HELSINKI - SEPTEMBER, 2013

I took a twelve day trip to Finland, Estonia, Sweden and Norway in September, 2013. This was my first trip to Finland, Estonia and Norway. I had been to Sweden about forty years ago. My first stop was Helsinki, Finland, the capital of Finland. After a long flight from Los Angeles, via Newark and Oslo, Norway I landed at the Helsinki airport on the outskirts of the city of Helsinki surrounded by beautiful farmland and forests. After about a 30 minute bus trip from the airport, I arrived at my hotel in the center of Helsinki. Helsinki was a smaller city with no major tall buildings, but many parks and pedestrian streets filled with restaurants and shops. The two major sights in town are the white colored Lutheran Cathedral located on Senate Square [also the site of the Finnish Parliament Building], and the dark colored Orthodox Cathedral. Both are located on small hills overlooking the harbor in Helsinki.

On the second day that I was in Helsinki, I took a short boat ride to the Suomenlinna Fortress which is located on an island guarding Helsinki's harbor, and which served as a strategic fortress for three countries [Finland, Sweden, and Russia] from the 1700's. Now the island [actually four islands connected by bridges]is a large park containing museums, military buildings [including Finland's Naval Academy], restaurants, a garrison church [which was Orthodox until the 20th century when it converted to Lutheranism], and the fortress battlements. It was a sunny, beautiful day, and I spent the entire day walking around the island and viewing the sights.



 

On my third day in Helsinki I took a two hour ferry ride across the Gulf of Finland to Tallin, Estonia. Tallin is the capital of Estonia and has a very beautiful old town area dating from the 15th and 16th centuries, surrounded by walls and towers. Actually, Tallin was made up of two feuding medieval towns, separated by a wall. The upper town, on a hill, called Toompea, was the seat of the government ruling Estonia. The lower town was an autonomous Hanseatic trading center filled with German, Dutch, and Swedish merchants, who hired the Estonians to do their menial labor.

Leaving Helsinki harbor the ferry passed very close to the Suomenlinna Fortress, and you had a marvelous view of the entire fortress complex, which I had visited the previous day.

After the ferry landed in Tallin harbor, I walked to the Old Town, and entered the walled city where the cobblestoned streets led to many old buildings, churches and parks.

I had lunch at a wonderful outdoor restaurant on the Town Hall Square.



I then walked up to the upper part of the Old Town to view the pink colored Estonian Parliament Building, and had a terrific view over the Old Town and harbor area of Tallin.

After a wonderful afternoon spent in Tallin, I returned to the harbor where my ferry was loading trucks and automobiles for the return trip to Helsinki.

Just behind the hotel where I was staying was a large park with a lake that connected to the harbor. One night after dinner I took a walk around the lake which was probably at least a mile in circumference. It was a beautiful evening.



The last day that I was in Helsinki I took a train to Turku, about two hours away. Turku is the historical capital of Finland and the port where I would catch a ferry the following day for Stockholm, Sweden. My hotel overlooked the Turku River which flows through the town. I walked along the river to the Turku Castle and the Turku Cathedral, which was built in the 12th century when Finland was first Christianized. I really enjoyed Turku, and I wished that I had more time to spend there. 

Along the riverwalk were also several old wooden ships, as well as many restaurants and museums. Many people were out and about in the evening and in the morning walking along the river.

Tomorrow morning my visit to Finland comes to an end as I board a ferry to cross the Baltic Sea to Stockholm, Sweden. Finland is truly a very beautiful country, with warm and friendly people. I hope to return again some day to visit more of the country.



HONG KONG - MAY, 2013

This was my fourth trip to Hong Kong. Because I had already visited all of the major tourist sights, I spent most of my time in the local areas, and in areas off the beaten track.

After boarding the plane at my connection in Tokyo to Hong Kong, we waited at the gate for over an hour before being cleared to take off for Hong Kong because the Hong Kong airport was closed due to heavy storms in the area. Hong Kong had been the subject of a "Black Storm" warning that day, with black the highest rating for storms [amber and red storm warnings being the two lesser grades of storms.] This was the first time since 1998 that Hong Kong had a "Black Storm" warning, and some areas of Hong Kong had over 10 inches of rain in a two hour period that day. When I arrived the storm was over, and although there was a lot of water throughout the city, no major damage was seen. During the week that I stayed in Hong Kong the weather was very humid with the chance of storms every day, but there was only one day during that week that I couldn't go out and do the things that I planned to do because of heavy rain. Most of the time the sky was dark with clouds, as in these pictures of Hong Kong Island as seen from the Kowloon side of Victoria Harbor.

 

 

 

The new major tourist attraction was a giant rubber duck in the harbor next to the Star Ferry terminal on the Kowloon side of Victoria Harbor. The rubber duck was originally part of an art exhibit, but because of its popularity was kept on permanently as a tourist attraction. There were always hundreds of people there [thousands on the weekend] getting their pictures taken with the duck in the background. I went there several times just to watch the "people show" .

I went hiking for a day on Lamma Island, which is an island off the coast of Hong Kong, about a 30 minute ferry ride from the Central Ferry pier on Hong Kong Island. From Central you go to the fishing village of Yung Shue Wan, where there are a lot of small restaurants and shops. It is a popular spot for residents of Hong Kong to go on the weekend for dinner to get away from the big city. The weather that day was the best of my trip.

 

 

From Yung Shue Wan you could hike a well marked paved trail to the other side of the island to the fishing village of Sok Kwu Wan. The hike took about two hours, and along the way you had many beautiful views over the South China Sea, of many secluded beaches along the coast of the island, as well as the interior portions of the island.

 

 

 

Sok Kwu Wan is a small fishing village where many commercial fishing pens are located raising fish in the small harbor. There is a strip of restaurants along the edge of the harbor, and when I was there they were preparing for a festival that coming weekend. I ate some delicious grilled prawns at the Rainbow Restaurant with a view over the harbor. I then took the ferry back to Hong Kong.

 

 

 

 

I had a great time during the week that I spent in Hong Kong, truly one of my favorite cities in the world.