July 18 – July 22, 2007, Finland and Estonia : We took the overnight Silja ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki. This was different than most cruise ships – it’s basically a mini floating shopping mall, with restaurants, shops, and a hotel. Everything was a la carte and the prices were reasonable- none of the cruise industries’ usual attempts to capitalize on a captive audience. It was also extremely well set up for kids, with several recreation areas and a restaurant catering to them.
You realize immediately here that Finnish is not an Indo-European language – nothing is understandable except recent English loan words. This makes it much harder to figure the ins and outs (or ingangs and utgangs), than it was in Scandinavia. It’s a little surreal, but nearly everyone speaks English well, and occasional Swedish signs (also an official language) help.
Any guesses?
Helsinki is fairly compact – most of the city was built in the 19th and 20th centuries, with a few older buildings in places. We went swimming at the 1952 Olympic complex (well heated, fortunately). This is the Harry Potter Deathly Hallows release weekend – the movie is playing everywhere and the bookstores are all set up for midnight Saturday.
We visited the city of Tallinn in Estonia as a day trip – it’s about 100 minutes away by hydrofoil. (Don was quite pleased- he had been disappointed by the Norway-Denmark fast ferry cancellation.) Tallinn is a much older city than Helsinki – first built in the 11th century. Some buildings in the central square date from the 14th century. Estonians claim that the church spire shown in some of the pictures was once the tallest building in the world.
And yes, yet another amusement park. As always, the favorite of the kids.