Turku – 2/12/2020
Feb 12th, 2020 by rallyadmin
At 6:35 AM, my mobile rings. I’m dead asleep and the first thing I think is that it must be the Red Cross calling for a fire call but by the time I get to the phone, I’ve missed the call though I see the caller ID. It’s not the Red Cross (it says Private Caller).
A few minutes later, the mobile rings again. I answer. It’s Finnair Baggage Services. They’ve missed getting the bags on the first delivery to the hotel and the second will get to the hotel some time between 8 and 11 AM. If that’s not soon enough, they’ll give the bags to a taxi and have the taxi deliver the bags. Yes, please send by taxi.
At 7:55, the desk calls: the bags are at reception. I’ll be down shortly and they’ll send them up. “That’s not necessary. I’ll come down for them.” Barbara’s still sleeping and has been for 12 hours. Yes, yesterday was a very long and, apparently, stressful day. I get the bags and all’s right with the world. You just need patience. Sometimes a boatload of patience.
Finally, the trip’s back on schedule though there won’t be any Helsinki sightseeing. We’re on our way to Turku. Assuming we can get the GPS to get us out of the city.
Yesterday the traffic into the city was noticable but today, on the way out, it’s quite like. We’ve had showers, had breakfast, gotten the car loaded with our newly recovered bags and checked out of the hotel. Back on the road again.
A bit of GPS inspired turns and we’re on a main highway, Route 1, to Turku. It’s less than 200 kilometers and we will arrive in a couple of hours. Meanwhile there’s very little traffic. The road is damp, occasional slight rain and there’s a little snow on the sides of the road. By the time we get about halfway to Turku, the rain has stoppen, the road is drying and there’s no snow to be seen anywhere.
The landscape is forest and farm land, mostly farm land. We stop at a rest area along the way to get water and, soon after we get moving again, we’re entering Turku.
Turku is the ancient capital of Finland. It’s been in continuous existence since the late 14th century and there’s a museum there that’s been built over an excavated archaeological dig. There’s also an art gallery there and a nice small restaurant for lunch.
We first have lunch and then go into the history museum to see the dig site. The site is very much like the new Acropolis museum with a section with glass panels in the flow that give a view of the dig areas and then a more reconstructed area that show the streets and build of the excavated area. It’s all done very well and a good place to visit.
The history museum also has a small art exhibition and a section with small stone sculpts that center around the life of a character named Zon. There are some pictures in the the Finland 2020 Photo Gallery.
The art museum is also interesting with some interesting work by artists and musicians from Moscow at the end of the Soviet era in the late ‘80s. Again, there are some photos in the sam gallery.
After we leave the museums, we go in search of the hotel. We enter the address into the Volvo’s GPS and it takes to the hotel with no dramas. The dramas start when we try to find an entrance to the hotel.
The hotel is inside a big block building in the center of Turku. What confuses us is we are looking for is a typical hotel reception area. What we find is a huge shopping center that takes up most of the ground floor. We see a sign for the hotel and follow the arrows to the elevator to get into the hotel.
But the elevator won’t respond to the floor buttons without an RFID card swipe on a reader in the elevator. Back out of the elevator in search of a reception desk which turns out to be a small area in the middle of coffee shop.
We check in and head up to the room. After dropping the bags, we head back out to move the car to a parking garage. It’s parked on the street in front of the hotel and is eating 6 euro every 2 hours. There’s nothing cheap about parking in the city center, even in uncrowded Finland.
Since it’s only about 2:30, we decide to go for a walk instead of moving the car. A short way away there’s the Turku Cathedral and we go in for a look and some pictures. Then back out to find the parking garage and move the car. Then back to the room.
A short rest and we’re down to a restaurant in the hotel. It’s gotten pretty chilly outside and we’re happy to not have to go out. There turns out to be a very good, slightly under-staffed Italian restaurant on the 2nd floor of the hotel.
After a fine meal and some wine, it’s back to the room for the night. Tomorrow a hike to the castle and maybe a ride up the funicular.
Obi-wan
