Helsinsky: Urban Jungle & Views from a Far
This article is part of a series ”My Helsinsky and then some. Or why city-dwellers rarely if ever bother finding out what their city really has to offer besides the downtown core.”
Urban Jungle
Uutela – Welcome to the Jungle
Views from a Far
Kasakallio – Over the Hills and Far Away
If you haven’t been to Koli National Park, this hill in the former Sipoo region works as a pretty phenomenal substitute (provided that you apply some deliberate cropping). Where would we be without The School of Esoteric Geography? Lost, I tell you. Forget pscyhotherapy, what you really need is peripherytherapy.
Taivaskallio – The Sky is Fallin’
When strolling in Puu-Käpylä, don’t forget to check out the scenery from this near by hill from time to time.
Kulosaari Church Bell Tower – For Whom the Bells Toll
This highest point in Kulosaari used to be the place where Augustin Ehrensvärd surveyed the construction works of what was to become the latest and greatest Swedish naval defense system on Eastern Swedish periphery, Sveaborg.
Today it’s a top attraction for most Finnish and foreign tourists after having arrived in town. Only today Finns prefer to call it Suomenlinna which literally means Finland’s Castle even though it can be described at best a citadel.
If you are truly after castles, then you owe it to yourself to go and see Olavinlinna, in Savonlinna, which is some 5 hours east by train from Helsinsky.
Now, there’s a castle that looks the way a real castle ought to. But rather than digging the usual moat around the castle premises, this one is actually standing tall on a small island on a lake.
Don’t get me wrong. That cinderalla castle, Neuschwangau, at the foot of the German Alps in Bavaria, Füssen looks fantastic but it’s still all make-believe. The best part about it is the route up actually. And I do mean all the way from the valley. By your own two feet of course. I promise you it will be worth it.
Picture of Neuschwangau Castle taken some 10 years after it was constructed.
A reprint of the original photochrom print. Photoglob AG, Zürich, Switzerland. Circa 1890-1905.
It never had any other purpose than trying to satisfy some random king’s personal fantasies, and apparently, much later on, Walt Disney’s as well. The king insisted on spending a small fortune on it – all the while the real economy would not really have allowed it to take place – yet still failed to have it properly finished/furnished.
The city of Savonlinna is one of my favorite places in all of Finland, although you can’t really go wrong wherever you go in the eastern lake district. It is all pretty pretty. Staying in Punkaharjun Valtionhotelli (Punkaharju State Hotel), Finland´s first travellers´ hotel dating from 1845, smack middle in Punkaharju ridge, is a pretty sweet deal if anyone asks me. If I could afford to spend the whole summer there being pampered by fine food and outstanding kayaking and swimming, I’d do it in a heart beat. And in 30 minutes by train I’d be in Savonlinna enjoying opera and local pancakes. :)
I can really appreciate Savonlinna’s compactness: you can walk everywhere you need to go.
If you walk no more than 5 minutes from the downtown to either North or South, you’ll reach a lake. When you reach a waterline in these necks of the woods, you can most likely relieve yourself of your clothing then and there and just head on straight for the kill. No beaches necessary here (even though there are).
I tell ya, the surroundings just do not get any better than that. If you’re into kayaking, swimming and/or fishing then this is heaven on Earth for you.
However, if you are pressed for time, the second best alternative to seeing Finnish castles would be to take a train up north to Hämeenlinna. One way should take about an hour.
Kivinokka and the entire Bay of Old Town
– – – to be continued – – –