Day 20: Helsinki
We awoke to a bright shiny morning at 9.45 and had a crazy dash to get our breakfast. The rest of the group had a day tour to Estonia but we had decided against it some months ago so did not have to set our alarm. And just look at the result. We are booked into another Scandic hotel,  a huge 6 storied giant about 30 minutes walk from the CBD (might be shorter when we familiarize ourselves with the route.  This is the worst of the Scandic hotels as all the interior is black. Small rooms with no luggage racks, minimal lighting, no room in the bathroom for toilet bags, no writing desk, etc, etc, etc. And we are here for 5 nights. So our first job was to ask for a room change. Hmmmmmm. All the rooms are the same. So we requested an upgrade. When we returned at the end of the day, we were shown another room equally black, then an upgrade. Ha, for €25 a night more we get a much larger room, a sauna, a desk, 2 luggage racks, and patterned wallpaper with a cream background. So we packed up and moved. That is better.

We had targeted Suomenlinna for what was left of today. This is a sea fortress founded in 1748 on a cluster of islands off the coast of Helsinki. It has some 800 residents who are responsible for administering  and maintaining this UNESCO World  Heritage site which