Europe - Helsinki

 After a single night in Warsaw, we flew the next day to Helsinki.  The girls got excited as the further north we flew, the more white the landscape became…   Helsinki airport was completely covered in snow, generating a lot of excitement.

 

As a treat we decided to grab some sushi, and found an awesome all you can eat sushi restaurant.  Not only was it delicious, but it was one of the cheapest sushi meals we have had in Europe (£60 for 2 adults and 2 kids). 

We only had one day in Helsinki and we tried to make the most of it.  Originally we wanted to try out a recommended Sauna, but it was fully booked all the way into the new year.  Instead we settled on visiting two very different cathedrals.  The first “Helsinki Cathedral”, also known and St Nicholas’ Church, as is an Evangelical Lutheran cathedral.  Built in the between 1830 and 1852 as a tribute to the Grand Duke of Finland, Tsar Nicolas I.  After seeing so many Roman Catholic church’s, this cathedral, brought forth in plain elegance, resulted in a long discussion with the girls about all the different “flavours” of Christianity. 

The second cathedral we saw was the Uspenski Cathedral, a Greek Orthodox Church, built in the 1862-1868.  This again provided a lot of discussion material with the girls.  Parents felt all talked out about Christianity by the end of it. 

The Wozny family seems to gravitate to Ferris Wheels as we travel.  So hence when we saw the Sky Wheel, we of course had to go on it.  The view was pretty, looking over the water and seeing some of the islands that make up Helsinki.  We even saw an open air pool (it was -5C at the time), with people going in for a dip and a few laps before running back in to the sauna. Brrr.  Maybe it was a good thing that there was no available slots in the sauna today… 

We had a good walk round Helsinki, doing our usual leg stretching and neck swivelling to take in as much as possible.  And along the way we stopped by a Contemporary art museum, to check out the art.  There were 2 exhibits, one of a visual and sound medium (eg. using sound harmonics to make seats vibrate), and a multi sensory exhition of the Nordic region by a South African artist (you could see both worlds in the art).  But we can safely say that it was all a bit over our heads, not sure what the point of a painting of a digital clock showing 3am really is about or about a strip of clay on the floor with some bricks and sand is all about… 

Along the way we stopped by Vanha Kauppahlli for lunch.  It’s a long building by the water front, filled with food vendors, presenting a great spread of food.  Built in 1988/9 and was meant to bring the market vendors under one roof with to goal to improve hygiene and bring organisation to the old market square chaos.  This let us sample a bit of a variety of food, but unfortunately there was way to much to try it all.   The market reminded us a lot of Quincy Market in Boston.

The day flew past quickly and before we knew it, we were checking into the hotel by the airport as tomorrow we have an early flight out! Really early!