Welcome to Helsinki! We are looking forward to experiencing some of Finland’s great architecture and design.Lutheran Cathedral is a prominent landmark. Completed in 1852, it is one of several Carl Ludvig Engel’s architectural masterpieces — German architect hired by Russian czar Alexander I to master-plan Helsinki.We arrived by train (from Turku) to Helsinki’s main station designed by Eliel Saarinen, 1912. Very cool clock tower!‘The Lantern Bearers’ stand proud on either side – designed by Finnish sculptor, Emil Wikström.Finlandia! A great exhibit inside about Alvar Aalto and modernism. Clad in white marble it is a stunning building.The composer, Jean Sibelius wrote the famous symphony Finlandia. This is a fun monument to him and his “love of music” — 600 stainless steel pipes!Standing underneath the forest of pipe organs is interesting. You can hear the wind play the pipes.Helsinki Music Center, 2011, is another fun building and also houses the Sibelius Academy, one of the largest music academies in Europe. It provides the highest level of music education in Finland.We were lucky enough to get tickets for one of their Wind Symphony Concerts. Many great conductors around the world come out of this academy. The metal flame looking sculpture above the Orchestra is the new 2024 Concert Organ — largest in the world and great looking also.Also nearby is the Oodi Library, 2018, which has really fun architecture and a great space to loiter — which is encourage.The unique spiral stair inside lists all the types of people the library caters to — including tourists!Kamppi chapel of silence, 2012 — or is that ‘The Cone of Silence’ — is a little architectural gem in the middle of busy-ness to contemplate some quietness.Temppeliakio Rock Church, 1969, was a unique experience. The circular ceiling dome is 13 miles of copper ribbon coiled. Panarama of the half the round sanctuary that is carved into the bedrock.Rock meets glass and metal detail – Temppeliaukio Rock ChurchWe had a great apartment at the Kalasaastama metro stop. This is the view from the rooftop 30th floor common party deck.It is one of 5 high rises in a development built around 2010 — it overlooks the soon to be completed longest bridge in Finland. Watching the sunset from our 15th floor balcony over the shortest tower.Leaving Helsinki, we cruised 50 miles of the Baltic Sea to Estonia.
Finland! From the ferry dock in Turku, we had an early morning stroll along the Aura River until we found some coffee and pastry!The Aboa Vetus (old city)Archeology Museum had huge maps of Turku’s development as well as medieval foundations discovered when building the museum. Turku has history dating from 1229 and was rebuilt after a huge fire in 1827.An hours drive in our rental car brought us into the archipelago and on the second largest Finnish island of Kimitoon. We are staying in Villa Eden for a week, next to the Merikruunu Hotel. A beautiful retreat with its own sauna and hot tub – we are ready for some tranquility.Our first morning we walked to the water…Nice!!! Norrfjärden is this inlet of the Baltic Sea.Hiking the Senatsberget trail near Dalsbruk. Our breath is taken away by the beautiful mosses, lichens, and heath on the exposed bedrock……Minature gardens……And lots of varieties of mushrooms. More than we can ever remember seeing.This area is full of ferns. But all the forests seem to us to not have a shrub (mid) layer. and the tree trunks are very straight with not many lower branches. Instead they reach for the sky.Finland hikes have strategic shelters to gather with your friends and family.Senatsberget has a real lookout tower to get a birds eye view……Of the nearby Archipelago. Feeling lucky to have such good hiking days to appreciate returning to our sauna. Very Finnish!Teijo National Park had this Jeturkasti Trail. We are standing on an ancient glacial lake shore from 9,000 BCE. There are allegedly quite a lot of these in Finland, and they have circle depressions created by our early ancestors for cold food storage.After coffee at the Nature Center, we drove to the Sahajarvi Trail in Teijo National Park. A kilometer in, we had a hand ferry to get us to a picturesque island……Perfect rock for a picnic lunch.Also in Teijo National Park-, the Nikkallio overlook — on our third hike of the day — gave us more amazing moss on bedrock with a view of the lake Hamarinjarvi.Another morning we headed to near by Vastanfjard to check out a Labyrinth – or a Nordic Maiden’s Dance Site. This was built in 1910 — potentially on a site of a more ancient one. We enjoyed walking it, looking at the moss, thinking about the rituals, and the quietness of the dawn.Sammallahdenmaki UNESCO bronze age burial site near Rauma. This was a very interesting park with great signage explaining the importance of these archeological finds.More bedrock with glacial striations! Mesmerized by the Baltic Sea and Archipelago National Park from nearby Sandon Beach.
