Jeff: Helsinki

The next two days were to be spend exploring Helsinki and the first thing I have to say is the weather was not on our side at all. Every time we looked at the weather apps they would say something different but what actually happened was that it pretty much rained for two days, especially any time we were outside. Because of this our exploring of Helsinki did involve us being indoors lots and eating and we probably crossed the city on bike and foot more than we needed two but anytime it started to clear up we wanted to get out and see things but it would inevitably start raining again. I wont go on below about the rain but you can be sure that pretty much every time we were outside it rained and by the end of the day we were soaking wet

First we headed out on the bikes to the city centre and reached Helsinki Cathedral. We promptly tied up the bikes and headed inside for a look around. We then moved the bikes down to the main square and into some proper bike parking and decided to head to the old market to have a look around. The stalls inside were beautiful wooden stalls selling a range of things from local fish, cheese, meat, fruit and vegetables, cakes, flowers and wines and then some were little cafes serving tea, coffee, soup and other foods.

By this time we decided that maybe we should have a snack so we headed to Frazer café. Frazer is a big chocolate maker over here and we hoped there would be some vegan options but there was a definite lack of them but it did smell fantastic. After a quick look around at the chocolate on sale we headed to another café, this time a vegan one, where we had hot drinks, a Finnish rice pie with a vegan egg butter on top, and a custard and rhubarb pastry. The Finnish rice pie is called a Karelian and is a tradition over here and I have seen lots of them but because they traditionally have egg and butter we haven’t been able to try them but it is essentially rye pastry with rice (or mashed potato and rice) put inside but the top is not sealed and egg butter is added to this open section of the pie.

After that Rich suggested that we head to the library and I did think this might be a bit of desperation on his part to avoid the rain but no, turns out it’s a really cool place and miles better than any library I have ever been to. On the ground floor there were some chess tables and as Rich has been learning we had to play a game (I wasn’t much competition but it was fun) and then we headed up, past an EU education centre, to the second floor. Here there were 3D printers, UV printers, laser cutters sowing machines and a design area, media workstations, retro gaming area (with a Nintendo and super Nintendo) which we had to have a go on, high tech games rooms with most up to date consoles and VR, urban work areas, rooms with computers and rooms for meetings or just to work either with others or alone. We then headed up to the third floor where there were loads of books, a board game section, a kids section (with what looked like a baby and toddler group happening, a café and a large balcony to get great views of the city. We spent far more time there than planned but it was big and there was so much to see and do.

Next we headed out to another market hall called Hakaniemi market hall where we walked around before finding a vegan café where we had lunch. We then headed to the train station which is a lovely looking building but also houses a vegan doughnut company so we got pudding before we headed back to the cathedral and into the Helsinki City Museum. The Museum is set over several floors and looks at the history of Helsinki and has a temporary exhibition on “Being Black – excerpts from Afro-Finns”. The museum was interesting, although a lot of the interactive exhibits appeared to be broken. One of the exhibits, which was a time machine showed Helsinki in the 1800s and showed the famous Uspenski church so it seemed fitting that we should head over there next to have a look. The church is a beautiful red brick church with a green roof. Inside is a large golden altarpiece and chandeliers. Next up we headed to another church – temppeliaukion - but this one is built directly into solid rock with a copper dome ceiling. There is a 5 euro admission to have a look around but the kind lady at the desk said that if we came back at 6.30 there was a concert of Columbian music and there was free entry for this meaning you could have a look around and get a free concert. We decided to do that and headed out to continue exploring and headed over to Tervasaari which is known as Tar island, as tar used to be stored here. This is reached by a causeway and gives great views of the city but also has a beach and beautiful gardens. We didn’t stay long and soon headed back into the city and headed to get some dinner (vegan burgers and chips) before heading back to the church for the evening concert. The concert was organised by the Columbian embassy and there were many diplomats in attendance from both Columbia and from Finland. The music was performed by 4 people and included 1 harp and 1 special Columbian harp and the music while beautiful was a lot slower and had a slower tempo than we had thought. We did leave before the end, partially as we wanted to get home before it got too dark.

The next morning we got up early and had to move the van to a new parking spot around the corner, due to the parking around here only being 24 hours, and got back on the bikes and headed back into the centre. This time we jumped straight on a boat and headed out to Suomenlinna which is a UNESCO World Heritage site as it is an 18^th century fortress which has been both Russian, Swedish and Finnish. We walked around the island exploring the different areas, including the fortress walls, the church, and various squares. I wasn’t sure how long we would want to spend here before we got there but you really could spend hours there just walking around and exploring. There is a main footpath we started walking on, which most people follow and we did go off-piste for some of it and explored more of the village areas. We ended up at the Kings gate a couple of hours after getting to the island which is the furthest part from the harbour we headed back to the quay, with a very fast walk at the end to ensure we caught the ferry back to the city.

Once back in the city we headed straight for a sauna to get us nice and warm. We used Allas sea pools which was helpfully right next to the dock and has three pools to choose from and has 5 saunas. The pools ranged from a warm pool, a 25 metre lane pool and a cold pool of sea water but filtered. We preferred the sea pool as it was generally quieter and was colder than the others. we managed to try all 5 saunas in our 3 hours there and there were a couple we really liked, mostly the mixed sex ones as they had good views.

After that we were starving so we headed on the bikes to get some food for a late lunch at a vegan Thai restaurant before having a short cycle around the city to see a few more sites before deciding that it was time to head back to the van. We got back fairly late but enough time to cook some dinner before collapsing into bed tired from two very busy days