Day Trips from Helsinki: Porvoo and Suomenlinna

Porvoo Shore Houses (Photo courtesy of Visit Finland website)

There are at least three lots of visitors coming to visit with us in Helsinki in the coming summer months and I am thinking of what their various interests are and what they might like to see and do while they are here.

For those who have a little longer time, as well as visiting the various landmarks, museums and attractions in the city, I am going to suggest leaving the city behind and doing at least one day trip out of town.

Porvoo

In the lead up to Christmas, Seán and I visited the charming town of Porvoo, about a 45-minute drive from Helsinki. It is the second oldest city/town in Finland (after Turku) and is renowned for its wooden buildings in the Old Town as well as its distinctive ochre-red painted warehouses (also called 'shore houses') along the riverside.

On the day we visited, Santa was just finished his stint from meeting children and there was a Christmas market down by the river with a choir singing Christmas carols. We wandered through the cobbled streets and visited some of the antique and vintage shops and bought some small handcrafts and hand-made chocolates as Christmas presents.

While it was magical at that time of the year, apparently it is a bustling busy place in the summer with various art exhibitions, outdoor concerts and flea markets, so I am looking forward to a return visit.

An interesting way of getting there during the summer months that has been recommended to me is via m/s J.L. Runeberg, a ship built in 1912, that takes you from the Helsinki marketplace through the Uusimaa archipelago to Porvoo. I will report back!

Suomenlinna

Another place I wish to re-visit in the summer is the island of Suomenlinna. I first visited this sea fortress with my friends Nuala and Rory back in early January. A municipal ferry leaves regularly from the marketplace and the trip is included in the normal transport ticket and there is no entrance fee to visit the fortress. The journey only takes about 20 minutes but when you land, you feel as if you have left the city long behind.

One of the nice things is you also get a lovely view of the city and its skyline from the ferry.

Photo of Helsinki I took on ferry to Suomelinna

Close to where the ferry lands on the island there is a visitor centre where there are informative exhibits. A number of looped trails around the island are marked from there. Suomenlinna is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site and you can smell the history of the place as you wander on its trails, climb over its boulders, trek through its fortresses, stand on the cliffs and look out on the lighthouse. Construction began there in 1748. According to the website, the entire Suomenlinna area contains about 200 buildings from different periods, spread over an area of ​​80 hectares. Approximately 800 residents live on the island. There are about 6 kilometres of walls and there are still over a hundred cannons to be found within the fortress.

Nuala and Rory in Suomenllina, January 2025

It was cold and windy when we were there and we were happy to go indoors to one of its small cafés for some hot soup before our return to the ferry.

It will be a totally different experience in the long bright days of summer, I'm sure.

Writing Update

In my writing life, I was very happy to be shortlisted and longlisted recently for two of my short stories.

In the New2theScene Winter Short Story Competition I was shortlisted for my story Eco Betrayals. What was very nice was the personalised feedback I got via email which is very rare. An extract is below:

The judging is now complete and unfortunately you have not placed first.

While you may not have won this time, your talent and dedication to storytelling truly stood out, and we hope this experience inspires you to keep writing and refining your craft. You have a unique voice and interesting ideas to make it this far, and you should take confidence into future competitions or submissions. This is not a standard response, the judges were impressed with Eco Betrayal and its 1984-vibes.

I was also longlisted in Henshaw Press March 2025 competition for my story A Chugger at the Door. The only disappointing element was that, on their website, they somehow think Dublin is in the UK!

Now, I have to get polishing those two stories up and find a home for them....