APRIL 27 - The sun is up again before 6 am, and hardly a cloud in the sky. Feeling like we are getting really lucky with weather, get 2-day tram public transport tickets (good for all metro, tram, but, and ferry rides) and head down to the Market Square and the local ferry terminal.
Take the ferry to the Suomenlinna Fortress.
This fortress was originally constructed by the Swedish starting in 1748 on the Susiluodot Islands south of Helsinki, when the Kingdom of Sweden reigned supreme over the Baltic shorelines. The name was originally Viapori. It was really battle tested only in 1908, when it was attacked during the Russo-Swedish war. For reasons not fully explained, the Swedish military gave it up after a short skirmish and the Russians took control.
1808 began the Russian occupation of Finland, which was called the autonomous Grand Duchy of Russia. The fortress was expanded to three nearby islands, now all connected by bridges. It suffered decades of neglect until the Crimean War (1853-56), when an Anglo-French fleet bombarded it and caused serious damage.
Viapori later saw action in the stirrings of Finnish independence when a group of revolutionaries took it over briefly (and quickly crushed) in 1906. During WWI it was considered an important defense for St. Petersburg, though it saw no wartime action. The dissolution of the Russian Empire in 1917 brought independence for Finland, and the fortress has since been renamed Suomenlinna (Castle of Finland). There is still a naval academy present but other than that, it is a tourist attraction and a World Heritage Site.
A bit about the above photo. I was told that the salinity of the waters in the Baltic Sea are lower than normal, which might explain why swans are in it. After checking I can now verify that the salinity of all the Baltic waters around Finland are significantly less saline, at 2-7 PSU (Practical Salinity Units). Average global ocean salinity is 35 PSU, which converts to about 3.5% dissolved salt. The reason? Large freshwater input from numerous rivers out of Finland, Sweden, and Russia, plus very restricted circulation with larger bodies of salt water to the west due to the narrow gap between Sweden and Denmark.
Back in town, make our way to the National Museum of Finland, on Mannerheimintie. EUR 15 per ticket (kids free), this turned out to be good value as it covers all of Finnish history with a free audio guide and plenty of interactive displays. We spent most of our time in the Stone Age through to the Viking settlements. Human habitation can be traced back to the glacial retreat of the last Ice Age. Finland has been growing since, due to isostatic rebound. Some of the items shown were reminiscent of what we saw in the Dublin archeological museum, including the ritual bog burials.
There was a lot of great information about post-independence history, up to about 2017. My favorite in this part was the listening room, where ten different headphones were set up, all playing different Finnish metal bands.
