Helsinki Highlights

Helsinki's Lutheran Cathedral

We had two days in Helsinki. It would be easy to spend two weeks and still have things to do. We had the choice of a dozen different museums, two outstanding outdoor historical parks, several possible boat rides, and a great variety of eating establishments. And saunas. We started our first day by buying the Helsinki Pass. We haven’t purchased these cards beore because they usually are for a few specific sites that require more than the few days we have and aren’t always things we want to do. However, this pass is different. It starts with a HopOn-HopOff bus tour, includes a 90-minute canal cruise, offers free entry to a host of museums, discounts on some other things including a few restaurants, and free use of the transit system. Since the HopOn-HopOff and cruise prices nearly equal the Helsinki Pass price, buying it was a no-brainer.

A mini-concert while we toured the Rock Church

We began with the HopOn-HopOff bus tour. We made stops at the two biggest attractions, the Rock Church and the Sibelius Monument. The church was hewn out of stone in the 1950s and was part of Finland’s coming of age in the modern era as it provided jobs and a source of pride in Finnish ingenuity and craftsmanship. It is a stunningly beautiful building made even better on our visit by the piano player.

Jean Sibelius was Finland’s greatest composer. We learned that he lived a long life, but basically quit making music during his last thirty years. He was too busy enjoying the fruits of his labors with good food and drink. The monument is a beautifully crafted set of pipes designed to look like an organ in its park setting overlooking a small lake. A stern-looking Sibelius oversees the scene and the masses of tourists fighting to get their pictures taken in and around the monument.

While we waited for the bus after visiting the church we had a lovely conversation with another tour bus driver from England. He entertained us with stories of the Jack the Ripper tours he led in London, one we might look for when we visit there in the fall. He also told us about a little coffee shop on the lake near the Sibelius monument. It was time for a break so we found the Red Shack Cafe where we had a cold drink and a cake to tide us over until dinner.

After completing the HopOn-HopOff tour, we stopped in the shopping district. The ladies did their shopping while John and I had a beer at the Hard Rock Cafe under umbrellas on the square. Relaxing in the shade with a beer is a pleasant end to a hot day of sightseeing.

Our tour boat

Suomenlinna Sea Fortress

The Suomenlinna Sea Fortress was built by Sweden in 1748 to protect its Baltic empire against the Russians. Today it is an historical park enjoyed by the population who come to enjoy one of the several museums or just to have a picnic on a warm summer day.

Another of the many tour boats

Barely enough room for the boats. It saves several hours.

That evening we did the canal cruise. This 90-minute boat ride took us through the Helsinki archipelago with commentary on Helsinki's history and lifestyle. Our cruise began at 6:30 and we still saw a lot of people out enjoying the sun and cooling off in the warm Baltic waters of the bay. The early evening sun added a serene beauty as we cruised around island after island through narrow straits and canals. At the conclusion of the cruise, we wandered a bit looking for a place to eat, but at the end of the long day, nothing seemed appealing. Instead we headed back to the hotel for dinner there.

Even in the late evening people enjoying a cooling swim

On our second morning we headed out to the Technology Museum, about a 30-minute tram and bus ride from the hotel. This museum is located in the old water treatment plant so there is a strong focus on that work with much of the old machinery still in place. The real focus of the museum is the leading role Finland has played in the development of modern technology worldwide. Since John worked for the Camas Paper Mill (owned by Crown Zellerbach, James River, and now Georgia Pacific), he was an interesting guide through the paper and electrical sections of the museum. He has been to Finland on a couple of occasions to look at Finnish paper-making equipment so he pointed out some of the equipment used as he started working in the industry.

But Finland has also been a major player in the development of electronics, so there were several displays about the development of radio, television, and the internet. Nokia is only one of several Finnish companies that have led the development of communications technology in the modern age.

On the bus ride out, we passed the Arabia Design Center that our friends, Jim and Marcia, had taken us to when we were here two years ago. We had hoped to visit it again, but weren’t sure we would be able to fit it in. Now we had a perfect opportunity, so we stopped there on our way back to town. The public part of the building is really an outlet for their products and for Fiskar and Finlayson products as well. For those like me who aren’t familiar with those names, Arabia makes fine ceramic wear, Fiskar makes tools and the best scissors in the world. Finlayson makes linens. We did make a couple of purchases.

