Terve ja tervetuola! Welcome to my trip report!


It has been a dream of mine for some years to visit Finland and finally I decided to stop just thinking about it and actually do it - not least because I'd decided to enroll myself on a Finnish course. We eventually decided on a city break to Helsinki. Packages from Switzerland are terribly expensive, so the flights and accommodation were booked online. Blue1 and Finnair both fly ZRH-HEL and funnily enough Finnair was actually slightly cheaper. I wanted to fly AY anyway, as I've heard good reports about them and because of their their cute adverts with the panda!


Wednesday May 2nd 2007
AY862
ZRH-HEL
A319, OH-LVL
Seats 4E, 4F
109 Pax
ETD ZRH 1055, ETA HEL 1440

We arrived at Zürich by train 2hours before departure, which is when Finnair check-in opens and were the first to be served. I asked for 2 seats near the front and we were assigned 4E&F, on the first row in Y. It was a surprise to see that the flight would be departing from the B gates, normally AY use Dock E. The lounge that C class pax can use is in E too, so not satisfactory for them.

View from the airside centre -- Malaysian & Singapore 777s, Qatar & Thai A340s



It was the first time I'd flown from B. The gates are mainly used by AF, 2L, IB, AZ and various ethnic flights and there was no wait to pass security. There was, however, an almighty queue at the toilets -- 2 just aren't enough!

Boarding was due to start at 1020 from B28 and was only a few minutes late. We were bussed out to our aircraft which looked very shiny in the spring sunshine. Incidentally, I later discovered that we just missed DJ BoBo flying out to Helsinki for the ESC -- he departed 3 hours later on Blue1. Once on board we had quite a long wait, apparently there were some missing passengers......

BH airlines, most likely on a charter to Sarajevo or Banja Luka



Push back wasn't until after 1100 (ETD was 1055) and the estimated flying time was 2hr40. We headed out past the the heavies that were over at Dock B......


.........and took off at 1115 from Runway 28. I was looking forward to the feature of the outside camera, but somehow couldn't bring myself to watch it on take-off and looked out the window instead!


We flew to the south of the Lägern and saw Baden and Wettingen.




Then we banked over Lake Zürich......



Here's the dam at Rapperswil


....and the snow covered Churfirsten


We crossed the Bodensee over Mainau and then flew over Stuttgart, Erfurt and Berlin.


Lunch was served very quickly. I'd ordered a vegi meal which consisted of pasta, green beans, mushrooms and a type of potato & carrot cake; bread roll, water and two sweets -no Fazer chocolate with the vegi meal 


Here's a picture of the meat dish -- complete with fazer chocolate


The meal was wasn't bad, what I found a little disappointing was that there was no dessert. Wine and beer were free, coffee and tea were also offered. The cabin crew were friendly and professional and looked very smart in their uniforms -- particularly the women with their leather gloves and pale blue waistcoats. The plane was also spotless inside; you notice that AY have a relatively long turn round at ZRH.

As we approached Northern Germany we turned right and flew over Gdansk, then Latvia and Estonia. The cloud cover built up so no views.

Soon enough we started our descent. There were some beautiful views on landing of all the hundreds of islands dotted aroud the Finnish coastline, all enhanced by the outside camera.







It was quite windy on approach so was interesting to watch the pilot lining up for landing -- we seemed to land at quite an angle. Unfortunately we were right under the screen which made taking a photo of it impossible. Touchdown was 1415 and we parked at a remote stand and had quite a long bus ride to the terminal. It was drizzling and I reliased just how cold it was in comparison to Switzerland where summer had arrived early!

Me on arrival in a wet and windy Helsinki


The airport was, as you would expect, spotless with some lovely wooden flooring. And I even found the cute panda!


On clearing customs (where not one official was in sight), we headed for the Finnair bus to the city centre, 5,20E.

