Cruising to Helsinki!

We left Tallinn at lunchtime on Tuesday and enjoyed a delightful Baltic cruise . . . . for three and a half hours, which is the time it took the Tallink ferry to travel across to Helsinki. It was a very smart new looking ship, the sun was shining the sea was like a mill pond. We spent most of the journey sitting out on the sun deck enjoying our packed lunch and a beer from the bar.

 Ta ta Tallinn  . . . . . . .

                                             . . . . . and Hello Helsinki!

We are on a campsite a few kilometers from the centre but next door to a Metro station with regular trains into the city. We spent Wednesday exploring the waterfront Market place with its stalls selling fruit and veg, fish, tourist souvenirs and Moose burgers! However, we settled for savory pancakes with ham and cheese instead. We also looked around a very large department store, Stockmann. The prices in Helsinki and presumably in Finland generally are much higher than we have become used to and indeed higher than we are used to at home. Now that most of these Baltic states are using the euro it is easy to compare prices and, using the price of a litre of diesel as a guide, this has gradually increased as we moved north, from under a euro in Lithuania to around €1.30 here.

Today we got off the metro train a couple of stops before the centre and visited an old market hall in one of the outlying areas. It had some tourist souvenir stalls but also seemed to be the regular produce market for local people and was a bit more interesting to look at, and the souvenirs were more authentic craft stuff rather than 'Made in China' tat.

 We then walked in to the centre calling in at the main Lutheran Cathedral

 

and then wandered through an interesting little 'design' quarter in some streets just back from the waterfront. 

Finland is celebrating 100 years as an independent state, so they seem to be trying to major on the cultural side of Finnish life.