My favorite part of the building is the lobby of the Fiskar campus. As you can see from the pictures, they have created some interesting art from a few of their everyday products.

For dinner we returned to an Italian restaurant we had enjoyed two years ago. Ravintola Coma lived up to our expectations and more. A bit of a hole in the wall, the smell of garlic was almost overpowering as we walked past the kitchen to the tables. We chose to sit in the outdoor patio surrounded by trees and two art nouveau apartment buildings. We ordered bruschetta and a bottle of Montepulciano to accompany dinner, three different risottos (the specialty of the house) and a chicken pasta. Each plate was beautiful and tasty. The risotto came out perfectly cooked and remained hot throughout the meal, two characteristics often missing even in good restaurants. After dinner we chatted a bit with the waiter/co-owner. He said he has been in Finland 35 years and is still learning the language, something we could sympathize with. When we asked him why he left Toronto, he pointed at his partner and said, “I met her.” She smiled. A good way to end our short time in Helsinki before hitting the road to see more of southern Finland from a rental car.

Helsinki and our President

One of Mr. Putin's airplanes

Our flight from Kirkenes to Helsinki took us uneventfully through Oslo. Our arrival in Helsinki was anything but uneventful, however. We arrived in the early evening on the day of the infamous Putin-Trump meeting. We had to go through customs as we got off the plane because of the meeting, but that was a relatively painless process. However, it appeared that since we were from the US, we were asked more questions. The train ride from the airport was easy, but once we left the train station, things got interesting. Fortunately, we decided to take a taxi rather than the tram because the trams were completely stopped and had been for hours. The problem was that they were meeting right at one of the main intersections by the harbor. NO traffic was being allowed through there completely cutting off parts of town from the rest of the city. Our hotel turned out to be on the other side of that intersection.

The end of our ride

Waiting for a glimpse of the presidents

Our driver said he wasn’t sure he could get us to our hotel when we hailed him. He did try taking a couple of back roads, but still ending up stuck in the traffic jam surrounding the Presidential Palace where they were meeting. To make matters worse, they were close to finishing so a large crowd of people was hanging around hoping to get a view of the dignitaries. We got out of our taxis and walked the rest of the way to the hotel. The heat was oppressive, but the walk was flat and only one kilometer, so we made it without too much difficulty. We had a nice dinner in the cool basement of our hotel rather than face the heat and more walking.

We did walk past this beautiful Orthodox Cathedral

There will be some fallout over the mess Putin and Trump created with their overwhelming presence. Trump’s coterie included 72 vehicle, three helicopters, and an untold number of secret service agents who arrived days before the summit. Putin’s entourage was similar in size and scope. The biggest criticism we heard was the fact that pedestrians were also prevented from accessing certain streets which meant some could not reach their homes. This is unprecedented in Finland where the constitution guarantees free access to walk anywhere, even on private property, basically without restriction. Just don’t trample the rose bushes.

 

We stayed at Hotel Katajanokka when we visited Helsinki two years ago. It used to be a county prison. A prison has been on the site since at least 1749. Parts of the building are over 170 years old. The prison was closed in 2002 and converted to a hotel in 2007. The remodeling left many reminders of the old prison. Each of the four wings is open to the top floor with the old iron railing along the openings. A few of the old iron prison doors remain in place in the hallways. In the basement one of the isolation cells was left intact for visitors to enjoy the experience. It is small and windowless as expected. What surprised me was that the pull chain to flush the toilet was not accessible to the prisoner, leaving him to the mercies of the guards.

The rooms are very nice. Most of them are the size of three cells so they are quite spacious and outfitted with all the modern amenities. More windows were cut into the walls to allow more natural light. The restaurant in the basement is cool on the hot summer days and serves excellent food. The prison yard has an outdoor bar where one can also get small plates and snacks on a pleasant afternoon. And the tram stops right outside the front door so we have easy access to public transport even though it is just a short kilometer walk to the main part of town. It’s a good place to stay.