On Saturday we availed ourselves again of the excellent Helsinki transit system (HSL... the system is great, the app/website has some issues if you're not from Helsinki). Trams and ferries this time, to visit the Suomenlinna Sea Fortress.
The fortress was initially built in 1748 and has variously served as a base for Sweden, Russia and Finland. I learnt a lot more about its use and history (including as a POW camp during Finland's Civil War) during a visit to its military museum... but more on that later.
The fortress is across four islands (connected by bridges) and still has about 800 residents.
Our ferry across to Suomenlinna.Overview of the fortress.Pink barracks built by Russia, now home to the information centre, art gallery, brewery and restaurant.There was a wedding on when we visited... keep an eye out for other wedding Easter eggs 😁.Tunnel through the barracks... the first of many cool tunnels.Shops, cafes and residences. Mostly closed as it's not peak tourist season.
There was a large church in the centre of the first island. Initially a Russian Orthodox church, it was changed to Lutheran when Finland took over Suomenlinna. We didn't go inside because... wedding.
Wedding!Cannon fences... why not when you have spares I guess!Wedding!I'm assuming wheelchair access. Nicely integrated into the existing architecture, but rather on the steep side.
We spent nearly five hours at the fortress, and were all feeling a bit weary and footsore by the end. But even the boys were distracted from this by some of the interesting hidey-holes.
Residential building with old-school fake windows.Cannon outside the Military Museum... F and J valiantly defending the entrance.Bridge across to island number 2. We didn't make it to islands 3 and 4.Some interesting brickwork.Ice cream lessons to learn... a little more pertinent in summer when the ice cream shop is open. Despite the weather/temperature, the boys were still very interested in the (non) possibility.Fortress wall and cannon ports.Pretty drainage works.Rather larger ferry than we used passing the island (likely similar to what we'll be on to get to Estonia on Monday).Jellyfish spotted by J in the water. A very Australian thing to be visually attuned to.More tunnels.
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F manning the cannon port.J's turn.Steps to the deep dark dungeon (we assume... it was blocked off).More cannons (probably actually mortars, but I'm not an expert).More tunnels (and a tired J).More cannons (and the local swimming spot... though not the one used by the local skinny-dippers we saw elsewhere!).Boat and ship passing the island. J commented that he was sick of boring boats that just pushed you along with a motor and wanted to go on a proper pirate ship with sails.Fortifications that A and I both thought could be best described as "Hobbiton at War".The King's Gate (and a footsore F).The gate has a combination drawbridge/gate mechanism that would simultaneously raise the drawbridge and drop the secondary gate. A may have been a little concerned walking under the (very heavy) gate.J inspecting door locks as we slowly made our way back to the ferry.A's Stava map of our day.
In total, we walked almost 9km, so no surprises that everyone was a bit footsore. We had initially planned to try to find something quintessentially Finnish for dinner, but couldn't be bothered. So we had a perfectly nice and inexpensive (if a little boring) dinner at the bar/restaurant at the hostel and then crashed.
