A Church in a Rock
If it is Wednesday, it must be Helsinki. They skies were threatening, but we had our umbrellas and jackets. It did rain mostly when we were driving. We met our guide Paulo after a nice breakfast in the dining room. We started out with a drive around the city. Paulo explained that Helsinki is not an old town like other European capitols. While it has some beautiful buildings and cobblestone streets, it doesn't have an 'old town'. We drove by the presidents house and around some parks.
We stopped at a beautiful monument to Finlands most famous composer, Jean Sibelius. It was made to look like it was a lot of organ pipes, but they were also decorated. It was very beautiful and when the wind blows very hard it makes a lovely noise - at least that was what Paulo said because it wasn't windy when we were there.
Next we visited some gardens that the locals tended since we always like to see things that tell us what life is like in those countries.
We then drove to the Rock Church, which was built into bedrock. The interior is circular with one rock all around it and the ceiling is a big circle of copper cord wrapped in a circular pattern. The beauty of the church was enhanced by the beautiful piano music that was being played while we were there.
After visiting the Rock Church, we left the city to venture out to the UNESCO world heritage site of Porvoo. This is a little picturesque town on a river with lovely wooden houses.
We visited a neighborhood and the men were facinated with an automatic lawn mower that someone had mowing their lawn. So much for history! We visited the local church with a tall bell tower. The churches here are much simplier than the large cathedrals because they are Lutheran and don't go for frills, saints, and icons.
We walked down the main cobblestone street and had lunch at a small place that had good minestrone soup, fresh bread, and salmon cooked 4 different ways. We had to tell them what the soup was because they called it spaghetti soup. After lunch we visited a few of the little shops and managed to find some tea towels made in Finland.
We jumped back into the van and headed back to Helsinki. Since Carla always asks the tour guide to go to a pastry place, Paulo took us to the nicest one in Helsinki. It was big with lots of goodies and chocolate with some weird flavor combinations, like dark chocolate, almond, and pear flavor in one.
After sampling the local pastries, Paulo took us to a marketplace which had lots of cheese, vegetables, fruit, and salmon, salmon, and more salmon. It was interesting to compare this marketplace with the one in Saint Petersburg. Helsinki was much nicer.
Paulo took us back to our ship for a fond farewell. We have been asking each of our guides questions about their country - taxes, health care, etc. Paulo was not happy about the EU and wished that Finland would leave it. He also said the Finish people weren't very social and since they were so close to Russia, they are a little more tolerant of the 'beast' next door. On board again, we sailed away, had a great dinner, and rested up for our next full day - this time in Stockholm.
We stopped at a beautiful monument to Finlands most famous composer, Jean Sibelius. It was made to look like it was a lot of organ pipes, but they were also decorated. It was very beautiful and when the wind blows very hard it makes a lovely noise - at least that was what Paulo said because it wasn't windy when we were there.
Next we visited some gardens that the locals tended since we always like to see things that tell us what life is like in those countries.
We then drove to the Rock Church, which was built into bedrock. The interior is circular with one rock all around it and the ceiling is a big circle of copper cord wrapped in a circular pattern. The beauty of the church was enhanced by the beautiful piano music that was being played while we were there.
After visiting the Rock Church, we left the city to venture out to the UNESCO world heritage site of Porvoo. This is a little picturesque town on a river with lovely wooden houses.
We visited a neighborhood and the men were facinated with an automatic lawn mower that someone had mowing their lawn. So much for history! We visited the local church with a tall bell tower. The churches here are much simplier than the large cathedrals because they are Lutheran and don't go for frills, saints, and icons.
We walked down the main cobblestone street and had lunch at a small place that had good minestrone soup, fresh bread, and salmon cooked 4 different ways. We had to tell them what the soup was because they called it spaghetti soup. After lunch we visited a few of the little shops and managed to find some tea towels made in Finland.
We jumped back into the van and headed back to Helsinki. Since Carla always asks the tour guide to go to a pastry place, Paulo took us to the nicest one in Helsinki. It was big with lots of goodies and chocolate with some weird flavor combinations, like dark chocolate, almond, and pear flavor in one.
After sampling the local pastries, Paulo took us to a marketplace which had lots of cheese, vegetables, fruit, and salmon, salmon, and more salmon. It was interesting to compare this marketplace with the one in Saint Petersburg. Helsinki was much nicer.
Paulo took us back to our ship for a fond farewell. We have been asking each of our guides questions about their country - taxes, health care, etc. Paulo was not happy about the EU and wished that Finland would leave it. He also said the Finish people weren't very social and since they were so close to Russia, they are a little more tolerant of the 'beast' next door. On board again, we sailed away, had a great dinner, and rested up for our next full day - this time in Stockholm.
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