A Roadtrip To Kotka

Today was a very sunny and warm day. The temperature was 22 C, which is not typical for late April here. We just had to get out of the house. This was the first day of this year that I wore shorts outdoors. After buying food for a picnic, we hit the road. The distance between where we live and the Helsinki-Hamina motorway on the south coast is about 65 km. On the motorway, we noticed that Kotka was only 65 km away, which would take us about half an hour to cover on the motorway. So, we changed our plans and drove all the way to Kotka.

Kotka is a port town of with a population of about 53,000. The second largest river in the country and the largest river in the southern half of the country flows into the sea near Kotka at several different points. The historical road between Turku and Viipuri and the river cross near Kotka, which has made the town a very important logistical center. Päijänne, the second largest lake in Finland, which is about 25 km to the north of Lahti, the capital of the region Päijänne Tavastia, is the main lake of the river Kymi. Because of the ease of transporting timber via the river and the availability of power from the rapids, Kotka has also become a center of wood processing industry. For at least a half century, however, rivers haven't been of any significance in transport. All the wood is transported via road and rail.

The town center is on an island separated by a narrow straight from the mainland. The views from there are great. Kotka seemed surprisingly attractive for an industrial town. It's much more attractive than Lahti in my opinion, at least externally. Industrial towns like Kotka usually have a culture dominated by industrial workers. Such towns tend to be strong at team sports and ball games in particular. The local football club is named Kotkan työväen palloilijat, which could be translated as Kotka Workers (Foot)ballers. But the presence of a port, or actually several of them, that are pretty large for the size of the town, must have added a spice of international flavour to life in the town. The industries in the town have struggled in recent decades. Kotka has been trying to attract tourism and develop a video game industry with the help of the local polytechnic institute. The tourism part seems to be working fine as Kotka has become a port of call for cruise ships in the Baltic sea.

Our trip was quite unplanned. My wife had visited the town once before but a long time ago. So had I. I had visited Kotka in the summer of 2001 as part of my great bicycle tour covering the southern half of the country. We ended up on a small island connected to the Kotkansaari (the island on which the town center is on) by a causeway. We had our picnic in the car, after which we walked a path around the island. I took some pictures.

A port on Mussalo, another island to the west of Kotkansaari

To the south. We wanted to see the open sea. The temperature was 18 C here.

That statue was erected in 1998 to honor the memory of the Russian sailors killed in the battle of Ruotsinsalmi fought in the war of 1789-1790 between Russia and Sweden. The war was started rather foolishly by the Swedish king Gustavus III who wanted to bolster is status. Gustavus III had ended constitutional monarchy and made himself a dictator. The war a disaster on land because of the low morale of the army and rampant relapsing fever in the navy. A group of army officers had revolted against Gustavus III and negotiated with the Russians on breaking off Finland as an independent state from Sweden. However, the Russians suffered two major losses in the naval battles of Ruotsinsalmi very close to Kotkansaari, the last one of which resulted in Catherine II of Russia to agree to peace. The result was a stalemate. The wars, mainly the outbreaks of disease, during the war had killed tens of thousands of people for nothing.

Gustavus III's crushing of the nobility and his ill advised war had caused resentment and he was assassinated in 1792. The best thing Gustavus III did in his life was in, my personal opinion, the founding of the city of Tampere, where I'm from. :)

Ruotsinsalmi, the scene of the great naval battle

You can easily see signs of different water levels here.

You could get a nice dose of UV radiation here and a boost of Vitamin D levels!

A lighthouse on the opposite shore in the east

What a fantastic place to build a house in!

Not exactly a surfers' paradise.

Maretarium, a sea museum a short distance from the place we had our picnic in.

Taken at the boat harbour next to Maretarium. The yellow material in the background is wood chip. It's a raw material in paper manufacturing.

There is a residential area on a rocky hill in the southwestern part of the island of Kotkansaari. This building is typical.

As are these.

Down a street on the hill

---

Then we went to the passenger harbour on the northeastern shore of the island of Kotkansaari. The huge building on the right is Merikeskus Wellamo. It has Finland's Sea Museum in it among other functions. It was closed when we came there but I walked around it and took some pictures.

Massive container cranes

That factory is a chemical pulp mill. That building was designed by the famous architect Alvar Aalto. It was built in 1936. The factory building is part of a larger whole designed by Aalto, the suburb of Sunila. If you want to know more, you can check the Sunila website.

This is an old patrol boat used by the Coast Guard. The museum as some ships outside the building.

This one served as a lighthouse ship during repairs of fixed lighthouses. It will be open to the public after the renovations are completed.

The backside of Merikeskus Wellamo towards the town center

Tugboats used in the port

The front of the large museum building.

---

Malmgård Manor happened to be along our route. It is best known for its excellent beers and ales found everywhere in the country. One of their barns seems to have suffered a catastrophic structural failure. Or maybe it is being demolished.