Finland – 2013

Hi, everyone –

After two-and-a-half days in Helsinki we’re en route via to Stockholm.  It’s a whopping 40 minute flight.

Helsinki was a nice change after the go-go pace we kept in Russia.  There weren’t nearly the crowds, the city is smaller with fewer attractions and it is more compact than Moscow or St. Petersburg…and the whole country shut down for the Midsummer holiday on Friday and Saturday.  Of note to our asthmatics, there also weren’t nearly as many smokers…

We  arrived in Helsinki about 11:30pm … too late for sightseeing … so we started the next morning with the Orthodox Church, the adjacent Lutheran Church, City Museum and the Finnish National Museum which was really well done.  Anne and I weren’t sure how to take this but in the National Museum was a display regarding Barbie, GI Joes, Legos and other toys from “our day.”  It must mean we’re old enough to be museum pieces?

We also walked to the highest rated MUST-SEE attraction (according to Rick Steves, anyhow) in Helsinki…the Church in the Rock.  It is essentially a sanctuary that has been blasted out of a granite deposit.  We were expecting a bomb shelter but it was close enough to ground level that the sanctuary was one-third above the ground.  We were confused…you can see it on Hannah’s face in the photo.

A cafe lunch on the Esplanade and then shopping…  Oh, wait – everyone has left for the Midsummer Holiday there nothing open.  NOTHING.  So…let’s just wander around Helsinki a bit while Anne goes to the room for a nap.

To start the second day we took the ferry across the harbor to the Island Fortress.  As you can see in the photos, the weather was much improved and the ferry captain showed up for work on the holiday.  We strolled around the island, checked out its museum and headed back to the Market Square to look at the knick-knacks.

After that – we took the bus (whose air conditioner and windows were on holiday) out to the open air museum, Seurasaari.  It is a pretty cool re-creation of about 100 ancient Finnish buildings from all over the country.  The houses are situated in a huge forest preserve with walking trails, WC’s and cafes.  The site is also where every Midsummer there are the ceremonial (I’m assuming Pagan) bonfires and other FInnish dance and music festivals.  There were also along the path several tradespeople demonstrating their crafts – blacksmiths (with a very smokey portable bellows), weavers, loggers, potters and story tellers.  It was pretty cool – you can see the girls trying out some “Finnish” stilts – with reasonable success.  The Japanese guy wasn’t doing nearly as well…but laughing just as much.

We couldn’t stay for the bonfires…they weren’t until much later and we’d already seen the entire island.  Everything was in Finnish language anyhow…we had a lot of fun.

On the way back, though – we did manage to see part of Finland’s scandalous past.  A weather vane designed to show a sperm fertilizing an egg.  Photo attached.  I’ve seen cocks and hens on weather vanes before…this, I suppose just takes it a step further…or backward, depending on how you look at it.

On to Stockholm – thanks for reading!

Love –

Jeff, Anne, Madeline and Hannah