Finland

Wednesday was our last day in Finland.  Our fight back home to Melbourne did not leave till nearly midnight so we had all day to do one last exploration of this beautiful city which is Helsinki.  We decided to have a somehow relaxing morning and have a relative late breakfast, before packing our luggage ready for our flight and then leaving the suite cases at reception for the day.

After much discussion and checking the local weather report, we decided that the day was too nice to spent 2-3 hours inside another museum, so we scrap the initial idea to visit the museum. We have learnt quite a bit over the last few days, and also on our first day her in Helsinki, some 12 days ago, about the social and historical development of this city.  We decided to explore other parts of this great city.  We headed to Kansalaistori square, to see the national parliament building and the area surrounding this building, which includes the Finland Philharmonic Auditorium as well as Helsinki broadcast radio station – similar to our ABC; both great buildings.

Our next stop was the to the Helsinki Central Library Oodi.  Ths is an amazing public space. The locals refer to it as their living meeting place at Kansalaistori square, situated right at the heart of Helsinki.  This building was developed using what is called a codesign methodology.  This involved quite actively seeking the views of their citizens as to what they wanted this library building not only to look like – in regards to usable areas – but also the services that it out to provide. It was only opened in December 2018 after a number of years of planning and development.  It has some 20.000 visitors a week.  See this link for more info: https://www.oodihelsinki.fi/en/what-is-oodi/ 

A great place to visit and explore, Pam and I enjoyed this place very much, and Pam was in her element here, as most of you know that she is a librarian by profession.

Whilst we had decided not to go inside the museum, we had a brief stop to admire some sculptures there, as well as the main doors.  I have included a photo in the photo gallery, to show the impact of the civil war in 1918, in this city. The builders of the museum decided to keep a door which had been riddled with bullets in one of the battles of that war.

Our next stop was to visit a number of interesting churches.  The first one is a relative new church, having being built in 1969.  Temppeliaukion kirkois a Lutheran church, situated in the centre of Helsinki. The most interesting aspect of this church is that was built directly into solid rock, and it is sometimes referred to as the Church of the Rock or Rock Church. The interior is circular with a copper which is supported by the rock, and the walls are natural rock. The minimalistic interior design is in harmony with the atmosphere of the space created by the unique light and dripping water.

Next was a visit to one of the oldest Lutheran churches in the city centre, when we went inside the organist was rehearsing for a wedding, playing the Trumpet Voluntary,

We then went across town to see the large Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral,

This church is not only fairly ornate inside but it also has the most impressive exterior. The cathedral, which was completed in 1868, has a wonderful position on a hillside peninsula overlooking the city. Afterwards we visited the oldest market in the city, the Old Market Hall for a bit to eat. This market is located just across from Allas Sea Pool, in the main ferry dock of Helsinki. This place has specialities like reindeer pies, as well as lots of different types of fish.  It opened its door in 1889, and was recently renovated. It seems to me that it mainly caters for the tourists these days. It is a pity that it is closed for dinner.  It was interested to visit this market nevertheless.

We ended our last day in Helsinki by walking along Helsinki’s shoreline and on this particular part of town the observatory is located here on a hill, looking towards the island of Suomenlinna and its fort, which we visited a couple of days ago.  Also beautiful parks and restaurants around this area. We had an early dinner before heading back to the city area to collect our luggage from the hotel.

We had a final stop in Senate Square, and to our surprise a big event was taking place there.  There were more than 40 or so BMWs limousines, Mercedes vans with tinted windows and lots of police on motorcycles as well as security people.  In spite of all this fanfare and pomposity we could walk amongst the cars. I approached a policeman and asked him what was the special event, and was told that Helsinki was hosting a 3 days EU forum, which was starting this evening.  Image if this was happening in the US, there would have been barriers all over the place….

Anyway a fitting way to finish our sojourn in Finland, great country and city and its people extremely friendly. Clearly a city focussed on its citizens.

We took the train heading to the airports around 8.30 pm and arrived at the Helsinki-Vantaan lentoasemajust after 9 pm, for our long flight home, stopping in Singapore for a few hours prior to reaching Melbourne on Friday at 06.00.

This was our last day in Helsinki, and another great day in Finland.

We had a wonderful 4 weeks, visiting Iceland, Estonia, Finland and Russia, leaning and discovering so much about these countries and its peoples.