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| Grey and rainy Helsinki skyline greeted our arrival by ferry from Stockholm. | ||
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Sailing into Helsinki harbor from Stockholm. |
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Orthodox church, Helsinki. We arrived on Midsummer's Eve (summer solstice celebration) and true to pagan roots, nearly everyone was on vacation, we almost had the entire town to ourselves. Even the church was closed. | |
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Helsinki skyline, with parliament building on the right. |
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Fountain of carved and polished stone in the main city square, Helsinki |
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We found a great pub and restaurant near the main square in downtown Helsinki. The greenery behind Susan's head is a birch branch - all businesses, busses, trams, trains, and ferries were decorated with birch as part of the Midsummer's celebration. |
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We really enjoyed the outdoor pub and cafe scene - no wind, mild temperatures, good food and drink, and great people watching. |
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Susan discovered pear cider (hard cider) in Finland - it is great, tastes like fresh pears smell. She also discovered "tar" (yes, tar, as in tar paper and La Brea Tar Pits) flavored ice cream, unusual but good! | |
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| Finland is known for innovative architecture - here Susan is sitting in front of the entrance to a modern church excavated out of living rock. | ||
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We bought a "Group Ticket" for travel in Helsinki because the kid selling them said it was cheaper than two adult tickets - this one was good for 2 adults and up to 2 children; kids! Where were you? |
| We had no trouble getting around in Helsinki or any other Scandinavian city. Buses, trolleys, trains, and subways were easy to use, ran often, and are inexpensive. A good way to get a feel for the city is to hop on a trolley, ride to the end of the line, then back to where you started - no extra charge as long as it is all within an hour of getting on board. We rode this trolley around the central part of Helsinki, reading descriptions of the places we passed in a tourist guidebook. | ||
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One of the few places open on Midsummer's day
was the Helsinki zoo, situated on an island in the bay - no problem with
escaping animals! Susan is sitting on the other side of a window in this
picture, as we travel to the zoo on a stern wheeler ferry. Notice the
ticket is in Finish and Swedish, as well as English; not many know that Swedish is the
second official language of Finland.
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Susan studying the schedule as we wait for our train to Tampere. Train travel is easy and inexpensive, but a word of advice - take as few pieces of luggage as you can because you will have to lug it off and on trains and store it under your seat or overhead. We probably over packed, but wheeled luggage helped. |
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| When we left Helsinki for Tampere, the weather had finally cleared - it was sunny and warm. | ||
