Finland: Helsinki
Oct. 5th, 2008 01:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deirdreI've been sadly behind on getting trip reports up, so I'll try to fix that soonest.
One of the aspects of the Baltic I haven't covered is that it's a shallow sea (459 meters or 1506 feet), and is one of the two largest brackish bodies of water in the world. Ships don't float quite the same as they do in ocean water, and one of the other anomalies is that there are no tides.
Thus, sailing into Finland, we saw calm waters and beautiful island chains.
After the splendor of Russia's palaces and churches, nearly any country would have paled in comparison. Finland seemed sedate, quiet, competent, orderly -- many of the things Russia hadn't seemed to excel in. And everything in Finland was in excellent repair.
As this was our fourth port day in a row, we were somewhat tired, so I was glad that our excursion was fairly simple: we got a city tour on a bus, and then we'd have a harbor cruise, and we could then go back to the ship or not.
Our city tour first took us around the harbor and out to the west to see the Sibelius monument, which is a rather large and beautiful piece of modern sculpture.
We then drove to the center of town where we saw the Lutheran cathedral. The vast majority of Finland is Evangelical Lutheran, though there is a Finnish Orthodox minority. Interestingly, though, the largest religious minority is no religious affiliation whatsoever (15.9%).
After that, we got to the real meat of Helsinki: the market at the inner harbor (our ship was too large to get in there because of all the islands). Unlike St. Petersburg, where most of the items sold were made elsewhere, nearly all the items I saw were made by the people in the booths, or at least made in Finland. I bought a wool scarf from the weaver. It's a nice wool.
I'd bought it just in time, in fact. I trotted over to the little tour boat, and put on my furry hat and my warm wool vest, and my new wool scarf, and sat up top.
I managed to snap a few pictures around the harbor before the wind managed to make being up top a cold and mostly unpleasant experience. Oddly, Rick left before I did, but I figured if he weren't up there, I'd surely freeze. Next time: long sleeved jacket and fingerless gloves.
One of the passages our tour boat went through was so small it required a stop light. I'd never seen a stop light in a harbor before, so I was v. amused about that.
Overall, Helsinki wasn't terribly impressive, but it simply suffered by comparison. I'd love to learn more about Finland, though.
One of the aspects of the Baltic I haven't covered is that it's a shallow sea (459 meters or 1506 feet), and is one of the two largest brackish bodies of water in the world. Ships don't float quite the same as they do in ocean water, and one of the other anomalies is that there are no tides.
Thus, sailing into Finland, we saw calm waters and beautiful island chains.
After the splendor of Russia's palaces and churches, nearly any country would have paled in comparison. Finland seemed sedate, quiet, competent, orderly -- many of the things Russia hadn't seemed to excel in. And everything in Finland was in excellent repair.
As this was our fourth port day in a row, we were somewhat tired, so I was glad that our excursion was fairly simple: we got a city tour on a bus, and then we'd have a harbor cruise, and we could then go back to the ship or not.
Our city tour first took us around the harbor and out to the west to see the Sibelius monument, which is a rather large and beautiful piece of modern sculpture.
We then drove to the center of town where we saw the Lutheran cathedral. The vast majority of Finland is Evangelical Lutheran, though there is a Finnish Orthodox minority. Interestingly, though, the largest religious minority is no religious affiliation whatsoever (15.9%).
After that, we got to the real meat of Helsinki: the market at the inner harbor (our ship was too large to get in there because of all the islands). Unlike St. Petersburg, where most of the items sold were made elsewhere, nearly all the items I saw were made by the people in the booths, or at least made in Finland. I bought a wool scarf from the weaver. It's a nice wool.
I'd bought it just in time, in fact. I trotted over to the little tour boat, and put on my furry hat and my warm wool vest, and my new wool scarf, and sat up top.
I managed to snap a few pictures around the harbor before the wind managed to make being up top a cold and mostly unpleasant experience. Oddly, Rick left before I did, but I figured if he weren't up there, I'd surely freeze. Next time: long sleeved jacket and fingerless gloves.
One of the passages our tour boat went through was so small it required a stop light. I'd never seen a stop light in a harbor before, so I was v. amused about that.
Overall, Helsinki wasn't terribly impressive, but it simply suffered by comparison. I'd love to learn more about Finland, though.