15/07/08 - The sea fort of Suomenlinna.

After saying goodbye last night to Magnus who headed back to the
island with Luftsen, and this morning to Martina who's off on a
sailing trip down the Gulf of Bothnia, we were off into the city to do
some more exploring.

First point of business though was to find an all elusive store that
sold the right kind of cooking gas. The price here for a 3kg bottle
was €40 whereas in Ireland we'd paid €21! So we decided we weren't
that short after all, perhaps we'd have better luck in Estonia.

A quick stop was made at the very impressive Lutheran Church which
inside seemed quite small compared to the outside. We figured that
it's construction is probably similar to St Paul's cathedral in London
where the high dome on the outside is too big to hold itself up, so a
smaller and lower inside dome supports it.

Our trusty public transport ticket seem to take us eveywhere including
on a ferry out to the island of Suomenlinna (translates to Finland's
castle). This group of islands makes up what was the largest sea
fortress in the world. First built by Sweden in the 18th century,
bombed and damaged by the Russians in 1808, then rebuilt and improved
by the Russians over the next century until the newly independent
Finland nation took control in 1917. The weather was sunny and it was
a great place to get lost among the old streets, coastal paths, gun
emplacements, and tunnels weaving around the old military sights. The
locals too seemed to be enjoying the weather and were sunbathing,
while we tourists trudged about.
Also on one of the islands was a Church/ Lighthouse. Makes sense
really - if you're going to build a tall building, stick a light and a
cross on top killing two birds with one stone.

Back on the mainland, and weary from all our walking we caught a tram
to the 1952 Olympic stadium. We couldn't go inside, but got a glimpse
of the track before checking out the statue of 9 times Olympic Gold
medalist, the Flying Finn, Paavo Nurmi. Marea knew who he was, but
not I. Over three Olympics from 1920 to 1932 he numerous medals, and
during his time broke 33 world records (I presume breaking his own
records) in middle/long distance running.

With our last ounce of energy we stopped by the National Museum of
Finland finding out that we had come at the one time in the week that
the museum was free!! So a quick loop following the Swedish and
Russian reigns was done - then it was time to head 'home' for yet
another yummy meal thanks to Cina!!