Travel Diaries: Linnanmäki Park

Today I am going to share my first visit to Linnanmäki Park. It was in June 2011 when we went there. Together with hubby, his kids and niece. It was a fun day indeed. But I was on my first month of pregnancy that time and I wasn’t really in a mood to go all the rides. I actually didn’t ride any. I had morning sickness and I was in bad shape. Another reason is that I am scared of those crazy rides. But maybe when we come back there this summer I am going to try the rides. I enjoyed exploring the place and of course took loads of photos. I enjoyed watching kids having so much fun. They rode all the rides and even came back for another round.

To anyone of you who doesn’t know what Linnanmäki Park is, it is an amusement park in Helsinki, Finland. It was opened on 27th of May, 1950 and is owned by a non-profit Lasten Päivän Säätiö. It has 43 different rides of different sizes and has some other attractions, such as arcades, games, kiosks, restaurants and an outdoor stage on which different performers appear in the summer. The park is located on a hill (Linnanmäki in Finnish means Castle Hill) with nice views of the city. The monorail offers a view of the park. The Panorama Tower has excellent views of the city scape and beyond. The clown Rolle-Geek is the park’s mascot. The park is easily reached from the city by tram nr 3B, 3T and bus nr 23.

It has also many other big attractions, like Raketti, or “Rocket”, which is a standard upwards-launched free fall tower, built in 1999 by S&S Power. Other roller coasters in the park are Tulireki, Linnunrata (an indoor roller coaster built inside a water tower, with a space theme), Pikajuna, and Finland’s first water coaster, Vonkaputous.

In May 27th, 2011, a new rollercoaster, named Ukko, was opened.