Helsinki – Day 2

Both of us think that the best way of seeing a city is to walk it. You not only get to see some of the famous landmarks and its sights, but you also get to smell it and ‘feel’ it too. More often than not, you’ll end up seeing things that will remain in your memory for ever, things not appearing in any guide book either.

So today, we were taking a walk around Helsinki.

First up on our agenda was a big hotel breakfast in preparation for our grand tour of Helsinki. The hotel restaurant, situated downstairs, was very busy, but we found a table and  tucked in to the ample buffet that was on offer. The food was fresh, well cooked and there was a huge selection on offer too. Being an ex-prison you could also choose to use steel cups and plates, something like the inmates would have used. Once stuffed with breakfast we togged up warmly and headed out in to Helsinki.

Talking of seeing things not in the guide books, one of the random things we encountered on our walk was two Giraffes! These two guys seemed to be discusssing the scene below them from the balcony of the Natural History Museum of Helsinki.

With a combination of physical map and a mobile App, GPSMyCity, downloaded to my phone, navigating around Helsinki was pretty easy and we soon found our first stop, the Rock Church or to give it it’s proper name, the Temppeliaukio Church. As it’s name suggests, this Lutheran Rock Church was built in to a lump of granite. The design of the place is simply stunning, using the bare rock, natural wood and local copper it is simply beautiful.

We sat and enjoyed the peace and soaked in the atmosphere until a party of Chinese tourists bustled in to the place, chattering noisily and taking pictures all over the place which totally spoils the peace and quiet.

It seems the Chinese have little or no respect for anything, let alone a religious building and anyone that may just have been enjoying its peace and tranquility.

Next up was the Kamppi Chapel of Silence. This little place was simply awesome. Amazingly designed wooden structure it houses a tiny chapel. A place to escape the hurly burly of the outside world, it’s a refuge too, with people on hand to listen and counsel if needed. The simple wooden walls and pews were beautiful and it was a warm and comforting place to spend a few minutes in peace and prayer.

We headed back towards the city centre taking a coffee break in Stockmann. This is Helsinki’s iconic department store, and it’s huge, something akin to London’s Harrods I guess, stocking what appeared to be pretty much everything you could possibly need and famed for it’s customer service. Downstairs we took a seat in the Espresso House coffee shop where we took a break. The place was lovely, served really good coffee and of course, great service too, the barista switching seamlessly in to English once I spoke. Very warm and friendly place.

Coffee break over, we headed over to Senate Square and it’s Cathedral, scaling the steep steps to get to the top.

Inside was lovely and there was a rehearsal happening with cellos and violins playing. The pews were the old fashioned family booths, with doors bearing family names. Again, very calm and simply charming.

Back down the steep Cathedral steps and across the square we popped in to the Helsinki City Museum.

Great museum, completely and always free to get in. Some great exhibits too, with a wonderful 360 city panorama through the ages exhibit. Choose the era and pan around the city to see how it looked, comparing then and now. Surprisingly a lot of buildings were still standing across all the vistas, even spotting our prison hotel. An interesting exhibition of smells too.

Then across the harbour to the Old Market Hall, or Vanha Kauppahalli, here a traditional market building, built way back in 1888, has been transformed in to a great venue for some amazing food outlets. Traditional fish dishes, local soups and sandwiches all on offer along with some delicatessens selling all sorts of local and traditional foods. We made a note to return to try the local fish soup at some point.

Getting peckish after our mornings sightseeing, we made our way to a tiny restaurant called Healthinki. Nestled by a quiet park, in what looks like quite a trendy part of the cities ‘burns, it serves up only healthy food, hence it’s name. We both tucked in to one of their lunch dishes, both freshly made. Great friendly service. Great value. Well worth the walk.

Refuelled, we headed back to our hotel for a short break, on-route we visited the nearby Uspenski Cathedral. This huge imposing building stands at the entrance to the little island where our hotel sits, towering over the surroundling skyline with its impressive looking gold topped, onion shaped, domes and dark red brickwork, it looks quite stunning, moreso when it is illuminated at night. But as impressive as the building is on the outside, it was massively dull and miserable on the inside. It’s heavy, austere atmosphere hung inside the cavernous inside like a heavy wet blanket, with miserable looking people making sure you didn’t cross the plastic tape or touch anything. Not an ounce of joy in the place at all.

 Taking a short siesta in the hotel we thenpopped back out in to Helsinki to find something to eat, looking for a pre-swim coffee and cake and eventually ending up back in the Espresso House in Stockman. And yes, you did read that correctly, I said pre-swim.

Something way up high on Karen’s Helsinki To-Do list was a visit to the Allas Sea Pool.These are outdoor pools that are floating in Helsinki harbour and also have indoor saunas too. Entrance was €9, plus a refundable €3 for the electronic wristband, and an extra €5 for rental of a towel. One of the pools is an ‘ambient‘ sea water pool, around 2°C or so, and two other ‘heated‘ pools that were supposedly at 27°C. Karen loved every second of it. With a wintery wind cutting across the harbour combining with a drizzling misty rain, I found it slightly less enjoyable than she did. Watching boats chug past the end of the pool while swimming around was an unusual experience though. But Karen thought it all rather wonderful and wanted us to repeat the whole experience again on Helsinkis “free open sauna day” and also on the ‘clothes optional’ or naked Friday too. I politely declined.