Day 2: TALLIN - HELSINKI - TALLIN
Saturday, April 7, 2012
The alarm sounds at 6 in the morning and the early risers return on our vacation 🙂 And today is for a very special reason and we have to take a Tallinn to Helsinki ferry in a few hours.
Although worse than the early risers we had in Kenya and Tanzania, I don't think we have any more.
The first thing we think is that today we cannot have breakfast at the hotel! Is that when we are on vacation, food becomes very important 🙂
At 7 in the morning we have to be in the Terminal D of the port of Tallinn to catch the ferry that takes us to Helsinki.
Today we will spend the day there. And we hope that after all the things that we have been told (that most have been bad) we like the city and enjoy it.
When we have looked through the window, we have had a big surprise: it is all snowy, but not with four flakes, it is all white! It was what we wanted, we have it! What better way to start the day? We even forget that we can't have breakfast!
Views from the window of our room before catching the Tallinn Ferry to Helsinki
We leave the Metropol Hotel and get on our way to the Terminal and plant ourselves there in less than 10 minutes.
There we meet the ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki huge waiting for us. Several months ago we booked tickets from home, so we don't have to worry now.
They cost us 72 euros both round trip.
More practical information to prepare your trip to Helsinki
- 10 essential places to visit in Helsinki
- 10 essential places to see in Finland
- The best free tours in Helsinki for free
We go to the windows, we collect our tickets (now we only had the payment receipt) and we are going to embark. The ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki is huge and inside there are bars, restaurants, shops ... it sure is the closest thing to a cruise we have ever seen.
We take a place next to a window and while it does not stop snowing we ask for a coffee and a paste to start toning the stomach ... today we will meet Helsinki the capital of Finland!
Having breakfast at theTallinn to Helsinki Ferry
The path of Tallinn to Helsinki ferry is 2 hours They fly by. The truth is that we can not get out of the ferry because it is cold that peels, so we take the opportunity to connect to the internet, as always for free 🙂 and go looking at the things we will visit.
Tallinn to Helsinki Ferry
Cold!!!!… Tallinn to Helsinki Ferry
Before docking we will go for a ride on the ferry and thus look for a good place for the return 🙂 On this tour we discover that there are “much better” places we have been to, so we already decided where on the ferry we will return tonight 🙂
One of the coffee shops ofTallinn to Helsinki Ferry
Tallinn to Helsinki Ferry
We arrive very punctual, at 9.30 and after disembarking we go straight to the bus stop that will take us to the center of Helsinki.
A good option if you do not have much time is to book the tourist bus that stops at the main attractions of the city.
Disembarking fromTallinn to Helsinki Ferry
We had read that we had to take 15 or 15b and the first one we see is 15, so we do not think about it and after paying the 2.70 euros per head of the ticket, in less than 5 minutes it leaves us next to the Helsinki bus station.
Before going to the cathedral we decided to go for a walk around the station to see what we see.
In the guide, they explain that the statues at the entrance of the station are very famous and have been reproduced in many places.
Helsinki station
The truth is that we are not too excited about this area, but still we do not stop taking photos and we find an environment that we somehow like. Perhaps it is because we intuit that we have a good day and that makes us see things with more enthusiasm.
Helsinki Images
After a walk around we decided that it is time to get on our way to the cathedral.
Helsinki corners
At the moment what we are seeing of the city we are liking. Perhaps it also influences that it was a very good day or that we had little hope that we would like it… we don't know, but we repeat that we like it.
After a few minutes walking through a street full of shops, we find the Helsinki city cathedral.
Immense and white ... snow white that we have left behind in Tallinn.
A good option to learn more about the history of the city is to book this guided tour in Helsinki and Suomenlinna Island or this Free Helsinki tour Free!
Helsinki Cathedral
At this moment we have already started taking all the photos that we have not taken since we arrived.
Helsinki Cathedral
Views from Helsinki Cathedral
Helsinki Cathedral
From here we go in search of the Helsinki Orthodox Cathedral and halfway we find one of the areas of the port full of bars with food, clothes, vegetables ... and stunning views of the area.
Helsinki
Mermaid Fountain
Now that the sun is starting to warm up, we really want to stay in this area walking.
Helsinki Harbor
We start to smell of food and go through a place where we see some sausages with potatoes that leave our eyes behind, so we do not think much and we stay to try them 🙂
Beach bars in the Port of Helsinki
Sausages with potatoes and “garlic sauce” Mmm… great !!
