Turku

Trip Start Aug 31, 2008

Trip End Oct 05, 2008

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Where I stayed

Holiday Inn Hotel Turku

(Turku hotels)

Flag of Finland Turku, Finland
Saturday, September 6, 2008

Well you'll probably be pleased to hear that we've had a much shorter day today - however it was imposed rather than choice (to some extent anyway). My feet were throbbing even when I was in bed last night, and several times today they were just so sore I had to sit down. David is similar. Our bodies sort of demanded we stop an hour or 2 earlier than we had intended.

Anyway - starting the day. Minor injury this morning - David's elbow & I had a collision, putting my tooth through my lip. I have a swollen lip as well as a cut. Ah well. You won't see front-on photos of me today at least.

This was the first hotel booking we had that did not include breakfast. We could have paid for the buffet, but elected instead to walk to the kauppahalla (covered food markets) & then later the kauppatori (markets under awnings in the main town square)

1-Turku Castle

. The kauppahalla looks a lot like Helsinki's, and both date from the 1890s.

We bought some pastries there (only language confusion was that somehow I ended up with 3 cinnamon pastries, rather than 1, to add to my omena (apple) (something). When we reached the open kauppatori, the first stall we saw had crepes and coffees as well as tables & chairs. But we'd already bought our pastries. These markets were much more for the locals - there were LOTS of flower stalls & lots of fruit & veg stalls, a few butchers & seafood stalls & not much for tourists.

There were some dried flower arrangements - which struck me as very cheap for the amount of work involved. Fruit seemed very cheap too. David bought a kg of gala apples for 1.20 Euro - about $2. They were small apples, but there were 8. I bought a (large) punnet of raspberries for 3 euro - about $A5. They were lovely raspberries too. Some fruit was sold by the litre - including plums & apricots at around $A2 per litre.

Anyway after we'd bought some fruit to go with our pastries, and double for breakfast & lunch, I bought a kahvli (coffee) & David bought a pastry & so we could sit at tables & chairs at the stall to have our brunch

Turku Castle

.

Our Turku card included bus fares, so we took the bus from the markets out to the castle. David followed our progress on a map, but it wasn't difficult as we went from the first to the last stop of bus number 1.

The Turku card also included entry to the castle - founded in 1280 & added to over the centuries, until the 16th. It is a plethora of styles and materials, as different centuries added their own touches. Then it was bombed in 1940 and repaired afterwards.

It was an absolute rabbit warren of corridors & stairs, and the route through the castle went through something like 38 rooms - but that doesn't count corridors or stairs, of which there were many. I wondered if part of the security against intruders was that it was so difficult to make your way up here, through here, down here, around the corner & then up some more stairs - that your odds of actually finding your way to the king's chamber or festive hall, without stumbling on a guard's room, well it provides its own protection.

The first 2/3 or so was headed "Middle Ages", then there was a loop off towards the end to the "newer" "Renaissance section" (16th century)

St George & dragon, Turku Castle

.

Some rooms were empty, some had eg statues or furnishings. Both Middle Ages & also Renaissance sections had their own chapels, and both were "fitted out" according to the era. To see lots of wooden statues from the 12th or 13th century ... Well it was just amazing.

Towards the end we came to the silver treasury, and that had lots of glass cases with assorted treasures inside. By that stage our feet were hurting so much that we were just wishing for a way out.

However when the roundabout circuit did eventually make its way back to the entry room, we perhaps made the mistake of deciding to have "a quick look" in the museum. That was another 37 rooms & we didn't really do it justice, but some was very interesting. Some rooms were furnished with dressed mannequins for different centuries, representing either home or castle life. One chamber near the end we sort of looked down on "an archaeological dig", seeing representations of the different centuries' debris, down to the remains of a 13th century house at the bottom.

We had to sit to rest our feet at the end, so tucked into our raspberries, apples and water bottles, while sitting in a garden outside the castle

Manuscript, Turku castle

.

We decided to have a quick look at the nearby maritime museum. We sought advice on which bit to do if we were only doing a bit. (Entry to this museum was also included in our Turku card.)

This was probably an excellent museum, about Finland's maritime history. We read with interest the charts with English translations at the entrance to each of the rooms, but only glanced at some of the exhibits.

One thing I did find interesting was how initially the general population were not allowed to sail somewhere to trade. Then certain towns were granted trading rights, but the rural folk were not. Then gradually everyone was allowed to trade.