On arrival at the main station the heavens opened so we sheltered for a bit before getting the tram to the hotel -- the Radisson SAS Seaside. I got an excellent deal on ebookers and despite it being a little way out of the centre, the trams were so frequent and good value with the travel card that it made no difference.


I've taken the liberty of including some pictures of our stay.
Helsinki cathedral


Uspenski Orthodox catherdral


The old town in Porvoo




On the boat to Suomenlinna


Taken on Suomenlinna, a fortress included on the World Heritage List




Esplanadis, Helsinki


Taken from the Olympic tower




Sunday May 6th 2007
AY863
HEL-ZRH
A319 OH-LVF
Seats 10E, 10F
Load 80-90%
ETD 1630, ETA 1815

After a leisurely morning it was time to head the the railway station where we picked up the Finnair bus again.
Advertising their fast & frequent links to Asia.


I noticed that each lay-by where the buses park is equipped with a screen showing the driver what's going on around him, making reversing out much easier. As we pulled out, I spotted a bus advertising the 69 Eyes' latest album, I band I like and who are pretty popular in Finland. It was rather appropriate that the bus was serving route 69!


On approach to Vantaa we passed a lay-by containing lots of airport information, such as prices for the various car parks. I found this a nice touch. Here at Zurich people either end up in the "wrong" car park, or even worse start reversing back down the ramp because they're not sure where they're going.

Some shots of the airport:






I liked the check-in area at T2 as it felt very spacious. We got in the queue before the most of the other bus passengers, so didn't have long to wait. Assigned seats were 10E&F and the flight was to depart from Gate 31d. I wandered down to arrivals to take a look at the info desk  


We passed security and I was somewhat unsettled by the fact that there was no passport control, until eventually I realised this must be the Schengen area (in Switzerland we're just not used to this concept!).


It was incredibly busy and stocking up on some last minute souvenirs at Stockmann was like the first day of the sales!


I have to say that I found the shopping area quite cramped and it put me off any further browsing, but maybe that was just due to all the passengers. I noticed there were lots of pushchairs that could be used for those who had checked theirs in - full marks for Helsinki as this is something lacking in Zürich.

A very Finnish scene: Air Finland, Blue 1 and Finncomm


And another


And a shot with a non-Finnish plane!


A nice touch - there used to be planes suspended like this in Zürich



After I spotted passport control we decided to go through figuring it would be a bit quieter, which thankfully it was. Our boarding time was 1600 and 5 minutes prior to that I heard a last call for our gate, which somewhat unsettling. It turned out the Heathrow flight ETD 1600 was using the same gate, but it certainly had me worried for a minute.


At about 1615 a bus pulled up at our gate to take us to the plane.

On the way I saw this 757. Has it deliberately been left in the old livery? I liked it -- very retro.


One of AY's Embraer 170s


Loved the Finnair tractor!


Our aircraft, OH-LVF


AY, MA and OK


Boarding up the stairs was slow and there were hardly any newspapers left when we got to the top. It seemed some people were taking not just one but several.

Our flight time was to be 2h25 and we took off at 1645. Our route took us towards Tallinn and then Bornholm and over Germany again, where the cloud cover built up. It was a bit bumpy on take off, but after having experienced the Helsinki wind for the last couple of days, I wasn't too surprised!







The meal service seemed to take a little longer this time and I was presented with the identical dish to the outbound flight. Here's a picture of the meat dish -- complete with peas and rösti!


This time a second round of drinks was served before landing. The flight was smooth and otherwise uneventful and before long we were starting our descent to runway 14, where we touched down smoothly at 1810.



The Rhine


Camera view


HB-JMF and JMC, most likely having arrived from LAX and NRT








And so all too soon the short trip to Helsinki came to a close. I'd love to go back to Finland and explore all those lakes and forests. My thoughts on Finnair? I was very pleased by the quality of the service received and would have no hesitations in flying with them again.

Thanks for reading and as always any questions or comments are welcome.