Walking through the port
Helsinki Orthodox Cathedral
Helsinki
Views path of the Orthodox Cathedral of Helsinki
A few minutes walk we have our next destination, which is seen from the area where we are.
Book the best rated tours and excursions in Spanish in Helsinki by travelers:
- Guided tour of Helsinki and Suomenlinna
- Helsinki tourist boat
- Panoramic tour of Helsinki
- Helsinki tourist bus
- Helsinki Canal CruiseMore tours and excursions in Helsinki here.
We arrived just in time to enter, because when we are inside we see that they begin to close the doors and do not let anyone else in.
Helsinki Orthodox Cathedral
Helsinki Orthodox Cathedral
Posing in front of Helsinki Orthodox Cathedral
Love Bridge. Helsinki
After this we go back to the commercial area and walk aimlessly through the streets of downtown.
Cold? Helsinki
The combination of architecture with fashion stores and luxury stores is "comfortable" and we like it.
Helsinki
We keep thinking about the number of people who told us that we would not like and how wrong they were.
Black and white
We enter a shopping center, Stockmann, which has told us that it is like El Corte Inglés to make some time before eating.
The Finnish English Court ...
Sculpture
Sibelius
About 3 o'clock in the afternoon and without too much hunger we go in search of somewhere to fill the stomach a little and we end up where we would never go in our city and we always go on our trips ... in a McDonalds!
We take advantage of the free Wi-Fi to rest while we write the newspaper and update the emails a bit.
We see that it is almost 4 in the afternoon, so we leave with the firm idea of taking a bus that takes us to the famous Helsinki Temppeliaukio Church, which is excavated in rock, but after checking the map, we decided that we can walk calmly ...
And get to work ... there we go. We pass by the Natural History museum and although we are left wanting to enter, we make good use of time and go straight to the church.
Museum of Natural History. Helsinki
It takes just over 15 minutes to arrive and once there we see that they close at 5 in the afternoon. We have been lucky!
Entrance of the Temppeliaukio Church in Helsinki
The truth is that at first it surprises, it attracts attention ... it even seems unreal, but after sitting there we began to look at the details and we were still more surprised ... We had never seen in a church electric blue wooden benches with fuchsia upholstery ...;)
Interior of the Temppeliaukio Church
When leaving the idea is again to take a transport to go to the Helsinki Sibelius Monument, but almost without realizing it we start walking and when we look at the map we see that we are very close. So we decided to continue and we thought about taking the tram on the descent.
This is one of the things we like to do on trips, to travel the cities on foot. It is the best way to discover them.
Road to the Sibelius Monument in Helsinki
We arrived at the monument and met few tourists, so we enjoyed it almost alone.
Sibelius Helsinki Monument
Sibelius Monument
We are there for a while and we start walking ... and it happens to us as before ... we have already walked enough to think that transportation is not worth taking.
We walk without haste, because we still have time until it is time to catch the ferry.
Icy sea. Do we have a soda?
We arrived at the station and stopped at a cafe to make time before dinner. Today the day is spreading and we have already done everything we had scheduled for the day.
We see that the bus to the port from where our ferry leaves at 9.30h departs at 19.53h so we decided to have dinner before.
When we go out we get a surprise, it is snowing and quite!
We see a "Vapiano" next door and although it is repetitive we are going to be safe and more when it comes to Italian food, which has always been our culinary loss.
Of course, when we look at the letter we can not stop opening our mouths: prices are 50% more expensive than in Tallinn!!
It seems incredible that they change so much from one country to another.
We ate a pizza and a bruchetta and seeing that it is almost time we are going to take the bus.
We return to pay the 5.40 euros of the bus and leave us at the door of the Ferry Terminal to Tallinn. Here the prices are noticeable as they are much higher than in Tallinn, not only in food, but also in transport.
This ferry has a stage ... we put ourselves in the sofa area to rest a little during the Ferry ride from Helsinki to Tallinn. When we were coming, we thought we would take “good place” for the return, but we had not fallen that it would be totally night and we could not see anything !!
It will be 2 hours of travel ... look we never want to know anything about any cruise trip, but this time we are enjoying this experience.
We arrived at the Metropol Hotel shortly after 12 pm, happy because as soon as we get off we see that it has snowed in Tallinn and much!
Tomorrow we hope to meet a city that gives us good morning full of snow.
Good night…
Day 3TALLIN
