Helsinki; Sunday, 02 June, 2024

We had a bit of a lie in and a late breakfast before heading back into town and the Fish Market to pick up another cruise boat, though this time it was for a 90 minute cruise around the islands to the East of the city.

The tour started by heading out to Suomenlinna before turning East and, after heading under a low bridge, out into the islands. After some time sailing round the islands the boat took the passage through the incredibly narrow Laajasalo canal, which the boat can only transit on certain days due to it’s narrowness and shallowness.

From the canal we headed back in towards the centre of Helsinki for a quick tour around the harbour before landing back at the Fish Market. The daily market was on with several stalls selling food and drink so we stopped for a late lunch there before heading round to the side of the Cathedral to pick up the open-top hop-on-hop-off bus to take the tour around the city.

The 90 minute tour took in a large part of the city and we were able to see many of the key sights of the city, going as far out as the Olympic stadium and Winter Gardens before returning back to the cathedral.

On the Senate square the summer pop-up bars were doing a brisk trade, so we decided to stop at one and enjoy the shade of the umbrellas, warmth of the sun and refreshment of a Finnish craft lager before heading over to the tram stop and catching the tram back to the hotel.

The restaurant at the hotel was closed on a Sunday night so we needed to find somewhere to have dinner, and it turned out there was a very nice traditional Finnish restaurant right by the Cathedral and Senate Square, so a little later we retraced our steps back to the city centre and went for dinner there.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel and mum decided to turn in for the night. I instead headed back out and took the tram and bus over to the Sibeliuksen puisto or Sibelius Park to have a look around and to take in the impressive monument to one of the countries most famous composers – Jean Sibelius.

Having wandered around the park and taken lots of photos I headed back to the hotel to turn in myself.