July 24, 2020

A weekend in Kotka

We decided to take a short minibreak and spend a weekend in Kotka. As we had Friday off, we headed to Kotka on Friday afternoon and arrived at the hotel at around 4 pm. I had booked us a superior queen room at Original Sokos Hotel Seurahuone. I had left several requests about the room including a bathtub and higher floors. The hotel was fully booked so they weren’t able to fulfill all my requests, so we got to choose between higher floors or a bathtub. We opted for the bathtub. After we had dropped off our stuff in the room, we walked around the city for a while before dinner. I’ll make a separate post about the dinners we had.

The decor was supposed to emulate a ship’s engine room, hence the bedframe.

Maritime Center Vellamo

On Saturday morning we headed straight to the Maritime Center Vellamo after breakfast. Vellamo houses three museums: The Maritime Museum of Finland, The Kymenlaakso Museum, and The Coast Guard Museum. As we only had limited time on our hands we focused on the maritime museum. Due to time limitations, we also skipped the boat hall and focused on the main exhibition and ice breaker Tarmo. I enjoyed the main exhibition but to me, the highlight was exploring the ice breaker. I do recommend Vellamo to anyone visiting Kotka.

The Gothic Revival style church of Kotka built in 1898.

Hamina

After strolling back to the hotel, we hopped in our car and headed to Hamina. In Hamina we walked around the area with old wooden houses and visited a couple of churches and the town hall. The town hall housed an exhibition of fashion designer Jukka Rintala’s ball gowns. We had sandwiches for lunch at Raati Café Kaneli located in the town hall and coffee and cake at Café Huovila. After spending a few hours in Hamina we headed back to Kotka and Langinkoski Nature Reserve.

Belfry of the Orthodox Church of St Peter and St Paul

Langinkoski

At Langinkoski you can find several historical sites, such as the Imperial Fishing Lodge, a small orthodox chapel, an old caretaker’s house, a fish hatchery, and a fishermen’s cottage. The Imperial Fishing Lodge is part of the National Museum of Finland. The imperial fishing hut at Langinkoski is a summer residence built for emperor Alexander III of Russia in the late 1880s. For an imperial building, the fishing hut is modest, but its style does have a simplified grace. Several buildings from the same period are located in the museum area, surrounded by a nature reserve. The hut has been used as a museum since the 1930s. Langinkoski was absolutely worth a visit. From Langinkoski we drove back to the hotel. Then we walked to the guest harbor area and had a drink at the seaside. The evening finished with a nice dinner and on Sunday we headed back home after breakfast.