Two days, two capital cities, two contries

And so we came to the end of our Scandinavian adventure with the last of the four capital cities. We had arrived in Helsinki, Finland. Like we have with most of the big cities, we parked up outside of the city and travelled to the centre by local transport. We had chosen a harbourside spot on a little island right by the capital. It was really perfect and after a days work we were ready to walk to the local metro station which was fifteen minutes away. The weather in Finland has been like Scotland, unpredictable and mostly wet. The forecast was bad but we had a ferry booked the next day and had no choice but to make our plans and go regardless of the weather. In actual fact, on the day of the trip the weather was great.

On our arrival in Helsinki centre we walked up the metro steps and emerged into the sunshine. They certainly knew how to build railway stations back in the day.

Helsinki main railway station

I was keen to compare Helsinki with Stockholm in terms of their people on plinths and while I have to say that they had their fair share of plinths nothing outdoes Stockholm in terms of plinthiness. I think Stockholm is the plinthiest city in the world and I would be interested to find out if I am wrong. I have included a few fine examples of Helsinki's offerings below.

Firstly we have a rather large example of a man in casual seated pose. This man is Alexis Kivi. Who? I hear you ask. If I had to "phone a friend" to find someone who has even heard of Alexis Kivi, I would choose Karen Moffat. I think she will know at least something about the guy. Anyway it turns out that he was the first guy to publish a novel in the Finnish language. 

He wrote Seitsemän veljestä (Seven Brothers) in 1870, the first significant novel in Finnish, depicting rural brothers and balancing realism, romanticism, and humour. It is now apparently a cornerstone of national literature.

When I think of the "little people" I would think of Ireland and the lore of the leprechauns but as it would happen we were extremely lucky to not only see one of Finland's little people, but we also got the camera out in time to steal a photograph before she dived into the harbour. A rare sighting indeed.

The little mermaid

Onwards we strode passing countless beautiful buildings all of which might have merited a spot in the blog but which have not made the editors cut. I thought this boat, the Relandersgrund, looked rather striking so I took the picture. Here is what I found out about it. 

Built 1886–1888 at the W:m Crichton & Co shipyard in Turku, she’s 27.1 m long, 6.7 m wide, and displaced around 168 tonnes. Originally powered by tugboats and equipped with sails, oil lanterns, foghorns, and—later—electric lighting. She served as a lightship at Relanderinmatala near Rauma for nearly 30 years until 1917, when a crew of revolutionary Russian sailors sailed her across the Gulf of Finland and scuttled her near the southern coast of Finland. Raised and repaired in Tallinn, she returned to Finland in 1918 under the name Reserv I, later Varamajakka 1, as a reserve lightship. From 1937 to 1978, she served as the survey ship Vuolle, mapping lakes including Saimaa. After prospects of scrapping in 1978 and 1980s, she was rescued, refurbished, and launched as a summer villa-restaurant in Kotka under the name Rellu. Arrived 2005, moored at Meritullintori, wintered in Suomenlinna for maintenance, and reopened summer 2006 as a café and restaurant.

We were wandering on our merry way towards the cathedral when we happened across this Volvo car with the registration number MR 1. It is used as a restaurant advert but it was in remarkable condition.

Volvo MR 1

On our way towards the catherdal we also spotted another fine building with another fine POP. The plinth bears the name J V Snellman and here is once again what I have found out for you. Once again you can skip the smaller print if it is little to no interest to you who he is.

In Helsinki’s Kruununhaka district, the seated bronze statue of Johan Vilhelm (J. V.) Snellman sits prominently in front of the Bank of Finland building on Snellmaninaukio. Born in 1806, Snellman was a philosopher, statesman, journalist, and key figure in the Fennoman movement, advocating for Finnish national identity and language. As Minister of Finance in 1865, he introduced Finland's own currency, the markka—symbolically tying his legacy to the Bank of Finland. The pedestal bears deliberate shrapnel damage from Soviet bombings in February 1944, left intact as a somber reminder of WWII’s impact on Helsinki. This small but visible detailing often goes unnoticed by passersby.

Bank of Finland

At last we arrived at the magnificent cathedral looking forward to the amazing frontage as it overlooks senate square. This first image is not from the front but is from the side. The more observant of you might notice that the right hand tower looks a little bit different from the left hand one and you would be correct. The whole front of the building is currently shrouded in scaffolding as it is repaired. The scaffolding is in turn covered with a cloth material on which is printed an artist impression of what it looks like. Better than crappy sack cloth I suppose.

Cathedral from the side mostly real

Here it is from the front or at least here is what it roughly looks like except for the top of the two towers. They are in reality dome shaped like the big dome in the middle. 

Covered for restoration!

My final offering in the people on plinths series from Helsinki is the magnificent Tsar Alexander II who stands majestically in senate square. He was considered "the good Tsar" and so still retains a place in Finnish history. 

Alexander II (1818–1881) was both Emperor of Russia and Grand Duke of Finland. He championed several Finnish reforms granting Finland greater autonomy, endorsing Finnish as an official language, and initiating the country's own currency and railways. For this, Finns fondly remember him as the "good tsar".

Tsar Alexander II ("The good Tsar")

We elected, since it was such a beautiful day, not to head back to the station for the train but to walk back to the motorhome. The journey took us over bridges, through parkways, onto an island then off the other side and eventually "home". A total walk, including the city tour, of almost 15 km. 

