On Wednesday 11th we set off to see some iconic Helsinki architecture. We caught the tram to “rock church”, a Lutheran church that had not only been carved out of a big exposed rock, but which had its circular roof built like a wicker basket out of gleaming copper. Very interesting, for a small-ish church, and probably worth the extortionate entry fee.

From there we wandered towards the middle of the city, to where several modern municipal buildings stand: opera house (clad in white Italian marble), the library and the modern art gallery. All stunning.

On Thursday 12th I don’t have much in the way of photos. We decided that I needed a couple of extra Devold merino T-shirts, and perhaps another pair of underpants, and there was a shop that had them in stock in Helsinki. It was 50 minutes by bus to get to, but that was an adventure in itself. Out into the deep suburbs and the big-box shops. Got what we needed and made our way back. We went out again, briefly, to see if we could catch the light on the cathedral down by the water, but were a bit late. Stopped in at a funny little bar on the waterfront and then headed back to the hotel and off to dinner.

Friday 13th was sea-adventure day: we caught the ferry over to one of the harbour islands, Suomenlinna. It was originally a Swedish fort (in the mid 1700s) and later acquired a Russian barracks building and orthodox church-cum-lighthouse which was de-turreted and converted to a Lutheran church after the Fins gained independence in the 1920s. Apart from the fortifications it is famous for the large dry-dock where much of the Swedish navy was built or maintained, but which now serves to store and repair old sailing boats. A big, fun day spent tramping all over the island.

Yesterday, Saturday, it had snowed a bit overnight and rained since, and so all of the roads and footpaths were sludgy, either graded clear or not. Quite slippery in places, and not especially photogenic. Somewhere along the way Cath’s lovely new beanie mysteriously departed our company. I retraced our steps as far as I could, leaving Cath at the coffee shop that we’d singled out, but I didn’t find it. Someone must have picked it up. A bit of internetting over coffee and cinnamon bun found a hat shop that would sell us a replacement if we could get there before it closed, in 35 minutes. The public transport route finder suggested we could make it with ten minutes to spare, if we left, so we drank up and did. Made it to the number-6 tram, made it to the shop, bought a nice replacement beanie. Same as the lost one, but red instead of gray.


Comments

2 responses to “Helsinki wrap”

  1. Lynette Reilly Avatar
    Lynette Reilly

    Your pics are amazingly atmospheric – bringing down the temperature here in hot, humid Q! Glad you were able to get Cath a replacement beanie. Do you have a way of measuring how much below zero you are?
    xx

  2. Thanks!

    We don’t have a thermometer as such, but my phone has a weather app that tells me Google’s model of the temperature. In Helsinki it was mostly around the -4 to 2 range, with a wind-chill that kicked a few more degrees off.

    Here in Abisko today’s forecast is -16 to -6, currently -8, feels like -12. Standing down by the lake last night, taking aurora photos got very cold: probably the bottom end of that -16 range. The walk back to the lodge warmed us up, and the fire was blazing, so we thawed out quickly enough. Best I get on and post a few of those!

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