Turku is the oldest city in Finland, and it was the capital until 1812, when the Russian tsar moved the government to Helsinki, closer to St Petersburg. The old name is Åbo, from the Swedish, and the city still has a significant Swedish-speaking community. The heart of the town is the Aura river, which runs through the centre to the sea, lined with restaurants and boats, and the great stone cathedral, Finland's national shrine, stands on a hill above it. The medieval cathedral dates from the late thirteenth century, and its tower, which has burned and been rebuilt several times, is a well-known landmark.
The city was devastated by a great fire in 1827, and most of the old wooden town was lost, but a small part survived on the hill of Luostarinmäki, where a group of old craftsmen's houses is now a museum of handicrafts, with rooms furnished as they would have been in the early nineteenth century. Turku Castle, at the mouth of the river, is an even older structure, begun in the 1280s, and it served as a royal fortress, a prison and a noble residence. The runner Paavo Nurmi, nine times an Olympic champion, was born in the city, and a statue of him stands outside the stadium.
Turku is also the gateway to the Archipelago Sea, a huge scatter of islands between Finland and Sweden, and the ferries to Stockholm leave from the harbour. The road from Turku to Rauma, along the west coast, passes through farmland and forest with gentle bends, and the surface is generally good. Traffic is moderate near the city and light further on. The old town of Rauma, with its wooden houses and cobbled streets, is a World Heritage Site and a good place for lunch. Speed cameras are common, and Finnish traffic fines are high.
Fuel stations are plentiful in a city of about a hundred and seventy-six thousand people, and Raisio and Kaarina, on the outskirts, have more. The riverside cafes serve coffee and sweet pastries, and in summer, boats serve as bars along the quay. The smell of the river on a warm day is a mix of water and cut grass, and the light on the cathedral at dusk is soft and golden. If you arrive in the early morning, the city is still and the river is glassy.