Helsinki; Saturday, 01 June, 2024

Adding to the slightly surreal experience of approaching the Åland Islands at midnight on effectively a giant state approved excise duty avoidance scheme was the fact that in just 13 days time I would be back here for an actual visit – never been here before to almost a local in under a fortnight!

A few cars and just two people disembarked, which given the population of the islands is only about 30,000 and multiple ferries every day serve it from Stockholm, Helsinki and Tallin, is unsurprising and with just half a dozen joining the ships crew managed to turn around the port stop in lightning quick time, less than 5 minutes from the first rope being thrown down to the last rope being hauled back in, and the jetty couldn’t have been in contact with the ship for more than 60 seconds.

We sailed back down the fjord and out into the Baltic, having passed a Viking Line ferry on the way in we passed a Tallink Ferry on the way out, and with that I headed to my cabin to turn in for the night.

I was up relatively early for breakfast and to watch us enter the archipelago of islands that form a ring of protection around Helsinki as we slowly made our way towards the Finnish Capital. The final leg of the journey through the islands, and then through the narrow channel by the Kings Gate on Suomenlinna before turning into the harbour at Helsinki is perhaps the most dramatic of our entire journey.

Having disembarked we headed into town and caught the tram round to our hotel. Again, as it was so early the rooms weren’t ready – but some superior rooms were free if we wanted to pay the upgrade and early checkin fees! Instead we dropped off our bags and headed back into town, over to the Fish Market and the public ferry out over to Suomenlinna to explore these fortress islands.

Depending on which information you read it’s either five or six islands that are connected together and fortified by the Swedish to exert their power over the region and prevent invasion of their Finnish domain by sea. So it’s all rather unfortunate that the Russians invaded by land at the start of the 19th century, seizing Helsinki and eventually all of Finland. Today, whilst the Finnish armed service still have a few buildings on the islands, and a number of people live in the other buildings, virtually the whole of the island is open to tourists to explore.

After spending some time on Suomenlinna we headed back over on the ferry to the centre of town and back over to the hotel to check-in before heading down to the hotel restaurant to dine for the evening, before an evening drink.

Mum decided to have an early night so instead I headed back out and over to Suomenlinna to take some more photos, particularly with the sunset on the Baltic and down at the stillness of the channel by the Kings Gate in the evening.

I spent quite a bit of time wandering over the island, and managed to end up missing the 22:20 ferry back over to Helsinki, which was a pain as at that point the ferries went from every 20 minutes to every 40, so I had a pretty long wait at the ferry terminal before I was able to head back over to the centre of town and then back on a tram through a very busy Friday night in Helsinki to the hotel and my bed.