Goodbye Stockholm! Hello Turku, Finland – Saturday, July 23
Today is debarkation day, and we were up early as we need to make our way from our Viking Ocean Ship to our Viking Ferry. Not the same company, but located nearby, our ferry takes us from Stockholm, through the archipelago and over to Turku, Finland where we will spend the night in a hotel. When I made the reservation, I was not sure how easy it would be to get from the cruise ship to the ferry terminal, but I hoped for the best. My original plan was to take an overnight ferry to Helsinki, but Taija recommended doing this alternative indicating that it was a more scenic and comfortable trip than going across the ocean to Helsinki. She tells us that Turku is a charming town and was the first capital of Finland.
Wikipedia tells me that Turku is Finland's sixth largest city and is located on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River. The region was originally called Suomi (Finland), which later became the name for the whole country.
Pope Gregory IX first mentioned the town Aboa in his Bulla in 1229 and the year is now used as the foundation year of Turku. It is the oldest city in Finland, and served as the most important city of the eastern part of the Kingdom of Sweden (modern-day Finland). After the Finnish war, Finland became an autonomous grand duchy of the Russian Empire in 1809, and Turku was made the capital of the grand duchy. However, Turku lost its status as capital only after three years in 1812, when Tsar Alexander I of Russia decided to move the capital to Helsinki. It was only after the last great fire in 1827 that most governmental institutions were moved to Helsinki along with the Royal Academy of Turku (Turun Akatemia) founded in 1640, which then became the University of Helsinki, thus consolidating Helsinki's position as the new capital. Turku continued to be the most populous city in Finland until the end of the 1840s, and it remains the regional capital and an important business and cultural center and port.
Because of its long history, it has been the site of many important events, and has extensively influenced Finnish history as the former capital city. Along with Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia (which we were supposed to have visited, but didn't thanks to Putin's war), Turku was designated the European Capital of Culture for 2011. In 1996, it was declared the "Christmas City" of Finland. Also, Turku has been officially declared the Food Capital of Finland, because it holds a number of Finland's oldest, highest quality restaurants alongside a historically famous fish market, held twice a year. Turku's canteen and café culture has often been compared to French food culture, which is why Turku has also been perceived as "Paris of Finland"; this is also the reason for the Swedish saying: "Varför Paris, vi har ju Åbo!" ("Why Paris, we have Turku!")
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As I mentioned yesterday, I had checked out the location for us to check in for our ferry to Turku, so it was an easy (although early) morning. We enjoyed a 6:15 final meal in the World Cafe and returned to our cabin one last time to pick up our luggage. We could have had it picked up last night and taken to a big white tent on shore, but Jeff opted to do it ourselves. Down the gangway we went and then out onto a sidewalk for a short (about two-tenths of a mile) walk to the Viking Ferry Line. We picked up our tickets and headed for our cabin on the port side with a great view as we moved through the archipelago. It was a grey day, but amazingly beautiful all the same. It's hard to capture the scenery, but there are thousands of islands - some no bigger than a small yard; others large enough for a village; and still others large enough for several towns.
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| A cloudy, rainy start to our day with just hints of blue sky |
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| It amazed us how close we were sailing to the hundreds of tiny islands dotting the sea! |
It was interesting to see ferries from the three different companies making their way past us. I could have chosen the Silja Line, but I was glad I didn't since we would have had to figure out how to get from our ship across town to where Silja docks.
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| I loved capturing this flock of swans swimming not to far from our ferry! |
We had arranged to have a meal on board at the buffet, so at about 11 a.m. we went looking for the buffet. All we can say is what a difference between the two "Viking" experiences. On the one had you have a cruise ship that accommodates 940 passengers and 420 crew members with NO children aboard, and on the other hand you have a ferry that can carry 4,000 passengers and was filled with young people and many, many, many children - running, laughing, screaming, crying! It made my head hurt! That said, there were several very adorable youngsters, and Jeff can never seem to pass up an opportunity to take photos of them.
We had a small table for two reserved, and enjoyed a lovely meal - salad, some roast beef atop a potato gratin with a red wine sauce and accompanied by carrots, parsnips, and potatoes. We also had salads, and, of course some wine. When we had had our fill, we strolled back through the throngs of children and into the relative quiet of our cabin for the remainder of our journey.
It was fascinating to me that you could go to the "beverage bar" and find wine "on tap" - red, white, and rose all available for the pouring. We enjoyed our lunch and then headed back to our far more quiet and peaceful cabin to settle in for the rest of our trip. Jeff pulled the bunk down, and we took a bit of a nap. I did some reading, and before we knew it, it was time to get ready to leave the ferry and head for our hotel.
When we got to Turku after a very long day, we were amongst the first to get off the ship, and as we went down the gangway, we looked to our left and spied a long line of taxis. I think we managed to snag the very first taxi and headed to our hotel - the Hotel Kakola, which I had booked online because it was reasonably priced and had very good reviews.
At some point before we left the cruise ship I had looked the hotel up again to get the address and discovered that in its former life the building had been a prison! It was a rather clever renovation that purposefully retained some of the "prison ambience" (somber colors, chains hanging from the ceiling in the bar/hanging out area, bars on the windows). But the room and bed were very comfortable, and we both thought it kind of a cute renovation.
We checked in, dumped our bags, and headed back downstairs for something to eat after a very long day of travel. We shared a pizza - which was delicious - and then headed back upstairs for some sleep before beginning the next phase of our journey - car rental and a drive from Turku to Ojakkala and Taija!
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