Helsinki, Finland

I’m not sure whether or not Denmark qualifies as a Nordic country, but Finland definitely does. They have long days at this time of year and no days in the winter. They have months of snow and persistent subzero temperatures. Sounds a lot like Canada, except for the light thing – at least in our part of Canada.

The scene above shows the Senate Square Cathedral that is surrounded by both Parliament and University. Much of this city has been rebuilt since WW2 because the Finns made an alliance with the Germans to keep themselves from being obliterated, but the Soviets flattened the city anyway. Nice!

The main railway station is an interesting building, done in the Soviet style. Of course, Finland is not far from and in fact borders on Russia, so this influence is not surprising.

When we last visited Helsinki in 1978, one of the few buildings we remembered was the National History Museum, which we passed on today’s walk.

After we’d walked about five kilometers, our guide gave us a break at a café serving coffee, tea and a “Finnish” – Danish by anyone else’s appraisal, but then we ARE in Finland.

Another memory we had of Helsinki was the next stop on our walk – The Church in The Rock. This Lutheran church, as are most churches in Finland was cut out of granite. The exterior is simply a rock formation, but the interior has been finished in a very Nordic fashion, with very little ornamentation and pomp.
Although Finland relied in the past on its natural resources, much in the same way Canada has, today they are into high-tech thanks to home grown companies like Nokia.
The Finns consider themselves very shy and quiet, but fortunately we had a very gregarious and humourous guide today, which made the day even better. Despite a dire forecast of rain, today was a fabulous weather day, perfect for a ten thousand step walk.