We loved Helsinki. In total we spent 5 days at the excellently located Helsinki Marina, a stone-throw away from the city centre. It isn’t a beautiful city but a jumble of eclectic architectural styles, so the overall impression is a bit of a mess but the individual buildings are fascinating. It feels really northern and does rather give the impression of clinging on to civilisation by its fingernails in the teeth of Nature (mostly in the form of awful weather and continuous cold). When the sun shines, everybody comes out to celebrate and sit in pavement cafes drinking the most expensive beer I have ever come across. Survival in Helsinki is not cheap! And yet, the more you get to know the city, the more appealing it becomes.
Helsingin tuomiokirkko
Designed by a German, Mr Engel, who did a job offer for the whole square, which is thus rather more architecturally coherent than the rest of Helsinki, it looks dazzling against a blue sky and pretty damn impressive even against a grey and rainy one. We didn’t go inside as we were wearing shorts to celebrate the sunshine.
Uspenski Cathedral
This is an orthodox cathedral built by the Russians when they ruled Finland but it is notable chiefly for being right behind our marina.
Kampii Chapel
“The Chapel of Silence”. It would be very peaceful inside were it not for the constant coming and going of tourists taking photos. But if not ideal for meditation, it’s still an impressive example of what the Finns can do with wood.
Central Station
I love the station, it’s so ridiculously enormous and overdone, as if it were the central station for an empire, not a country of 5 million. The architect clearly felt that Mr Engel had missed an opportunity in not providing his cathedral with an enormous willy-waving tower and proceeded to remedy the deficit, but the muscular pez-dispenser-like chaps with no legs are also wonderful.
Seurasaari
This is an island that serves as an open air museum with lots of ancient wooden houses from different parts of Finland, full of eager guides in historical costume itching to tell you about life back then. You have to cross a footbridge to get to it and then you can spend hours and hours and hours exploring. The funny-looking bed extends and the mattress unfolds to make something a normal-sized human being could actually sleep in.
Temppeliaukio Church
Colloquially known as “The Church in the Rock” because it is built inside a bloody great rock, this is a truly amazing place, and despite the tourist hordes, somewhere you can sit for hours just marvelling at the construction.