Finland was still part of Russia during WW1. After 20 years of "independence", perhaps not surprisingly, she sided with Germany in WW2. When Germany lost, Finland had to give 2/3 of her ships etc as part of the reparation to Russia.

Fortunately we'd photographed a couple of the huge ships moored outside the museum before we went inside

Pulpit in Renaissance chapel, Turku Castle

. At the end, all we wanted to do was to get on a bus & head back into the centre of town. It was the same driver we'd had on the way out.

We hobbled off the bus at the market square & went looking to see if there was a bus that would take us a few blocks up hill to the art museum we had decided was worth the hike to get there. It wasn't far but it was steep but as we couldn't find bus stop P3, we decided to walk.

We hadn't gone far when we heard loud "music" and saw lots of smoke, and crowds gathering. I detoured to investigate. There seemed to be lots of stalls & people gathering. I think it was called Forening, but it took a while before we found someone who tried to hand us a pamphlet & yes he spoke English & he answered our questions about what was all this about.

Apparently this SW coastal region of Finland has a proud Swedish speaking minority (both are official languages of the country, and also everyone from 3rd or 5th grade also learns English). Anyway this was a festival for the Swedish speaking residents of Finland. Later when we were looking for a supermarket & trying to ask advice, although people spoke some English, they all said "I'm sorry but I don't live around here".

Anyway we looked around for a while & then continued up the hill to the art gallery. Again we had to sit to rest our feet, on a bench in the garden outside, but when we prepared to go inside, it was closed for renovations between 1st to 10th September.

Treasure boxes, Turku Castle

So we walked back down the hill & decided that enough is enough. We were hunting for a supermarket to get ingredients for a dinner so we don't have to go outside again tonight. We even found ourselves again at the kauppahalla, the covered market, before their 3 pm closing, but didn't find anything we wanted for dinner in there.

In the end someone said that there was a food hall under the ubiquitous Stockman department store. We bought bread & salad ingredients & ham & cheese, as well as a half bottle of wine.

I still haven't had a sauna in this land that invented it, and our hotel has both a sauna for each of men & women, as well as a swimming pool. So it is our intention to use those tonight. They're open 5 - 11 pm.

Tomorrow we need to make an early start & drive back to Helsinki (getting petrol, for the first time, before we go too far), drop our luggage near the ferry somewhere & then go & return the car & then make our way back to the ferry, before crossing to Tallinn in Estonia.

I'm just becoming familiar with the Euro currency - it will be something else tomorrow. An earlier night tonight also allows us to read up before changing countries. I've read the place info, but not the historical & cultural intro to the countries that is at the front of our guidebook.

It's now 4.50 pm & the sauna & pool open in 10 mins

Turku Castle treasury

. I'm inclined to continue with our computing for a little while longer & then swim etc before we have our dinner & collapse for the night.

Oh it feels good to be off our feet! I considered bringing a pedometer on this trip & then decided that was an unnecessary extra. It would have been interesting to know how many miles/ kms we have walked.

Later - after a sauna. That feels wonderful! At the moment, aches and pains are gone. When we went downstairs to the sauna & pool area, we came to a central swimming pool then David turned to his door marked for males before I opened the female door. As he opened the door I caught sight of several naked males - I turned away quickly.

Fortunately there was nobody else in the female sauna. There was a changing room first where I stripped off and wrapped in towel as best I could. Showered then went in to the sauna. On the one hand I was relieved, for modesty's sake, that there was nobody else in there with me. On the other hand I had a bit of an ache in my chest & I thought that if I was to have a heart problem or similar, that nobody would know.

Museum at Turku castle

David had said to me that he'd meet me in 15 minutes in the pool. Well I had no way of knowing how time was passing. I sat in the sauna with towel over groin & enjoyed feeling very hot & very relaxed - I did not add water to my sauna so the heat was dry & I did not sweat. When I came out & showered & looked in the mirror, the top half of my body was bright red, so were my knees & a couple of inches on either side. Oddly my thighs and calves were still white.

I went out to try the pool & I don't care if they say that was 23 degrees, it felt a lot colder than that. David was not out yet, and I thought that if I made it into the pool I wouldn't still be there when he came out.

David had entered his sauna alone, but when he was joined by other men, they had added water to the rocks so his sauna was very steamy & he was very sweaty. When he joined me at the pool, both of us went hip deep in the pool & then chickened out. We sat outside and relaxed & cooled off but didn't manage the cold dunking afterwards.

We dressed & came upstairs & will have our supermarket dinner shortly. As I say, I feel delightfully clean and, at the moment, nothing hurts.

From Kerry & David