After a good night sleep, we were back in breakfast by 8.50am. The scrambled egg was only a 9/10 today. We remembered to take our own tea bags down with us to have a non-complicated cuppa to get us going for the day.
After cleaning our teeth, we wandered through the quiet streets down to the marina. Due to Karen’s protestation’s which in truth were quite valid I decided not to buy myself an authentic sauna hat from one of the market stalls. I had tried to argue I could use it in the Hot Tub, but she pointed out we switch it off in the winter. Instead, we headed straight to the Sumoenlinna Ferry, for which our metro day pass covered us.
Sumoenlinna Island is touted as Finland’s loveliest island and was just 10 minutes ferry ride away. We were not too sure what to expect but thought we would have a nice ferry ride out on deck in the morning sunshine.
We alighted with everyone else and followed the crowd along and up the cobbled road. Essentially the island and two adjoining islands are now a designated UNESCO site of a fortress. 800 people still live on the island although we didn’t feel as though we saw any of them.
The fortress buildings were just mildly interesting from when the islands were Russian then Swedish and then Finnish controlled, but the whole place just felt like everyone had upped and left it all abandoned.
We found the visitors centre which was just Ok and decided to complete the mile long walk to the end of the 3rd island where we found a few cannons. And that was about it really. It was a nice walk. As for it being Finland’s loveliest island, I would hate to see the others. I wonder if the title is just a problem with translation though.
Walking back, we stopped in Pipers Park Café which admittedly had some tables set outside on a small hillock overlooking the Gulf of Finland which was quite picturesque.
We carefully made our way back to the ferry along the cobbled roads and caught the 1.20pm ferry back – which was just as well as our day pass ran out at 2.40pm.
On the way back we noticed again the natural Finnish introverted nature that we had been told about. We had a spare seat next to us, but people chose to stand instead. Apparently, it is the same on all modes of traffic. Fin’s hate making small talk anywhere and will never speak on transport or sit next to someone in case they start talking. The opposite applies in Saunas where they lose all their inhibitions along with their clothes.
Once back on the mainland we wandered around the market and then went into a couple of the usual tat souvenir shops, but no purchases were made. Karen now needed a sit down for a while, so we sat and ate a banana sitting in Esplanadi Park known as the Finnish Champs Eylsee’s.
After a quick whizz around Lidl to get snacks for a train journey later we headed into the train station to only Starbucks Karen had seen to get her a ‘proper’ caffeine fix. She even managed to get a proper tea for me.
The plan was then to get a late lunch/early dinner at the Aussie Gastropub but we arrived too late for lunch and too early for dinner and so we went back to the Hotel instead.
I had paid the extra money for a very late hotel check out at 6pm and we both agreed it had been a good idea as we could leave our luggage and have a base to go back for a rest, shower and cuppa.
At 5.45pm we checked out and walked to the Burger King opposite the station where we both had a cheeky Steakburger which we enjoyed. After this we walked across to the station to find the platform for our overnight sleeper train up to Rovaniemi on the Arctic Circle.
Our excitement grew as we sat waiting for the Santa Claus Express to pull in. Disappointingly it looked nothing like The Polar Express I had hoped for with Tom Hanks as the guard.
We had paid the small extra charge for a private cabin upstairs and after having our tickets validated were directed to the bijoux cabin. Karen told me off for calling my upper bunk a coffin. The cabin was small but perfectly formed. Karen was annoyed as she thought I had told her we got a shower until I demonstrated how with a pull of a switch the toilet transformed into the shower.
After watching out of the windows for a while admiring the beautiful red sunset as we pulled away, we decided to explore the restaurant carriage. This was heaving and with an almost unlike Finnish party atmosphere at one end with large groups of ‘younger’ people. We grabbed a table as a couple and joined them with our cuppas. In the end though Karen was tired and ready for bed.
In a relay we got ready and then I laid for a while on the upper bunk (which I had been allocated as Karen could not climb up to). The train was rocking and rolling and so we will see how much sleep we get.
