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Published: September 2nd 2014
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View of Helsinki from our marina
with the Cathedral standing out distinctly above the rest of the city. We changed direction and moved from the southern part of the Baltic and headed to Finland, one of the countries bordering the Baltic on the North. The actual sail from Tallinn, Estonia was not the most pleasant with the wind speed and direction not matching up with the forecast – the “fun” parts of the sailing life. It was not unsafe, Tsamaya can handle the wind and waves, but it was NOT a comfortable ride with the wind hitting us about 40°off the bow and high waves that had a very short period. We left Tallinn at 7:20AM on June 29
thwith only 7-10 knots of wind but by 10:30 they were up to 25 knots and made it up to 34-35 knots by 1PM. We made it to the marina which was nicely situated on an island close to the town by 3PM. The Marina provides a free ferry that runs frequently to a dock which is maybe a 10 to 15 minute walk to downtown Helsinki.
We had not had a chance to research much about Helsinki so dutifully stopped at the Visitor Center. Surprisingly we were told that there wasn’t too much historically as they were
Those Golden Arches
can be seen everywhere. not a very old city, but that there were a few churches that were of interest and a nice marketplace. We got a walking map to the city and took off.
When you first look at the city of Helsinki one building that stands out is the Helsinki Cathedral which is located on one side of what is called Senate Square so we headed there to start our exploration. The Cathedral was built from 1830-1852 by the same architect that designed the other buildings edging the Senate Square making for a uniform look. The Senate Square was the largest Nordic Square bordered by the University of Helsinki, the National Library, the Helsinki Cathedral and the Palace of the Council of State. A statute of Emperor Alexander II was added to the center of the square in 1894.
Finland for centuries was part of the Kingdom of Sweden. In 1809 after the War of Finland it was ceded to Russia but became independent in 1917. It may seem strange to have a prominent statute of the Russian Tzar Alexander II in Helsinki, but he was known as “the good Tzar”. This came from the fact
Quite the Faces
One of the stone features we saw on one of the buildings here. that as Emperor of Russia and Grand Prince of Finland he initiated several reforms that increased Finnish autonomy from Russia. This included setting up its own currency and railroad system under Finnish administration. He also raised the language of Finnish to being a national language which helped encourage a feeling of nationalism among the people of Finland. The thought is that the Emperor may have done this to reward their loyalty for support in the Crimean War, but it also may have been to help dilute ties with Sweden. No matter what the reason, Emperor Alexander II was seen as an important figure here in Finland and as a result the statute is a reminder of his positive influence on Finland’s history.
Another prominent church here is the Uspenski Cathedral which is a Russian Orthodox Church that was built from 1862-1868. Unfortunately when we hiked up to the church it was closed so we were not able to view the inside. It is also seated high on a hill overlooking the city of Helsinki and is an impressive building to see.
One of the OCC gatherings we had in Helsinki was meeting with a
The Helsinki Cathedral
is an impressive landmark here built between 1830-1852. Finnish woman, Suzanna, who took the time to discuss sailing in the Finnish archipelago. She was a wealth of helpful information, but also confirmed for us that we needed to buy local paper charts for traversing this area safely. This gave us the mission of finding the charts the next day and fortunately there is an excellent bookstore in central Helsinki. One of the biggest surprises was to find so many books here that were in English – quite unusual in Europe. The beauty of these charts is that they have a “green line” that you can follow through the islands which indicate the safe depths for passage. This area is full of rocks, both ones that you can easily see and those that are just under the surface. As Suzanna stated Finland is known for the number of navigational markers within their channels and we were happy to find this was true. Having these charts we could easily plot out where we would like to travel while exploring the southern coast of Finland. The next mission took quite a bit of time, finding a chandlery for some boat supplies. While walking the city looking for supplies we had an
The Statute of Emperor Alexander II Presiding
in the middle of Senate Square added in 1894. excellent opportunity to observe several different parts of the city. One of the most obvious design features is the a large number of balconies on multi-story buildings. Most of these balconies contain large planters filled with colorful flowers. Living in a country which has an extremely short summer means that you value it tremendously and do everything you can to enjoy it. Every time we passed a park we were surprised by the large number of people sitting out enjoying the sun.
There was an OCC dinner scheduled here but we decided to leave before that so we would have a couple of days to anchor out and explore the islands before we were scheduled to leave to head for our appointed time to check out of Finland and into Russia. We followed the “green line” on our charts and found a great anchorage for the night. It was such a treat to be on the hook enjoying the peace and quiet after our days and weeks of exploring so many cities. This has been a really enjoyable trip so far, but it definitely has been packed full of interesting places to see and learn about. A
Bordering the Senate Square
are buildings designed by the same architect that designed the Cathedral
night of “chilling out” and sitting on the back of the boat at anchor in such a beautiful setting reminded us so much of our great times on both Cayuga Lake and on Lake Ontario. In fact the channels through the islands reminded us quite a bit of the 1000 Islands (with a few less people).
We found that there was a small town, Kotka, that looked like it was in an ideal location as a jumping off point to get to Haapassaari where we needed to check out of Finland before our final move to St. Petersburg. We only stayed overnight in Kotka but from what we did see it is obvious that the love of nature and green spaces is an important factor here. Just in the short distance that we had to walk to the grocery store we went through quite a few lovely parks with water features and an abundant variety of plantings. It in fact looked like a nice enough place that we tucked it away as a possible stop on our way back out of St. Petersburg to do a little more exploring.
We learned that between 1788
An Overall View of the Senate Square
from the steps of the Helsinki Cathedral. and 1790 the Russians and Swedes waged naval battles at this location. After this Empress Catherine II of Russia gave orders to fortify this area and as a result about 30 fortification structures were built in the islands in this area. This made a major impact on the area with an increase of population consisting mainly of Russian military personnel and merchants. By 1802 there were approximately 8,200 people living here. Within a decade it grew to over 10,000. Over 15,000 others were living in nearby islands which dramatically changed this area with the growth of these cities.
Everywhere we travel in the Baltic area we are learning more and more about the interconnection of the countries and how they have been shaped. This has not only been an enjoyable trip so far, but very educational for us both.
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