RIB Tour: Helsinki From The Sea

Another day, another fantastic day onboard the Balmoral. My day on the ship normally starts at noon but today in Helsinki my day started earlier with a RIB tour.

I’ve toured Helsinki before and that was on the outskirts of Helsinki. It was an immersive tour highlighting the life and music of Jean Sibelius, a Finnish composer known particularly for his symphonies and tone poems. But today’s tour was a whole lot different. Onboard the RIB, I got to see Helsinki from another angle.

SAFETY FIRST

Before hopping into the waiting RIBs, a safety video presentation was shown at the assembly area. After the 5-minute video clip highlighting the dos and don’ts, we all boarded the RIBS and off speeding up marking the start of the adventure.

Suomenlinna

The first point of interest was the Suomenlinna. I have to use some imagination to see a bird’s eye view of this inhabited sea fortress built on eight islands. But checking on Suomenlinna’s official website, I found this awesome aerial photo of the fortress and a brief overview of the place.

Above photo of Soumenlinna and below texts are extracted from the website of the Governing Body of Suomenlinna:
Suomenlinna is a historical sea fortress and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The fortress is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Finland with about one million visitors every year. Suomenlinna is also a city district and a home of about 800 residents. The fortress is situated only a 15-minute sea trip away from the Helsinki city centre. There are museums, restaurants, cafés, and arts and crafts studios open at all seasons. Suomenlinna hosts several events year-round.

Submarine Museum

The next point of interest after Suomenlinna was the Submarine Museum. My mission today was to see as much of the Submarine Museum as I could from the outside, so I had to apply the shooting skills I learned from my long-gone point-and-shoot digital camera to my phone camera.

Vesikko is a submarine, which was launched on 10 May 1933 at the Crichton-Vulcan dock in Turku. Until 1936 it was named by its manufacturing codename CV 707. Vesikko was ordered by a Dutch engineering company Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw (a German front company) in 1930 as a commercial submarine prototype, being the prototype for the German Type II submarines. Purchased by the Finnish before World War II, she saw service in the Winter War and Continuation War, sinking the Soviet merchant ship Vyborg as her only victory. After the cease-fire with the Allies in 1944, Vesikko was retired. Finland was banned from operating submarines after the war and she was kept in storage until she was turned into a museum ship.

Source: Wikipedia

After the Submarine Museum, we wandered a bit more and enjoyed watching some of Helsinki’s fantastic scenery from the RIB. As a child, I never imagined that I would see these far-flung places.

We had an early departure in Helsinki. By 6PM, we left port and now we are heading for Stockholm, Sweden.