Helsinki and Porvoo

Friday

6 September 

Day 68

28 to go

Today we had the morning to ourselves. We were awake at 7.30am and out by 8am. We were in no real hurry, which was lovely. We received a photo from Merida of her with the Atthowe’s and Chell having dinner yesterday before they all fly home today. It was a shame we didn’t get to chat to them last night, but we were stuffed after our big walk. 

We were all sorted by 9am and were out the door, ready to take in the sights of Helsinki. Our first stop was Senate Square, where the Helsinki Cathedral sits at the top of many stairs. We walked along the front of the big, white church and then down to the square, taking in the Alexander II statue. 

From here,  we made our way to another well known church Uspenski. This is a Russian Orthodox Church, in red brick, that also sits atop a hill.  We walked the perimeter and made our way inside to check out the decoration. 

We then returned to the water front, wandering through the market with various tourist goodies and local food. Much of it was still being set up. The tourist information building is quite striking. A round corkscrew type design, made of wooden slats. It looks like it would be a great place to ride a bike. 

Following the water front, we ducked up a side street, finding a sculpture dedicated to the winter war on 1939-1940. It was a large, holey, metal man on a ball. We continued on, finding the St John’s church. Below the church was a playing field. We stopped to watch the kids playing a form of tail tag. It was interesting to be an observer and pick out the various personalities and spot what the teacher was missing between some of the students. 

Satisfied, we moved on towards our next destination. This time we passed the three xxxx statue before popping out in front of the Central Train Station, which is quite an ornate piece of architecture, with interesting sculptures and clock tower. 

We walked around part of the station, heading towards the museum and seeing a green character on the roof of a building. We continued passed the museum, where a sculpture of women and children stand in a pond, water fountains pouring from their eyes. Across the road was Parliament. 

This seemed to be the cultural district, as we were soon standing in a space flanked by the music centre, library and museum. Here we found a large pike sculpture and a lovely flower garden to wander around. The library is a new build and it is striking in its form, with lots of lines. 

Happy that we had almost completed 10000 steps. We returned to the  and found a coffee shop for a mid morning hot chocolate and pastry. We then picked up some lunch things from Lidl and began making our way back to the room for lunch and a bit of a rest.