Monday 3 September – Helsinki - markets, moose, and military museums.

We walked back to the station this morning to meet up with Steve and Jenny, then headed for Market Square, on the waterfront and one of the activity hubs for this great city, pausing for a photograph in front of Havis Amanda, the nude female sculpted by Ville Villagren in 1906 and causing outrage among the feminists of the day.  We wandered through the market stalls, displaying mostly goods hand-made by the vendors, who sat knitting or crocheting at their stands, as well as home-grown fruit and vegetables. At 11am we boarded the bus for a two-hour sightseeing tour of Helsinki, passing the significant sights of the city, stopping off to share a moment with Santa and visit the Temppeliaukio (Rock Church) which was literally blasted from the rock, then passing the pipe-like Sibelius monument.  On our return to Market Square we had a sea-food lunch (except for Steve, who opted for a moose pie).

Next we boarded the ferry for the trip across the harbour to the island of Suomenlinna, a UNESCO site with fortifications, museums, a shipyard and a submarine. Suomenlinna played an important part in Finnish military history for two centuries from 1748, when it was constructed by the ruling Swedish as a defence against Russian expansionism.  As a defensive bastion it was never conquered by military force from the sea, however in 1808 it was forced to surrender to the sneaky Russians, who had taken advantage of a severe winter and come overland to defeat and occupy Helsinki and place Suomenlinna under siege for several months.  It then remained a Russian naval base for more than a century and was bombarded in 1855 during the Crimean War by the Anglo-French fleet.  In 1918 it became a prisoner-of-war camp, during the Finnish civil war, then from 1939, during World War II, it served as a coastal anti-aircraft and submarine base.

We particularly enjoyed visiting the two military museums, where we saw a beautifully-restored 1915 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, used by General Mannerheim as a staff car during WWII, and took the opportunity to dress up in various military uniforms.  Jenny also accepted the challenge of clambering into the cockpit of a jet training aircraft.  Another highlight was visiting the 1750 dry dock, one of the oldest in Europe and still used for repairing wooden sailing ships.

Then we were back on the ferry to the mainland, a slow walk back to our apartment, pausing to pick up some genuine Atlantic Salmon – from the Atlantic, not Tasmania - for dinner.