Helsinki May 29, 2001
Finland has really only existed as such since 1917. It was part of Sweden for centuries, then Czar Alexander came in and threw the Swedes out. After the Russian revolution, the locals revolted as well and basically persuaded the local Russian troops that there would be much more fun for them if they went home rather than stayed here and fought for a mother land that had changed so drastically.
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We arrived in Helsinki about 6:30 AM after an evening of hard steaming
(about 21 knots). We lost an hour last night (and lose another one
tonight) but we had not signed up for anything in the morning, so this was
not an issue. We parked right in the harbor and enjoyed watching the
activities in the harbor (while waiting for clothes to wash).
They were loading the far container ship, and unloading the ship (of which you can just see the corner of the bow) right next to us. |
| In the afternoon, we took the city tour by bus. As you can expect, they are rather proud of Sibelius and this sculpture is in his memory. The local citizens complained that it was rather impersonal, so they later added his bust (you can see it on the right). |  |
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Our second stop is called "the Rock Church" (any guesses why?). It's a very modern ecumenical church, anybody can attend. They persuaded the City Fathers to give them free land, and this is the land the City Fathers chose. |
| As you can see from this picture taken inside, they dug down into the rock (there's a parking garage below this level as well, originally intended as a bomb shelter). The sky lights let in a ton of light and the rock provides very interesting acoustics as well. |  |
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We then went to the old town. When Alexander wanted to move the
capitol to Helsinki, the locals complained that they couldn't move the
buildings. Shortly later, there was a fire in Helsinki and he moved
in architects to build new buildings there. Coincidentally, shortly
after the buildings were finished, there was a fire in the old
capitol. Rather than rebuild, they moved.
The architects had recently worked in St. Petersburg and we've been promised that these buildings will look very familiar tomorrow. |
| There are two cathedrals down town (less than a 5 minute walk between them). This one was built in 1868 and is the largest Russian Orthodox cathedral outside Russia. As you can see, it's on a point of rock high over the city. |  |
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This is the inside of the Orthodox church. The center red door
opens during services so the congregation can [kind of] see the priest at
the high alter. They had some important visitors that they took back
there, so we got a peak, but that's about all. As you can see, this
is a very ornate church. |
| The other Cathedral is the Evangelical Lutheran Church (of Swedish persuasion). It was built about 15 years before the Orthodox church, but interestingly enough in these days of religious wars, the Russians didn't destroy this one when they arrived. |  |
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