Although it is the end of our Scandinavian journey, I am delighted to say not yet the end of our epic trail. You may recall I mentioned a deadline with a ferry? The next day it was up bright and early (5am) to catch the 7:30 am ferry to Estonia. Everything went smoothly on the deserted streets of Helsinki as the sat nav directed us effortlessly to the ferry terminal. We arrived at just after 5:30am. perfect timing. The checkins were not quite open but we had planned to have breakfast in the checkin queue while we waited. One of the joys of a motorhome is that you can use the facilities and have a cup of tea whenever you want to. There were about five queues where the overhead gantry indicated that this was the queue for Tallinn. The sign indicated that the checkin booths were 2.5 metres wide and our motorhome is 2.4 metres wide. That is only 100 mm (4 inches for those in old money!!!) to spare. It also said 3 metres high and I was a tad concerned due to "the incident" but I figured it must be OK. It looked higher than that. I joined a queue behind another motorhome. I thought if he gets through so will we. It was a rather tight squeeze requiring every bit of concentration to guide it through the narrow booth but I made it. 

I guess we have all been there, but you know when you have to choose a queue and you are not sure which one to join and you finally decide only to find that some person in front is having an "issue" checking in. Well that's exactly what happened. people around us were checking in effortlessly whilst we were going nowhere fast. The guy in front of the motohome that was in front of us was having an issue. After a while a big red X appeared over our checkin queue and a rather grumpy security person (you might be grumpy too at 5:30am directing happy holiday makers who have no idea where to go when it is patently obvious to you where they should go) indicated that I should reverse back and join one of the other queues. Hey ho, they won't leave without us so we had no choice but to reverse back. We joined the next queue and soon we were approaching the narrow booth. Then guess what? Go on guess, you'll never believe it. the guy in front of the guy in front of me had an "issue". Just when I was getting the Ally McCoist "de ja vou feeling all over again" the car started to move. The "issue" had finally been resolved and through we went.

Once through the booth I followed the vehicle in front and came to a gate where there was a much less grumpy, in fact I would say a rather cheery chappy all things considered, guy directing each vehicle into a lane. "Lane 8" he said chirpily. I looked quickly lanes 1-7 then over to the next section lanes 9 - 12. But he had clearly said lane 8. Where the hell is lane 8? I had of course to check and he said again, "Lane 8". So there are two sections going up each side of a massive structure. On the left are lanes 1 - 7. On the right it clearly says lane 9-12. Now I am sure it was probably obvious to you that what you have to do is first enter lane SEVEN then after you drive half way up the lane lane EIGHT suddenly appears to your right in all its empty glory. Anyway we were finally in our lane waiting to board the ship and just a little over two hours later we had added our thirteenth country to the trip. We were in Estonia.

Since it was still early morning we headed to our campsite, did a bit of shopping and had a bite of lunch before we were off to explore our second capital city in two days. Welcome to Tallinn

The campsite we had chosen was about 5 km outside of the city and it is connected by a cycle/walkway so we decided to walk it. The weather was not fantastic but it was fair. A bit chilly so we donned our jackets and we were off to see what we would find.

The first thing to note is that it is not a particularly significant city for people on plinths (thank goodness for that I hear you exclaim). There are a few but it is not noticeably plinthy. I did however find a really interesting person on a plinth, significant due to the size. The plinth is very large compared to the person adorning the said plinth. You can see what I guess is supposed to be his shadow on the plinth. I tried to find out who he is and why he is there but alas I was somewhat unsuccessful in my quest

Small guy on large plinth

Angel on a plinth

One of the most impressive buildings we found was the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.

Alexander Nevsky (1221–1263) was a Russian prince and military hero who defended medieval Russia against invading Swedes and Germans. He was canonized as a saint in the Russian Orthodox Church. The cathedral was built while Estonia was part of the Russian Empire, intended as a symbol of Russian imperial power and Orthodox dominance over the predominantly Lutheran Estonian population. After Estonia gained independence in 1918, there were serious discussions about demolishing the cathedral because it symbolized foreign oppression. During the Soviet occupation (1940–1991), it fell into disrepair but was later restored. Today, while still politically sensitive to some, it is protected as a historical and architectural landmark and widely visited by tourists.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral (Aleksander Nevski katedraal)

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral (Aleksander Nevski katedraal)

Many traditional Estonian buildings are wooden and this whole building is pretty typical. It looked as though it is no longer used.

We stumbled upon a kind of town square where there are lots of stalls selling a variety of things. We perused the offerings and bought our usual souvenir to mark our visit. Lovely atmosphere. The stall holders for the most part were either dressed in traditional medieval costumes or the local idea of sartorial elegance is a little out of date.

I thought I might try to get myself a gig here as the band played a mixture of traditional and not so traditional songs on what appeared to be traditional and not so traditional instruments.

The band

The ladies of the sewing bee get together in traditional outfits and practice traditional crafts whilst chatting about whatever such ladies chat about.

The sewing bee

Those of you who have loyally followed the blog, and if any of you are still reading this mammoth episode, will no doubt remember the tale of the pizza vending machines in France. Well, sadly we have not found another one here although we did spot a picture of one in Finland beside one of the campsites that we eventually ruled out. It was a tough decision not to go there for we wanted to try out Finnish vended pizza. However I digress. What we found all over Tallinn is not pizza vending but coffee vending. They must love their Illy's coffee here because there are vending machines all over the place.

Coffe vending

I am sure you must be as exhausted reading this as we were after another 15 km day. We were glad to get back, get our feet up and relax. If you ARE still reading this then it was worth the time it took to type it.

Have a great day, let's see where tomorrow takes us.

D, S and MJ