Helsinki is closed

Note to self: everything in Helsinki is closed on Mondays. I did know that, but age doesn't deal kindly with memory! 

Being foiled in our intentions to visit the Rembrandt exhibition in the Sinebrychoff and the Larsson exhibition at the Atheneum today, we decided to buy two unlimited travel tickets for a day and spend some time on trams.  Having perused the tourist literature, we eschewed the Helsinki Card (28 Euros) and bought a local travel ticket for one day - unlimited travel on bus, trams, ferries, metro and local railways - for 7 Euros. Admittedly, the Helsinki Card allows free entrance to many galleries and museums, but there's not much point in buying one when everything's closed...

We had a very energetic day once we'd waded through a massive Finnish breakfast - sadly, no dill pickled herring at our hotel and I'm not quite as keen on the mustard herring, but there were still mountains of pulla, karjalanpiirakkat, pickeled herring, pickled cucumber, tiny frankfurter-type sausages, fruit, cereal and toast.

Having purchased our tickets, we leapt onto a tram to Hakaniemi and the market halls there. We browsed the food halls first, watching the locals buying huge quantities of beautifully-displayed salmon, smoked salmon, bread, cakes, fruit, various types of sausage, meat and other local delicacies. Next, we went to the upstairs part of the market to the handicrafts and cafés. And, of course, we stopped for coffee. Since we'd only had breakfast a couple of hours earlier, we resisted the cakes and pastries, but it was a struggle.

Then, onto a tram back into the city centre and down to the harbour where a few brave stallholders had set up their market stalls in the snow and were waiting hopefully for tourists to inspect their wares. What a difference from the vibrant summer market of fruit, vegetables, flowers, handicrafts, cafés and vast swathes of dill. No sign in winter of the local fishermen selling freshly caught fish or of the throng of eager purchasers jostling to obtain the best of the catch. 

The sea becomes ice While we braved the wind for all of two minutes, we went, instead, to look at the indoor market at the harbour. We had a wonderful time examining the delicacies on offer; the most tempting were smoked reindeer, elk and bear meat, but export/import would be problematic, so, again, we resisted.

We headed out across the harbour to look at the young soldiers freezing outside the presidential palace, inspected the timetable for ferries to Suomenlinna and decided the weather was too cold to warrant a visit. Instead, we headed up past the Uppensky Cathedral (Russian Orthodox), round through Senate Square (think of movies such as 'Reds', 'Gorky Park', 'White Nights' and 'Billion Dollar Brain' - Leningrad? No - Helsinki!) And then it was lunchtime... Finally, I got to eat in Kappeli - wonderful Hungarian Goulash as the snow fell gently outside and we admired the inside of the building.

View to the Lutheran Cathedral

Determined to make the most of our 24 hour travel tickets, after lunch, we headed off for Temppeliaukion kirkko (the church in the rock). Naturally, we boarded the tram that was taking the long way round the circular route, but we got to admire the Russian Embassy, Bulevardi, Hakaniemi (again) and the Olympic sports stadium before arriving on a main street from which the church itself can be glimpsed. However, if you didn't know what you were looking for, you'd miss it. Just as well I knew what I was looking for, eh?

Temppeliaukion kirkko - exterior

Temppeliaukion kirkko - interior

The church was, as usual, very peaceful. We were treated to an impromptu concert by a visiting Japanese choir who'll be giving a concert on Wednesday; they certainly demonstrated how good the acoustics are in the church.


On our way out, we were pleased to see a snow lorry taking away some of the mounds of snow from the sides of the road. Until today, I'd forgotten all about this phenomenon, even though it fascinated me a quarter of a century ago, along with the men (always men, then) who tied themselves to rooves in order to remove the snow before it fell and killed a passer-by.

Snow truck

And then... it was time for a warm drink and a snack! Back onto the tram to the railway station, then a short walk to Mannerheimintie to change trams. This time, it was quite strange; we were on the same tram route I used to take every day when I worked in Helsinki in the 1980s. Indeed, we got off the tram at the stop opposite the apartment block I lived in. That stirred quite a lot of memories. And then, we were in Café Succes, clutching vast mugs of hot chocolate and even more enormous cinnamon rolls... now that really did bring back memories of my flatmate going out on Saturday mornings and bringing those rolls back to the apartment block for us! And as soon as I tasted those rolls, it was 25 years ago for me and my life was very different.

And next... back onto the tram and into the city centre, this time to look at Finlandia talo and Musiikkitalo. Neither of them had concerts today, but it was worth looking at the two buildings together and seeing how architecture has changed since Finlandia talo was built. And then, past EMMA (modern art - we had been told not to bother, so we didn't), the old post office building and into Sokos, closely followed by Stockmann's department store - well, you have to when you're in Helsinki, don't you?

By this time, our feet were complaining, so we wandered back to the hotel, happily planning a quick trip out later. Our minds were more eager than our feet, though; instead of going out again, we staggered to the hotel dining room for dinner (yes, I know, how could we even imagine eating again?) and gorged ourselves on mushroom and smoked reindeer soup, salmon and baked potato with shrimp sauce and, finally, lemon cheesecake. Needless to say, we're not going out again tonight! Instead, we're going to pack our bags and then put our feet up.

More tomorrow, when I will be buying cloudberry jam and licorice sauce (separately, not together - don't start!) and May will be wondering if my suitcase will be overweight (currently around 13.5 kg and I have a maximum allowance of 23kg plus handluggage (7kg). Hmmm, how many jars of jam can I cram into my suitcase, I wonder...