We were fairly spent after numerous back to back days riding so our Helsinki experience was fairly sedate by design. Additionally, Heidi’s broken thumb (sustained by stepping back without looking while trying to get the perfect Instagram shot of Art in front of a church) further hampered our desire to engage in all-day, every-day, sightseeing. Our first impression of Helsinki is that it has a very Russian feel (its development was greatly influenced by Czar Nicholas), it seems less fancy and historic as other Scandinavian cities. And while its downtown waterfront area has many architecturally interesting buildings, the city spreads out from there into residential areas featuring block after block of almost identical Art Nouveau buildings (all built almost identically at the same time to house the sudden population expansion at the turn of the century).
Our accommodations, fairly typical I would say, were in one of these buildings: huge rooms adorned with high ceilings with decorated plaster, hardwood floors, and serviced by an old-fashioned brass and wood cage elevator! Unfortunately, our building was under renovation and “bagged” so we were unable to open any windows: rather nasty in the great European heatwave of 2019. But we made the best of it by exploring places on or near water to take advantage of whatever breeze could be found!
One day, we rented kayaks and explored in and amongst some of Helsinki’s many (300ish) islands that make up the city, paddling by the homes of both the President as well as the Prime Minister (we were not invited to dock). We also spent a day at Suomenlinna, a maritime fortress island, dating back to 1748, and designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the 2nd largest fortification after Gibraltar. It is accessed by easy ferry transit from downtown and consists of a series of 6 linked islands with walking trails, museums, cafes, 5 miles of ramparts, tunnels, moats and over 500 cannons! Today Suomenlinna is a huge public park where people stroll and have picnics on sunny days. It is also home to about 900 people and a Naval Academy.
Helsinki also has a very hip central area with a university, business district and shopping area. This is bisected by a promenade, basically a long and narrow flower filled park where people go to sit and picnic and listen to buskers and watch the city walk by. The transit system is really good in Helsinki: we regularly used the historic trams to get specific places and also to travel around the city as a DIY sightseeing hop-on-hop-off.
The main Helsinki harbour, from where the ferries travel, is a very energetic place, filled with locals and tourists off the cruise ships, as well as a market to service them! There are myriad stalls selling local crafts as well as food stalls offering local produce and fried sardines, reindeer meat balls and moose sausage! From there it an easy walk to other sites such as the Russian Orthodox Cathedral (red-bricked gothic outside and opulent gold gilded inside) contrasted with the neoclassical Lutheran Cathedral (gleaming white outside and sparse and serene inside).
Speaking of churches (!) we had a cool visit at the Temppeliaukio Church. This a Lutheran church designed by architects and brothers Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen and opened in 1969. Built directly into solid rock, it is also known as the Church of the Rock and Rock Church. It is a very unique and not the type of church you commonly see in Europe. It is very modern and serene. Quite amazing and beautiful and the acoustics are fantastic: on the day we visited, there was a young pianist performing a free concert!
Of course, any visit to Finland could not be complete without taking part in the national pastime: Sauna! Sauna is such a part of Finnish culture that and most homes and offices have one, even the parliament! For many, it is a daily physical and mental cleansing. The public saunas are now few and far between and in the grittier neighbourhoods. We decided to try Kotiharjun Sauna: one of the last wood-burning public saunas, definitely not for tourists!
Outside the neon sign reads “SAUNA” and under it sits a group of working-class Finns in small towels drinking beer. Art and I felt a little conspicuous as we arrived, but we paid our euros and went our separate ways. In our respective areas we grabbed a towel, stripped, stowed our belongings, showered and entered the sauna…mine was completely empty so I fast footed it to the tiers (crude concrete steps), sat and shucked my towel.
After a few minutes some young women joined me and did the same. Momentarily uncomfortable yes, but when in Finland…! We had a friendly conversation and I felt quite the savvy world traveller! According to Art, the male sauna however was full, with all vying for the top level — for maximum steam and heat. There were two old timers who seemed to revel in stoking the sauna and then exiting, thereby driving the temp over 105 Celsius for those left inside! Art, always up for a challenge, toughed it out with the rest but swears that the tips of his ears were blistering in the heat!
Unfortunately, on this day, the scrub lady was not working (full front and back body scrub for an extra 6 euros) and sadly the bin of birch twigs was empty: slapping your skin with these improves circulation and the aroma opens the sinuses. After 10 or 15 minutes in the sauna one is supposed to leave the sauna and relax and rehydrate, either in the change room or outside: Art and I met outside twice, to sit on the concrete wall for a cold beer with the other Finns (I was the only woman) and it was just like sitting in a pub (if you were sitting in a pub naked except for a small towel that could slip off at any moment). Lots of jovial talk especially when they learned we were from Vancouver! Apparently, there is a substantial Finnish community in our hometown which has sent home favourable reports!
Bellissimo Travels 