We were happy to start the day a bit later with breakfast in the dining room, and a call to the Gully’s in NZ.

We had landed in Helsinki, and had no real plans for the day, as I had missed the session giving advice, and we had not booked a tour. However, the city provides a shuttle into the centre and we started with that. We visited the market and bought some strawberries, while keeping an eye on the booking office for a boat tour. We caught one at 10.30am and set sail.

The tour was advertised as a canal tour, but was mainly in the sea. I had read that the commentary was interesting and did take some notes. However, we also talked to a couple from NZ (Peter and Christine) as we sailed, about our travels and their upcoming travels as they are going to London, the Loire Valley and Normandy.

We sailed past the old fortresses that had been built on various islands to protect Helsinki from sea attack. There are over 300 islands in the archipelago and we saw a number of them and some small areas that were no more than a rock out crop.

We had seen a group of soldiers on a ship and were told one area is a military base. The commentary mentioned that Finland shares a border with Russia and so has decided not to join NATO as they believe in trying to keep friendly relations with all their neighbours, but they also have their own security with armed forces.

The boat went under a swivel bridge. When the water level is high (after rain) then the traffic is stopped and the bridge swivels to let boats go through. That did not have to be done today after a warm, dry summer, but the clearance was small.

We saw a number of saunas beside the water and were reminded of the delight of a sauna followed by a plunge into the cold water of the sea. Hmmm!! It was otherwise a relatively undeveloped area and is popular as a retreat to stay that is close to the city, where the cottages are without power or running water. The locals are also allowed to collect mushrooms and berries from anywhere including private property as long as they don’t damage the grounds.

As we sailed past the various islands we were told of the importance of timber for Finland, which tied in with the various timber items we had seen at the market. Historically bonfires on the various islands were lit to warn the populace about Viking invaders. During WW2 they were lit as decoys with the result that of the 16,000 bombs dropped on Helsinki, only 5% hit their target.

We were warned to watch out when we approached the bridge over the Degero canal, although it proved to be higher than the swivel bridge. It was however much narrower and we were close to large rocks on both sides. It was originally dredged for commercial use but is now only used by pleasure boats and has silted up, so it is now less than 4 feet deep.

The Tilliruukki Bay area that we sailed slowly past provides the raw materials for brick making. This had made a big difference to buildings as they could use bricks for many houses and they would be less of a fire risk. With the high fire risk in many areas at present this was a topical statement. We had received photos from our friends in Crete this morning saying they were safe but their home was full of smoke from the local fires.

Many city beaches were on the route we followed. The water is about 20 degrees in summer and the days have been getting to 30C, so they were very popular. On the longest day the sun is up until 11pm and rises again at 3am so there is a lot of daylight time to spend on the beach

We heard a lot about the local zoo, but we were more interested in seeing the icebreakers. There was a small fleet of them at one wharf area although it was hard to believe today that this area could be solid ice. The ships docked at the ferry terminals, we were told, are also Grade A icebreakers, so the routes to Sweden and Estonia are open all year to the ferries.

We then attempted to find an ATM, getting side-tracked by finding a cache. The currency here is the euro. We then went to the Bank of Finland which we found was not a trading bank. The receptionist told us however where we could find an ATM and we sorted most of the money we need for the next few days. We will be in Sweden tomorrow and are still trying to decide if we need Swedish Krowns or can manage with a credit card and Euro. 

We walked to the Temppeliaukio Church which we heard of under its common name, the Rock Church. The areas we walked through on the way were modern, pleasant and reasonably busy. The city has a nice atmosphere, which we noticed after St Petersburg. I went into the church while John saved 3 euro and waited outside. It was bigger than I was expecting and pleasantly cool as you would expect. There was a pianist playing and this added to the peaceful atmosphere. One end was solid rock and the font was also made out of rocks.

  Peter and Christine were also at the Rock Church and leaving just as I did so we walked with them back towards the shuttle. Then we found one more cache while they went to the market. This proved interesting as 2 people we had met earlier in the journey followed us to the cache site and found it for us. We had not known they were also mad geocachers. 

Back at the port we checked out a few souvenirs. John bought a nice jacket with a large wolf image on the front. We then headed for the ship and the pool. Warwick and Alex arrived soon after us so we sat on lounges, drinking a cocktail each and talking about the day. They had been on the HOHO and also enjoyed Helsinki. After a sleep (John) and research/blog (me) we met up with them again at dinner and chatted until 10pm. Tomorrow the clocks go back another hour.