Helsinki and Suomenlinna

We’re in Helsinki in Finland, and it’s very cold and drizzly! Nonetheless, we’ve had a good visit, and toured some interesting places. We did a lot of walking of the city and stopped by most of the various must-see historic sites. None of the pictures of some of the more popular tourist sites turned out particularly interesting, however!

Helsinki on a November evening.
The Uspenski Cathedral, which is the largest Orthodox Church in Western Europe.
The Tsarina’s Stone monument, from 1835.

The following day we took a local ferry to Suomenlinna, which is a collection of islands off the coast near Helsinki that houses a stone for built by the Kingdom of Sweden in 1748 and occupied by Russian soldiers during the 1800s. The island was grim, cold, and kinda spooky, but a super neat place to explore – I love places like that. My main takeaway is that I’m glad I wasn’t a Russian soldier during the 1800s.

Me in the rather dank fort at Suomenlinna.
A neat view from inside the fort.
Kinda spooky.
Amelia at one of the entrances to the fort.

The area surrounding the fort was also quite fun to explore.

When I took this picture, I didn’t notice that the fungal growth at the bottom of the tree trunk looks kind of like a skull.
“KOIRIEN ULKOILUTTAMINEN RANTAALUEELLA KIELLETTY” means “No Scottish Terriers Allowed”!
There were some residential buildings and stores also at Suomenlinna.

And that about wraps up our fall break trip to Latvia, Estonia, and Finland… we’re flying back to Prague tomorrow afternoon.

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