On the long weekend during the Easter holidays, finally I decided to break the wait for someone to accompany me for some sightseeing. So, I decided to check out the most famous tourist attraction of Helsinki – the Suomenlinna sea fortress built by the Swedish King during the 18th century. This fort has played a vital role in many a wars and is how listed on the UNESCO World Heritage site. Read more about the fort here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suomenlinna
Well, fortunately for me I had one person who accepted to come with me to the fortress and so on Monday, we left for the fortress from our apartment. We have to take ferry from the East harbor which is around 300 metres from my apartment and the ferry ride actually takes just 15 minutes – excluding starting up and parking. You could relate this more to our Vivekanda Rock at Kanyakumari, just that this is much bigger in scale and is a cluster of around 6 islands.
We reached the harbor at around 11.15am to find out the next service is only at 12 noon. So, we decided to roam around the Senate square just stone-throw away from the harbor. This is where Helsinki’s most famous cathedral is situated. Given that there was some snow during the weekend, we went to check out the square in snow. I have already seen this without snow, so wanted see it in snow. But unfortunately, it was that attractive since most of the snow on the ground was already cleared up for the tourists.
So we headed back to the harbor and purchased a ticket from the vending machine for the trip. The ferry left on time and I have to admit, it was kind of overloaded. We decided to stay put near the doors, so that we could have some nice view of the archipelago of Helsinki. Lots of small islands and the ferry maneuvering through them was a good sight. As I told there was some snow, and the wind was really CHILL that two gloves were not good enough to hold back… and the hands were freezing and started to pain even before we landed at the fort at around 12.30pm
We were welcomed by a lot of white snow all over the place in the fort. It was really a great sight to see so much snow all around you… you have to walk on the snow all through the fort. We started our unguided tour without anyone’s help and started wandering around the place. It was really a great to be in a place build 250 years ago and even more fascinating that there is a small community who call it their home.
We went all around the fort; there was a church with massive iron chain attached to sets of 3 canons making it compound like thing… and some beautiful Easter eggs inside the church… the one big one around 2x1.5 feet made out of one piece of wood and many other small ones most of them with gems, glass, and even some precious metals. The church also housed a organ – a musical instrument – made of a lot of tubes. We then headed out on the snow again to see more of the old areas in the fort.
We reached the other end of the island that had a lot of canons in strategic positions and lot of bunkers and hide outs with viewing points to the sea. Some of the canons are so massive, I am not really sure they actually could fire something that big. One canon was taller than me and at least twice my width as diameter and the barrel could easily fit a shot that could be more around twice the size of my head. That’s really massive.
We further explored the area walking through the perimeter of the island when we hit a gateway called the “King’s gate” that was really a beautiful gate… with circular steps leading down to the surface of the water. We also saw a few places which looked more like housing for those who served in the fortress. We also saw a lot of tunnels and most of the closed now, except one which led to one of the canon guns through the place which looked like a storage area for the ammunition.
After a exhausting walk on the snow for 3 hours, finally decided it is time to go home, and we made it to the harbor again in time for the 15.30 pm ferry back to Helsinki. Good walks always leads to good appetite so we hit the Namaskaar Restaurant near the Central railway station for a well deserved lunch and reached home at around 17.00pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suomenlinna
Well, fortunately for me I had one person who accepted to come with me to the fortress and so on Monday, we left for the fortress from our apartment. We have to take ferry from the East harbor which is around 300 metres from my apartment and the ferry ride actually takes just 15 minutes – excluding starting up and parking. You could relate this more to our Vivekanda Rock at Kanyakumari, just that this is much bigger in scale and is a cluster of around 6 islands.
We reached the harbor at around 11.15am to find out the next service is only at 12 noon. So, we decided to roam around the Senate square just stone-throw away from the harbor. This is where Helsinki’s most famous cathedral is situated. Given that there was some snow during the weekend, we went to check out the square in snow. I have already seen this without snow, so wanted see it in snow. But unfortunately, it was that attractive since most of the snow on the ground was already cleared up for the tourists.
So we headed back to the harbor and purchased a ticket from the vending machine for the trip. The ferry left on time and I have to admit, it was kind of overloaded. We decided to stay put near the doors, so that we could have some nice view of the archipelago of Helsinki. Lots of small islands and the ferry maneuvering through them was a good sight. As I told there was some snow, and the wind was really CHILL that two gloves were not good enough to hold back… and the hands were freezing and started to pain even before we landed at the fort at around 12.30pm
We were welcomed by a lot of white snow all over the place in the fort. It was really a great sight to see so much snow all around you… you have to walk on the snow all through the fort. We started our unguided tour without anyone’s help and started wandering around the place. It was really a great to be in a place build 250 years ago and even more fascinating that there is a small community who call it their home.
We went all around the fort; there was a church with massive iron chain attached to sets of 3 canons making it compound like thing… and some beautiful Easter eggs inside the church… the one big one around 2x1.5 feet made out of one piece of wood and many other small ones most of them with gems, glass, and even some precious metals. The church also housed a organ – a musical instrument – made of a lot of tubes. We then headed out on the snow again to see more of the old areas in the fort.
We reached the other end of the island that had a lot of canons in strategic positions and lot of bunkers and hide outs with viewing points to the sea. Some of the canons are so massive, I am not really sure they actually could fire something that big. One canon was taller than me and at least twice my width as diameter and the barrel could easily fit a shot that could be more around twice the size of my head. That’s really massive.
We further explored the area walking through the perimeter of the island when we hit a gateway called the “King’s gate” that was really a beautiful gate… with circular steps leading down to the surface of the water. We also saw a few places which looked more like housing for those who served in the fortress. We also saw a lot of tunnels and most of the closed now, except one which led to one of the canon guns through the place which looked like a storage area for the ammunition.
After a exhausting walk on the snow for 3 hours, finally decided it is time to go home, and we made it to the harbor again in time for the 15.30 pm ferry back to Helsinki. Good walks always leads to good appetite so we hit the Namaskaar Restaurant near the Central railway station for a well deserved lunch and reached home at around 17.00pm
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