Helsinki

The last four days of our long trip were spent in Helsinki, the Finnish capital. Beck and Max stayed on in Finland 4 more days and are still there at the time of writing. After our late arrival at the hotel we took a very late breakfast. The contrast with our Mayfair accommodation could not have been greater as the Cumulus Hakaniemi Hotel had only been open a few months and was decked out in what one might term Ikea style - very modern and clean, with underfloor heating which we did not really need for reasons that will shortly become clear. Moreover, an excellent breakfast was thrown in free each day and fast internet access was also freely available.

It might have rained a lot in Britain where it was cool and cloudy a lot of the time, but Helsinki was hot and sunny and got warmer each day. On the first morning, we caught a water taxi to the Zoo where we spent much of the day looking at lots of animals. They were mostly cold climate species because Finland has severe winter weather. I liked the bears and the Amur Tiger the best. The last one was a very big cat indeed – bigger than a lion. There were also lots of mountain goats from Europe and a Mongolian Horse. All the walking made for a tiring day, especially with temperatures in the high 20s.

The pictures show a red panda, an Amur tiger and an aerial picture of the site with its netted enclosures.

The next day, Saturday 7th August, was even hotter. We took the tram to the market quay and from there a ferry to the fort called Suomenlinna, which is world heritage listed. It was a bit like Fort McHenry I saw in Baltimore and was designed by the Swedes to protect Helsinki from attack. It had lots of tunnels and bunkers, walls and other fortifications, guns and so on, plus lots of beaches. We could run freely over most of the fort and it was very large being scattered over some islands connected by bridges. The pictures show some of the gun emplacements and our party walking through one of the many tunnels.

The fort was captured on a few occasions, unlike Fort McHenry. The Russians took it and annexed Finland to Russia; and it was captured by Finns during the Russian revolution. It is now world heritage listed. We spent the whole day there before returning to our hotel late in the afternoon. in 2009, I lost my glasses at 3600m above sea level in the Alps and had to explain my loss in such odd circumstances to the insurance company. 13 months later, I lost my replacement glasses again, but this time at sea level at the fortress, but wasted a long time looking for them without success. In the evening we took the tram to the city centre and had pizza at a nice restaurant with outdoor tables.

Our Sunday morning targets were the aquarium and fun park which all four of us reached by tram. First we walked among the fish tanks, which housed lots of fish and plants in natural settings which looked great and were well-maintained. Then we went next door to the fun park which had heaps of scary rides for Beck and Max. Mummy checked Max's height and he was tall enough to go on nearly everything – the ghost train, halls of mirrors, slippery dips, bumper cars, water rides (where he got wet), roller coasters, a Ferris wheel, and so on. We left Beck and Max in their environment for the rest of the day and headed downtown to take some walks around Helsinki exploring the city's architecture and history. The picture shows Max driving his first car.

Helsinki is like many European cities in its high density apartment living, good public transport (including metro, an extensive bus / tram network, and ferries), clean and tidy appearance, strong street life - with pavement cafes, lots of small independent service businesses, considerable public art (statues, wall reliefs, sculptures, etc.), and masses of historical sites. Our walks around the city confirmed all this, but I cannot do the city justice with just a few photographs. In Helsinki's case, the picture is even more confused because of the country's history first under the Swedish crown, then under Tsarist Russia, and finally under Finnish independence from 1919. Each bestowed its own imprint on many of the dimensions of urban living just mentioned. For example, there are Lutheran and Russian Orthodox Cathedrals - pictured, but the the former has a statue of the popular (to the Finnish public) Tsar Alexander II in front of it.

Helsinki's collection of statues is immense, many of them nude, which is surprising because of the chilly climate. Then there are the political and cultural heroes, like Sibelius and the various literati who maintained, of forged, cultural independence.

Like many cities, Helsinki has also gentrified its inner areas, turning former industrial sites into offices and apartments, often within the shape of the old buildings. These are interspersed with modern and often attractive residential and commercial developments. Altogether, the imprint is quite attractive.

On our last day, Monday 9th August, Beck and Max flew to Rovaniemi in Lapland on the Arctic Circle and a long way from anywhere. Their flight left just after 12.00 for the 1000km journey north and we had a day to kill before our own return flight to Sydney. This was mostly spent on a bus sightseeing trip, which was extremely well done and informative, or walking around the city dipping into famous buildings occasionally. We took lunch in a well-known cafe, Kappeli, just as the day before we rested at Helsinki's oldest cafe, Cafe Ekberg on Bulevardi, one of Helsinki's most up-market addresses. Finally we rested on Runebergin esplanadi - a lovely park in the city centre - watching life pass by before taking the tram back to Hakaniemi to retrieve our luggage en route to the airport.

I, for one, would love to return to Finland and travel much more widely in the country. I'm sure Dot would, too. Would any of my readers like to accompany us on the trip? We could take in Turku, a former capital, and other cities, Karelia, Lapland, and a trip across the Gulf of Finland to Tallinn in Estonia. Did you know that Estonia, Finland, Hungary and parts of Russia have languages in the Finno-Ugric group? By the way, don't worry about understanding a language that has few links into other European languages. Most Finns, it seems, speak English, rather like the Dutch. It makes getting around rather easy.

AS