travel west than east, so by the next morning we felt almost normal.

We enjoyed our few days in Washington, spending time with Ricky, his friend Michielle, and their new Bernese mountain dog, Kona, as well as with friends from the years when we lived in the Washington area. One highlight was going to the Marine Corps War Memorial (a.k.a. the Iwo Jima Memorial) in Arlington to see the Sunset Parade featuring the Marine Drum and Bugle Corps and Silent Drill Platoon.

After five nights in the Washington area, we were ready for our final flights of this trip, from Washington National to Phoenix, and Phoenix to Santa Rosa.

It had been a great trip, but as always, it was good to return home.

* * *

Here are links to our other reports from this trip:

Spring 2017: Vienna, Salzburg, and onward to Croatia

Spring 2017: Croatia's Dalmatian Coast, and a bit of Montenegro