IN PA R T NE R SHIP WITH TUMI
HE L S INK I
36
ESTONIA WITH EASE My first day has been replete with interesting excursions, so my second has much to live up to. A 20-minute tram ride from downtown is the dock for the Tallink cruise line (
tallink.com), which offers ferry services to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia (among other exciting city destinations such as Stockholm). These ferries cater to the hordes of Finns who visit Tallinn at the weekends, many sporting small trolleys strapped to backpacks in readiness for shopping sprees for booze and other commodities that are much cheaper in Estonia than Finland. Boarding the huge cruise liner Megastar I head for the
Come evening I board a Beautiful Canal Route water
tour, which is also part of the myHelsinki Card deal. For 90 minutes the open-topped ferry sails through Helsinki’s harbour and waterways, passing the Suomenlinna Island Fortress, chugging through the Degero Canal, skirting Korkeasaari island where the zoo is situated, and finally slowing for a look at Finland’s ice breaker fleet – the country’s nautical engineering is very advanced and some of the best ice breakers in the world are made and stationed here. Loudspeakers provide a commentary in four languages, but the wind off the water can be cold, and underdressed tourists are given blankets to keep warm as they gaze from side to side at the scenery.
SEP T E M B ER 2 0 18
comfort of the business lounge on the eighth-floor deck, whose large windows at the front of the ship offer views of the quiescent Baltic water as we glide smoothly on the two-hour journey from Finland to Estonia. St Petersburg is a few hours’ sailing to the east, while Stockholm is slightly farther away to the west, but also easily accessible. Fast and efficient disembarkation in Tallinn is followed
FROM TOP: The Sibelius Monument; and Temppeliaukio Church
by a ten-minute walk from the port’s D-Terminal into Tallinn Old Town. This compact Medieval city was first marked on the global map by the Arab cartographer al-Idrisi in 1154. In 1997 UNESCO made it a World Heritage site, which seems wholly appropriate to me as I walk its centuries-old cobblestoned streets, all kept in superbly authentic condition (modern buildings have been developed in a new town area outside the ancient city walls).
bus ine s s tr a v el ler .c om
ALAMY (TOP); ISTOCK
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