June 30, 2014 Helsinki, Finland

Finland is the “eastern-most” Scandinavian country occupying the land between Sweden and Russia with about 1/3 of the country situated north of the Arctic Circle. Their ancestors migrated from Central Asia about 2,000 years ago, and maintain a most distinct culture from other Europeans – not at all like any of their closest neighbors, such as the Swedes, Germans, or Russians.

The Finns kept separate and distinct, although ruled by others for most of their recorded history.               Sweden annexed Finland in the 13^th century – many Swedish names of people and places remain from that time. In 1809, toward the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Finland passed from Sweden to Russia by a treaty. Russia established Finland as a self-governing Grand Duchy, but Russian control remained very strong. Landlocked Russia valued the extensive seacoast of Finland and started building up Helsinki and other ports.

Finland declared its independence in 1917, and maintained its freedom ever since.               Finns make great soldiers. For example, during the Winter War of 1939-1940, Finland held back the mightier Soviet Union, and even counterattacked!

Finland has a population of about 5.38 million, with 78% Lutheran (because of the Reformation).              The city of Helsinki moved from a little more north of here, to its present location, and has always remained its capital city.  A fire in 1808 destroyed most of Helsinki’s wooden buildings, allowing a master “re-make” plan for a series of public buildings along clean and classical lines.

Our ship docked adjacent to the downtown area, with easy access to the city’s attractions. We stopped by the visitor’s center and they mapped out a nice, easy walking path around town. So, in spite of some light rain, we began our walking tour of Helsinki.         It’s a beautiful city – we enjoyed seeing the different architecture and sculptures around the city.

We reached Senate Square in a few minutes. The master plan of the city worked very well. The busy Square has the Government Palace on one side, and a University on the other.

The impressive Lutheran Cathedral of St. Nicholas high on a hill, also dominated the Square. St. Nick’s had a number of stairs before it, but we went around to the side, inclined street and entered from there. For the massive scale of the Cathedral, I expected a huge interior – modest but very nice. They had nice gift shop, too – we bought a postcard and something for our Christmas tree.

Not far from Senate Square is the more lively Market Square offering fresh fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, flowers, handicrafts, and souvenirs. The fresh food didn’t have to travel that far . . . several restaurants/kiosks/ and tented bistros, right there in the market, offered the catch(es) and vegetables of the day! “It can’t get any fresher than that . . . !”

Friendly, local people helped us find our next destination – “the Rock Church.”

We laughed when we tried to read the street names . . . it seemed impossible!

We wanted “Mannerheimintie” street, which ran off “Pohjoisisplanad” and parallel to “Aleksanterinkatu.” Eventually we got to “Arkadiankatu” street, went 3 blocks to “Fredrickinkatu,” north to “Lutherinkatu” and “Tempplelikatu” – which ran together . . . well, kind of. We got pretty used to the signs after a while – we just split the name in two, and used the first half of the name . . . ha! . . . easy! By the time we arrived at the Rock Church – we were pros at reading the signs!

A few minutes walk brought us to the unique Temppeliaukio (temple-ee-ow-key-o) Church (Rock Church) carved and blasted from solid granite rock in the 1980’s.

We walked back a different way, passed a couple of churches, and did some more shopping. We’ll sit down in the Market Square, and have some reindeer meatballs when we return in a couple of weeks!/rl