Day 110 - Wednesday 21 August - Porvoo

Wednesday 21 August

Today we had a bus ride out of Helsinki to the town of Porvoo, 50km east and 200yrs older than Helsinki. V. Putin is in town today, so it's a good place to be out of. Because the Presidential Palace is right on the quay, all the market stalls were gone. I don't know what happened with the island boat trips.

 Through the barricades to a deserted Market Square.

 Auto cow sculptures.

Finland also has the highest per capital boat population.

Finland is the most forested country in Europe, the 2nd most lakey country after Sweden, and has lots of granite. The countryside is quite different from the flat fields of the Baltic countries just over the sea (it's 80km to Tallinn). 

Porvoo has survived in its medieval state, despite attacks in wars and self inflicted fires which have ravaged it over the years. But each time they have rebuilt in the old style (except for the turf roofs they used to have), and it has left a pretty old town which is very attractive to tourists.

 

We had a walking tour for an hour, starting at the church, ...

They also have a hanging boat, like the church in Vilnius.  Casper said they were often placed in thanks for safety at sea.

  ...   then were on our own for another 90mins. They were filming a movie in the old town square, and there were lots of old cars as props. So we ate on the move, and then headed back to the capital.

 Action -- and the lady wheeled the blue pram through the market square.

Old warehouses, from when Porvoo was a major port.

Because of road closures we had to walk a long way round to get to the 4D cinema. This flight over Finland was not as good as the Netherlands' one was, but we saw some nice scenes of snow and lakes. Then we came home to tackle our last packing, to suit Finnair.

 A couple of fancy houses opposite the Tove Jansson (Moomin) park.