Helsinki

Tuesday, October 9

This morning, we decided to follow a walking route described in one of the publications we’d picked up at the TI yesterday, so we took a tram to its starting point, the Senate Square.  This large area is the central city’s main square and was once its trading center.  Today, it’s flanked on two sides by the Government Palace and the University of Helsinki, but they are dwarfed by Helsinki Cathedral, which sits atop two wide sets of steep stone steps.  From its commanding hilltop position, the stark white cathedral topped by five green domes is a landmark visible from much of the city.  The interior of the church is austere, with little ornamentation other than its organ pipes and statues of Martin Luther and two other Lutheran figures.

Back down at sea level, we passed through the Tori District, the tiny historical center, which leads to the harbor-side market.  The Presidential Palace, complete with a couple of palace guards, also faces the port.

Not to be outdone by the Lutheran Cathedral, the Orthodox Uspenski Cathedral commands its own hilltop near the port.  A remnant of Russia’s domination of Finland, the copper-domed brick church is one of the largest Orthodox churches in Western Europe, despite the fact that only 2% of Finland’s population is Orthodox. 

Helsinki has its own area of Art Nouveau architecture, though small when compared with the hundreds of buildings in Riga’s “collection.”  We seemed to be the only tourists checking it out this morning.

We continued following our walking tour along a waterfront area lined with old warehouses now converted to shops and restaurants, all with views of many vintage multi-masted wooden sailing ships moored nearby.

Though it wasn’t exactly raining, there was a wet mist that was beginning to chill and dampen us, so we headed for the Vanna Kauppahalli, Old Market Hall for lunch.  We had terrific salmon sandwiches and were happy to have a chance to sit in a warm, dry place for a while.  

Re-energized, we caught a tram to see the Temppeliaukio, or Rock Church.  One of Helsinki’s main attractions, this Lutheran church was built right into solid rock and topped with a wide shallow dome constructed of concentric rings of copper tape.  Natural light enters through ribbed skylights that surround the dome, and in some spots water seeps down along the rock face.  In addition to being a tourist attraction, this is a functioning parish church.  Its acoustics also make it a popular concert venue; it was set up for an orchestra when we visited today.

Several bus stops from the church, we visited the beautiful park and monument dedicated to Jean Sibelius, Finland’s greatest composer.  His music is credited with helping to build national unity during its struggle for independence from Russia. The surrounding park was doing its best to show off its fall colors, but on this gray day, much of that was left to our imagination.

With that, we took a bus back to the Kamppi (Kampen) Center, where we picked up some wine in the Alko store there.  In Finland, wine and liquor are only sold in these state monopoly stores.  Like everything else here, things are more expensive than in the relatively inexpensive Baltic countries we’ve just visited.  Yesterday on the ferry, we were interested to note people carting cases of soda and beer across the gulf from Estonia.  

Another thing we’ve learned (and seen for ourselves) is that Finland has two official languages.  All the street names and signage are in both Finnish and Swedish; we’ve seen less English signage here than in most places we’ve visited, though everyone we’ve encountered does speak English. 

The forecast for tomorrow looks drier, so we’re hoping to visit a group of islands off the coast of Helsinki, site of an 18^th-century fortress.  Fingers crossed…