Now with added rain

Reykjavík

We woke up extra early as we were still adjusting to the time difference of 3 hours with Finland. The forecast wasn’t good with rain predicted for the next two days. We drove into town and figured out how to pay for parking, which has been a challenge at times with so many different places using different apps and systems. 

We then battled the ferocious wind to join the city walking tour. Reykjavík is only small but has a really interesting history of how people came to live on Iceland. We learnt that they have an app that can trace the ancestry of an Icelander all the way back to the first settler, it comes in handy to check how closely related two people are before they agree to date .... and people think Tasmania has a problem! We were also told that Iceland is the third windiest place on earth, though the other two aren’t inhabited.

The showers had turned into rain by the time the walking tour ended so we spent the afternoon at Perlan, an interesting dome shaped, nature exploratorium which was very popular, as expected given the weather.

They should call it Windland

Helsinki (Finland) to Reykjavík (Iceland)

Staying at an airport hotel really makes a difference when you need to be up at 5am, and we were quite surprised that the airport was so busy so early. The flight to Reykjavík was almost 4 hours but with the time difference we arrived at 8.30am. 

The cool air was a bit of a shock after leaving 27 yesterday, it really wasn’t that cold, but as Iceland was just a "maybe" when we had left home we hadn't brought much cold weather gear with us. The wind was really strong, and we were warned at the car rental to be careful opening the car doors as the wind could snap them right off - not sure if this was meant to be a joke, he sounded serious though. 

The international airport is about 45 minutes from the city so we decided to stop along the way for a coffee, only to discover most places, including shops in large shopping centres, didn’t open until 11am, fortunately we did find a coffee place that was open. 

We drove around the harbour edge in Reykjavik, visited a few spots including an old lighthouse, as well as the local "beach" and thermal baths, where there were quite a few people, but we decided not to join them. 

We knew that Iceland was expensive but were still a little surprised to pay AU$25 for 2 small coffees and a scone. Next stop was the supermarket, time to stop eating out and do more self catering. With the weather so cold and windy at least we didn't feel like we were missing anything by staying at home.

Up the river

Helsinki/Porvoo

We checked out of our Helsinki hotel, leaving our luggage in storage, and headed down to the port to catch a boat to Porvoo. The boat was due to leave at 10am and we searched for a coffee but all the cafes we walked past didn’t open until 12 on Sundays, strange!

As the weather was so warm and the port area had been so busy yesterday we were worried that the boat would be very crowded. However that wasn't the case, we had plenty of room and a good view on the three and a half hour trip along the coast past lots of islands, and eventually up the river to Porvoo.

Porvoo was very nice with many cafes and restaurants lining the river. We had lunch by the river then wandered the old town for a while before catching the bus back to Helsinki. 

The bus trip was only 50 minutes but pretty warm without air conditioning, understandable though as it’s not something they would need much in this area.

We collected our luggage from our hotel and caught the train to Helsinki airport where we checked into the airport Hilton for the night, as we had a very early start the next day for our flight to Iceland. Time to put away our shorts and t-shirts, and probably our tans as well!

Mobile sauna anyone?

Helsinki

Amazing August weather today (for Finland in late August), there was an extreme heat announcement which is required whenever the forecast is expected to be over 25.

We headed towards the wharf area for a quick bite before our walking tour, managing to find along the way what could be the world's smallest escalator.

The wharf area was very busy compared to a few days ago, maybe because it’s the weekend and possibly the last good weather for many months.

Today’s walking tour was one of the better ones, with a little history, culture and everyday Finnish lifestyle, always a good mix. We always learn things on walking tours we would never figure out on our own. For example, near the wharf there's a normal looking ferris wheel, however we were told to look for the one carriage which is different to the rest, as it’s a sauna carriage! Another one is that some street corners have pictures of animals, such as a tiger or a unicorn. These were used back when much of the population were illiterate to signify street locations.

After the tour we visited a few of the places mentioned in the tour, one was the Helsinki library, which was a very popular spot.

Another was the Silent Chapel, which we must say looked better from the outside than the inside.

New northern record

Rovaniemi to Helsinki

We were leaving Rovaniemi today and had a bit of time before we had to return the car to the airport, so we decided to go for a drive out of town, and head north to see how far past the Arctic Circle we could get. We eventually stopped by a picturesque lake and turned around, having reached 66.726405° N.

