The Helsinki Card
Story by Paul Hughes - 2019
Whether you are visiting Helsinki for just a few hours, a day, a week or even longer there are two things that should be on everyone’s “to do” list - take a 15-minute visit to the Flying Cinema tour in the Market Square and buy a Helsinki Card.
We were in Helsinki for only six hours as part of a two week Baltic cruise and the Helsinki Card was a perfect way to gain a fast and economical snapshot of the city. The Card not only gave us free public transport - including the ferry and hop on, hop off bus tour of the city - but also some significant discounts on many attractions and restaurants.
Whether you are visiting Helsinki for just a few hours, a day, a week or even longer there are two things that should be on everyone’s “to do” list - take a 15-minute visit to the Flying Cinema tour in the Market Square and buy a Helsinki Card.
We were in Helsinki for only six hours as part of a two week Baltic cruise and the Helsinki Card was a perfect way to gain a fast and economical snapshot of the city. The Card not only gave us free public transport - including the ferry and hop on, hop off bus tour of the city - but also some significant discounts on many attractions and restaurants.
The hop on, hop off bus tour gave us a quick overview of the city and its attractions and enabled us to quickly get our bearings of all the main things one could visit on a longer stay. The commentary was in 10 languages - the English version gave us some great and often humorous insights into the history of Helsinki and its people.
The Helsinki Card also provides a 90-minute canal tour with Helsinki Sightseeing; unfortunately we missed this tour because we were accidentally directed to a free ferry ride to the World Heritage island of Suomenlinna, which is another destination we were pleased we visited.
The Helsinki Card also provides a 90-minute canal tour with Helsinki Sightseeing; unfortunately we missed this tour because we were accidentally directed to a free ferry ride to the World Heritage island of Suomenlinna, which is another destination we were pleased we visited.
Suomenlinna - the Island Fortress
Suomenlinna is one of 315 islands in the Gulf of Finland that hugs the entrance to Helsinki. Its development and construction of naval facilities in the early 1800s - when Finland was occupied by Sweden - helped protect the city as Sweden was losing a war against Russia and wanted to strengthen the city’s defences. They converted the island into a massive fortress with some six kilometres of walls that were around three metres thick and bristling with cannons that guarded the ocean entrance to the city, repelling all invaders including the Russians in 1808. At its peak the fort held 6,000 men and more than 700 cannons and held substantial stores.
The Gulf of Finland near Helsinki is relatively shallow and narrow and, as it freezes over in winter and was protected by cannons covering all directions from the fortress, the city was thought to be safe. However the Russians overran the city in a surprise attack after hundreds of soldiers marched across land, which the Swedes had not anticipated. While Soumeninna could not be overpowered, as the cannons dominated the three kilometre stretch of ocean between the island and the mainland, the Russians were also not threatened by any barrage from the guns of Soumenlinna because the families of the soldiers were captive in the city; so it became a stalemate and the Russians laid siege.
The fortress was finally surrendered intact in 6 May 1808 and, while there are official stories of intense negotiations, local legends say that the Russian Army spent days preparing for a supposed influx of several thousand additional soldiers that were due to arrive across land, with predicted dire outcomes for the women and cutting off all food and resources for the fortress. As a final "show of compassion” before a major attack on the fortress the Russians allowed the wives to visit their husbands on the island to say goodbye. Whether or not this is true, apparently a short time later the island surrendered and surprisingly the thousands of reinforcements never arrived.
The fortress was finally surrendered intact in 6 May 1808 and, while there are official stories of intense negotiations, local legends say that the Russian Army spent days preparing for a supposed influx of several thousand additional soldiers that were due to arrive across land, with predicted dire outcomes for the women and cutting off all food and resources for the fortress. As a final "show of compassion” before a major attack on the fortress the Russians allowed the wives to visit their husbands on the island to say goodbye. Whether or not this is true, apparently a short time later the island surrendered and surprisingly the thousands of reinforcements never arrived.
Whatever the facts of the story, today the island is home to about 800 residents and the fort, its tunnels, cathedrals, museums and old walkways are readily accessible free of charge. There is even a 60-minute guided walking tour that is highly recommended and free with the Helsinki Card.
We explored only part of the island due to our time constraints - it was a 15-minute ferry ride each way and the free walking tours usually takes an hour, so it is best to allow a couple of hours at least.
The Helsinki Card offers free access of great discounts to around 100 attractions, restaurants and services - find out more here.
We explored only part of the island due to our time constraints - it was a 15-minute ferry ride each way and the free walking tours usually takes an hour, so it is best to allow a couple of hours at least.
The Helsinki Card offers free access of great discounts to around 100 attractions, restaurants and services - find out more here.