Turku - worth a little work (Turku)

Member Name: fizzywizzy

Product:	Turku
Date:	11/11/08 (233 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Superb bars, laid back, friendly

Disadvantages: Fewer things open in off season, not for lazy visitors

Situated in south west Finland, Turku is the closest major city to Sweden, and as such is often regarded with some suspicion by residents of other parts of the country; in particular it is the focus for some considerable rivalry with the city of Tampere some two hours or so north (which seems to me just too far to have any kind of point).

Turku is a seaport and it is used by many holiday makers a as base for exploring what is known as the south western archipelago - hundreds of little islands which (I learned from Griff Rhys Jones in his book "To the Baltic with Bob") lie in only partially charted sea, so great is the number of islands involved.

If you visit in the summer you can sail - by public scheduled services or by private charter - to many of the islands; however, if you fail, to open your guidebook before you arrive in mid-September, you can't - and you won't be able to until the late spring. If this is what befalls your trip to Turku, fear not: there is life on dry land though it is mainly the alcohol related activities that are available all year round.

Turku was capital of Finland until Helsinki took the title in 1812; sadly, few of the medieval buildings still exist and this makes it visually less appealing than some of the other Baltic cities such as Tallinn or Helsinki. This does mean that Turku is a place where you have to work a little for your entertainment; there are attractive places to wander or to sit and people watch but on the whole you do have to make a bit of an effort here. That said, it is worth making and - for adults anyway - the "recreational" side of the city is more than fair compensation.

For a small city (it has a population of about 175,000) Turku is a very cosmopolitan place that is a lovely mix of the traditional and modern. While it has few very old buildings (other than the castle) it has treated those it does have with great sensitivity; so while the centre is not ancient, neither does it have more than a couple of modern malls that seem these days to be de rigueur.
Nowhere is the resurrection of defunct buildings better appreciated than in a handful of drinking establishments housed in very memorable premises. My favourite is "Uusi Apteeki" a former pharmacy where the old chemists shelves are lined with beer bottles from all over the world. A selection of quality Finnish and international ales are served and the friendly staff will give secret tips for making "salmiakki" - a liquorice flavoured black schnapps made by adding crushed sweets to a vodka-like spirit.

"Puutorin Vessa" is a tiny bar housed in a former public convenience. The beer is nothing special but tourists have the dubious pleasure of having their's served in a miniature chamber pot - I passed this one up and had a coffee instead.

"Panimoravintola Koulu" is housed in an enormous old school built in the 1880s. It does three kinds of its own beer brewed in the attached microbrewery and has fascinating décor topped off with - I don't why - an ancient rowing scull suspended from the ceiling.

Of course, you do need to earn these treats so it's on with the walking shoes and out with the town map. There are plenty of sign posts but we still found occasionally that they disappeared at the crucial moment; in this part of Finland you'll find signs in Swedish as well as Finnish (incidentally the Swedish call the city Abo). Public transport (buses) is easy to use and at 2 Euro for a two hour ticket its reasonably priced, a 24 hour ticket will cost 4.50 Euro. However most of the attractions are only a short walk from the central kauppatori (market) and the buses take the main roads meaning you do miss the interesting little features in the side streets.

Top of the list of attractions has to be the castle and museum situated at the far western end of the city near the ferry terminal. The nicest way to reach it is by walking along the river and in doing so you can pick out one of the floating restaurants for dinner later on. The castle was founded in 1280 and is not the sort of building one initially thinks of as castle but both the fortress and the contents of the museum are fascinating and you can easily spend a couple of hours here.

Back in town on the south side of the river, the cathedral looms over the city. Its vaulted nave is magnificent but the exquisitely painted side chapels were the highlight for me. On the upper level there is a museum but religious museums tend not to interest me so much as microbreweries and so feeling pious enough from admiring the vaulting we went to worship elsewhere.

A few minutes walk from the cathedral is the Sibelius Museum, housed in a surprisingly pleasing 1960s building. While it does feature a comprehensive permanent exhibition on the great composer himself, the thing that interested me was the huge collection of musical instruments, some quite obscure and unusual.

Had I visited during the summer I would certainly have visited "Forum Marinum" which is a maritime museum on the banks of the river near the castle. Inside are exhibitions relating to various aspects of the nautical field covering shipbuilding, navigation and naval warfare. Although the museum was closed during our visit we could still admire the four museum ships that are moored in front of the buildings - a World War Two minelayer, a corvette, a sailing ship from the 1900s and a three masted barque. In the summer you can go aboard the vessels and explore.

In addition to these attractions, Turku has several art museums, a Pharmacy Museum and a "biological museum" (the description of the tourist office) which I suspect translates better as a "natural history museum").

Eating places are plentiful and although you can choose from any type of international cuisine, its easy to find good Finnish food too. There are a number of stalls on the kauppatori selling cheap fast food and you'll never be far away from a branch of Hesburger - the chain was founded in Turku and now has branches all over Finland and even across the Baltic in Estonia.
Hotels seem to fall mainly at the mid to top end but we didn't book in advance and found cheap accommodation without any trouble.

Having already visited two capital cities on our trip, Turku was a real pleasure; a city that offers the facilities and attractions one might expect from a capital but with a more relaxed pace and fewer people. While Helsinki is also a seaport, Turku feels more like a nautical city even though it is that bit further from the sea.
I would recommend a visit to Turku for active people who don't mind working for their pleasures; I don't think I'm being snobby when I say its a fairly intellectual city that demands you put some work in to enjoy what's on offer. It's certainly not a place where you can sit back and be entertained gratuitously but for me, half the pleasure in that beer is knowing I've earned it.


Turku can be reached by air from other major Finnish cities and by train from Helsinki in about two hours. Its bus terminal links it with destinations all over Finland.

From Turku you can take an international ferry via the Aland Islands to Stockholm, Sweden

Summary: Another watery Finnish city