Transport schedules in Europe leave little margin for error. Be there and be early are the rules. At the Stockholm TI, I was given directions to the Viking Terminal, then to the Riga Terminal, but I knew we wanted to go directly to the Helsinki ferry at the Silja terminal. Our next rules are “Know where you must go and know whom to trust!”

The Metro subway folk understood exactly; Metro to Rospen, bus 76 directly to the terminal. Hurrah! Leave the hotel at 2:30, get to the Metro at 3:00, find the 76 bus, and arrive at the terminal by 3:30. We got there on time, but the terminal was full with about 6,000 people waiting to board two different ferries. It was chaotic.

We exchanged our reservations for tickets— an extra step and time we had not anticipated. We still faced getting through the throng of people, but the Silja crew sped us through in the open left lanes. We got onto the ship at 4:00 with 15 whole minutes to spare. Phew!

This ferry is actually a huge cruise ship with tax-free shopping, grand buffet, and casino—all you would ever want, but none of that was for us! We just wanted to eat something before sleep. Sushi was a 45 minute wait, so we shared a pre-prepared plate of fresh tiny shrimps.

The rear deck bar had an excellent view of sea, shore, and swooping seagulls in our wake. Becky did her duty chatting up the bartender, resulting in very well-balanced Irish coffees. We also started chatting with a couple at the table next to us. It was our first “small world story” of the trip. They live in Fountain Inn, SC, where Becky lived in the seventies. Their catalogue of travel stories seemed to focus on catastrophies, losses, and wrecks.

For example, they caught COVID during one of their trips. However, when another passenger went into seizure, the man (an EMT) held him until a doctor came and took the man to the hospital. Since the Fountain Inn couple were infectious at the time, they may have infected the man and the doctor. After all their disaster stories, we were glad not to be traveling with them. We prefer small inconveniences while traveling such as losing my toothbrush which reappeared three days later.

In Helsinki, we escaped the madhouse rush of people by hailing a taxi which scooted us to the hotel; a few Euros was worth it. The Marski is a beautiful 4-star hotel in the center of Helsinki and close to all the transport options. We had a nice room which was painted sedate gray, with black granite, and gold accents and fixtures. Very nice, very moody, very small, and very quiet without a window.

We asked about laundry and were told there was a laundry service directly across the street, but today was a national holiday so it was not open.

We asked what the national holiday was; the hotel clerk was not sure, but thought it was something religious, but everybody liked having a day off. For lunch, we had a fantastic salmon/potato soup at Cafe Java for less than $20–a bargain lunch.

We tried the HOHO bus that afternoon, but it was so crowded and so boring, we abandoned it at the Senate Square where there was a pro-Ukraine protest.

We walked back to the hotel for an afternoon nap. We woke later for a walk around the magnificent art Deco train station. It is too large to photograph in one piece, so here are some details.

Eric Saarinen, famed Finish architect, designed the lights for the station. That night we watched the last installment of Harry Potter in Finnish. The special effects were great and didn’t really need dialogue.

The next morning, we had coffee and patisserie treats at Fazar. After delivering 10 kilos of dirty laundry, we struck out to the Design Museum which had two impressive shows. The permanent exhibit highlights Finnish design and designers of the 20th century.

The second exhibit was amazing group of 20 modern tapestries. Both backs and fronts are so intricate.

We also looked in a couple of design/vintage shops, but we are in the “don’t buy anything” mode. We passed a salad deli on our way to the hotel and went back after nap for late lunch.

We bought transport tickets for 48-hours but nobody had a map so that we see which trams and buses went where. People suggested going to the transport office in the train station for maps. When we finally found the office, the guy was busy shutting it up and directing evacuation of the entire train station due to a fire alarm. No map for us! We just got on a tram and rode it to the end, then rode it back in time to pickup our laundry.

The afternoon had evaporated; we dropped into the hotel bar for libations before bed. I tried the Finnish sauna that night rotating between cool showers and fiery hot sauna with rests in between. It was interesting and felt good on tired back, legs, and feet. We are averaging nearly 10,000 steps per day getting around.

Day Three began again with Fazar coffee and patisserie before a trial run to the Ferry Terminal to Tallinn on the Number 9 tram for 9:00 check-in and 10:00 departure. Perfect!

We had two museums planned for the day: the traditional, gigantic Ateneum and the sleek contemporary Kiasma. We had a wonderful surprise in the retrospective of Finnish artist Albert Edelfelt celebrating his career of almost 50 years (1880-1930). Two hundred paintings covered his entire career with portraits, landscapes, domestic groupings.

Not a “one note” Albert, he painted in all genres. His portraits of women are full of personality and light. Later in his career he experimented with more abstract work.

In other galleries, we found other paintings that we liked.

After pizza for late lunch, we went to the Kiasma, a new contemporary museum with two different shows: Environmental sounds and assemblage by Daniel Steegman Mangrane and a retrospective of Tom of Finland’s graphic depictions of gay life 40s-80s.

That night we packed and hit the bed early for the morning trip to Tallinn. Helsinki has been a wonderful place to visit. We picked a few things we could manage for our three days and enjoyed it all.

Helsinki Street Scenes