Europe Trip 2013: Visiting Tallinn

Two days ago I started looking around Tallinn and took the opportunity to have a quick walk around part of the Old Town centre, then get a Hop-On, Hop-Off bus for a look at the wider city area. I was particularly interested in seeing the Seaplane Harbour Museum, so I stopped off there also.

The Old Town city area was interesting, and you'll see from the pictures from that follow and old city wall, the central garden area as well as a city tram. Following this are are few general pictures from the bus tour and then from the Seaplane Harbour Museum.

I have to say the Seaplane Harbour Museum was a bit of a disappointment. I was expecting to see some seaplanes, but instead it was more of a maritime museum with only a single replica seaplane and lots of ships, a submarine, some tanks. There was a moving simulator plane which was a bit of fun... loops and rolls etc :-) At least the submarine was interesting, and I was able to walk through it. The "Lembit" was launched in 1936 and was built by Vickers and Armstrongs in Great Britain.

Anyway, here are some photos. My next post will have a lot more from the old town centre and some of the attractions in there... Enjoy!

Europe Trip 2013: Helsinki City

Yesterday I visited Helsinki City proper. I had held off until I found out how to get there and back to the hotel, which as it turned out was a simple case of catching a bus from the closest bus stop :-). The price for the bus was EUR4.50 each way which was not too bad for what is roughly a 30 minute trip, including both built up and relatively quite, almost rural, areas.

The city itself was quite nice. A lot of old buildings of course, but also some much newer areas in places. probably the best idea was when I saw a hop on, hop off bus. EUR25 is a bit expensive, but it did give a good look around the key parts of the city, including the ports, flash business and residential areas and key residential and political areas.

I can confirm that the Scottish Farmer's Family Restaurant [think about it...] is the same here as elsewhere :-).

One good score was the local Lutheran Cathedral - the major church in Finland and unlike many cathedrals elsewhere in Europe and the UK was free entry. There was a gift shop, but this was in a separate building so did not detract from the Cathedral itself.

Other things of note include the extensive tram network, the ports being close to much of the town, plenty of green spaces and everyone being very friendly. Actually, everywhere I have been people have been friendly, from the bus drivers to the hotel workers, from the supermarket workers to the random suit-wearing office worker from Finnair that said 'hello' at the airport earlier today [actually, he said something else, but when I said 'hello' he instantly switched to English :-)].

Anyway, here are the photos... I haven't labelled them individually - I wasn't taking notes. Just believe me when I say I enjoyed the visit and would be happy to come back again one day.

Europe Trip 2013: Welcome to Vantaa, part of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area

Today is my second full day in Vantaa [a city in its own right, and part of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area], having arrived two days ago at about 9:30pm from the UK via Copenhagen. I haven't done a huge amount of sightseeing as yet - I was a wee bit lazy yesterday, relaxing after a some exciting times with family in the UK and having stayed up to see that there was still some light at midnight [albeit only a little]. Mind you, as I right this it is about 9:30pm and still very light, and I might go for another wander at 10:30pm when it will only just be starting to get a little dull.

Today I did get out and took at 25 minute walk to the Finnish Aviation Museum [there will be more on this in my aviation blog in a few days] and had a bit of a look around the local area.

I've made two trips to the local shopping centre [5 minutes walk away], and I've planned my next big excursion, a bus ride into Helsinki proper tomorrow. That should be exciting!

Yesterday seemed to be a bit hot, but today's walk to the museum was pleasant with a gentle breeze and temps in the high teens [and up to 20 deg celsius today]. Tomorrow is supposed to get up to 21 degrees but with some rain - we'll see how that goes!

Anyway, a few pictures before I get right into the sightseeing tomorrow. First is a picture showing a road carved out between the bush - there seem to be a few of these around here - it's quite nice walking and occasionally provides a bit of shade. look also at the signs - almost all signs have Finnish and Swedish on them as both are official languages. Many have English as well and I've had no problems with communicating with anyone at all over here. In fact, everyone has been very friendly.

Second and third are of my hotel - the Hotel BONUS Inn... not sure what the "Bonus" bit is for, although it is pleasant enough. It perhaps needs a bit of a tidy, but it is clean and comfortable [I've included a video from the lift at the end]. Two of the best features in the hotel are a small kitchen in my room and very good wifi included.

Last picture is a picture of two sandals and a shoe. One of them is a rather tasty Finnish beer. The others would not taste so good :-(

Europe Trip 2013: Last days in the UK [for now]

After my visit to Portsmouth [see previous couple of posts], I had another 3.5 days in the UK before heading off to Finland. Those days were filled up with clay pigeon shooting with my father, lunch with the family, then the next day off to a local bird sanctuary [the name of which escapes me, along with the photos which I seem to have lost... darn!].

The final full day started with babysitting my 2 year old niece. This was perhaps the most scary part of the whole trip, but I think that little Ferne must take after me - she was very well behaved and seemed to enjoy herself a lot :-). We spent about 2.5 hours out of the house - mainly down at the local park playing, then came back for lunch. What's more, there was no soiled nappy, and so my [proud] record of never having changed a nappy continues! Happy niece = very happy uncle!

Later that day we headed down to the "beach pond", which is just like its name - a pond with a sandy beach. Very popular and a good place for a bit of a swim, although we did see a snake in the water once. My sister says it was nothing to worry about - that it was not poisonous - just a pity she didn't sound convincing... Oh well! Oh yeah - the picture of a swan? There was one of them there also. I guess maybe the snake was safe since the swan was still alive :-)

Anyway, here is a very short video of the shooting then at the beach pond, a picture from the babysitting [yes, I did feed her while we were out!] and the beach pond's resident swan. Enjoy!

Europe Trip 2013: Spinnaker Tower

Just 5 minutes walk from Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard is one of the newer, and most obvious, attractions, the Spinnaker Tower. This tower gives fantastic [although not 360 degree] views of Portsmouth, including much of the historic and later day port areas and as a "special treat" includes a large perspex floor section that can be walked on... no thank you!

Anyway, here are some photos from the tower. Included is a photo of the HMS Warrior [as in my last post]. Enjoy!

Europe Trip 2013: Portsmouth Historic Dockyard

I've been in the UK for a few days now [and tomorrow I head off to Finland], but I'm just getting around to putting up a couple of posts about what I've been up to...

On 3 June my father and I headed off to Portsmouth to see the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. As its name suggests, it is an old dockyard [they say about 800 years of history!] and [as far as I can tell] is part of the current Royal Navy base at Portsmouth.

There are a number of attractions, including the HMS Warrior from 1860, the HMS Victory [launch in 1765!], the May Rose [being preserved after hundreds of years under water], as well as a 45 minute harbour cruise, the National Museum of the Royal Navy and much more. Well worth the 25 pound entry fee - especially since tickets appear to be valid for a whole 12 months.

 

Anyway, here are a few photos. Top to bottom are:

Outside then inside of the HMS Warrior

Outside then inside then front on shot of the HMS Victory

The Mary Rose under restoration, including a preserved cannon

Various pictures from the harbour cruise, which included a lot of commentary about the royal Navy vessels and the current port