After arriving back in Helsinki we caught the train to the same hotel we had used a few days ago, it was pretty easy as we knew our way around now. We headed back to the bar strip we had frequented earlier for a drink and dinner before calling it a night.

Crossing the Arctic Circle

Rovaniemi

We started the day where we had finished at 1am at the Arktikum, this time buying tickets and seeing the exhibitions about the Arctic Circle, animals, history and way of living. All very interesting and so different from anywhere we’ve been before.

It was then on to meet Santa Claus at his village right on the Arctic Circle, and sure enough there he was sitting in his chair by the fire…. fiddling on his phone. He told us how hot it was whenever he came to Australia and let K sit at his desk full of letters from children. 

After having our photo taken we wandered around the village until we found the Arctic Circle, now we have been across both the Antarctic and Arctic Circles. Overhead at the same time there was a fighter jet practicing some amazing manoeuvers that were incredible to watch. 

K wandered in to the Santa shopping village and in one of the shops the owner got irate with her taking a photo of a $5 Christmas tree bauble. He ordered her to delete it, which she did and said he would delete everything off her phone. He tried to grab the phone, grabbed her by the arm and swore at her! The other shop owners were quick to come to her aid, they called the Santa's Village manager, who then called the police. The manager and other shop owners were very keen to get K to lay criminal charges as they said this man had a history of this behavior, had been spoken to about it and it reflected poorly on Santa’s Village. K was interviewed by the police and we left just as the police went in to speak to the shop owner. 

Even though it was beautiful weather we decided not to chase the Northern lights that evening as reports were that conditions weren't favourable. We'll try to chase them a little later in our trip.

Northern Darks

Helsinki to Rovaniemi (Lapland) 

We left our big suitcases in storage at our Helsinki hotel and took a flight to spend a few days in Rovaniemi in Lapland, right on the Arctic Circle. 

We picked up a car at the Rovaniemi airport and drove the 10 minutes to town. It’s a very small town on a lake that had the feel of a ski village out of season. 

We visited the tourist centre to get some advice on seeing the Northern Lights. We were told we had to wait for it to get really dark about midnight and if the sky was clear and we headed north away from the town’s light pollution there might be a chance. There have been reports of sightings recently but as it’s the very beginning of the season there's a bit of luck involved. 

Even though sunset was at 9pm it was still light at 10:30 so we went to sleep and set the alarm for midnight. We got in the car and drove aimlessly out of town struggling to find a road without street lights. We went back to the Arktikum museum in the town centre which also was supposed to have a good view, but no luck there either, so it was back to bed.

War is hell

Tallinn (Estonia) to Helsinki (Finland)

Back to the docks for another ferry trip, this time just a short two hour voyage to Helsinki.

It really brought home that the war in Ukraine was very close to us when immediately on disembarking we saw signs directing people who were fleeing Ukraine, and outside the terminal there were Red Cross people with signs in Ukrainian. 

Transport to our hotel was easy, the tram left from the ferry port and stopped practically at the door. Helsinki was warmer than we expected, and also seemed more compact than the other Scandinavian capitals we'd visited.

We wandered around the main squares and the bay area, all just a short walk from our hotel, then headed back to sit at one of the many bars and enjoy the summer weather.

Good tour!

Tallinn

Today's walking tour of Tallinn was fabulous, one of the best tours we've been on. The guide was very engaging and entertaining, and gave us a good mix of historical, cultural and current information, such as the country's relationship with Russia and the local Russian population. 

Superspreader alert

Tallinn

We slept exceptionally well in our cute cabin, you could barely tell we were on a ship as it was so smooth. We wandered to one of the restaurants for a coffee and waited for the ship to reach Tallinn.

We were scheduled to disembark at 10.45am so we dutifully caught the lift to the exit point about 10 minutes before that, only to find that most of the other 2,300 guests on the ship had the same idea. We were all crammed together like sardines waiting for the single exit door to open, so we both decided masks would be needed here, even though none of the other participants in this potential super spreader event thought so.

Tallinn had a very quiet laidback vibe but this could be because it was Sunday afternoon. The prices were noticeably cheaper than we had experienced in Denmark and Sweden, so we took advantage of that to have a nice steak dinner. 

We had a modern apartment with balcony and a washing machine, always a bonus when travelling for long periods, so we took the opportunity to wash nearly every bit of clothing we had.