Thursday, July 12, 2018; Helsinki, Finland

Thursday, July 12, 2018- Helsinki, Finland

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The alarm woke us at 7:45AM and we found ourselves tied up to the dock in Helsinki.  The view out our balcony revealed a lot of construction going on.  The sky was blue with scattered clouds and the forecast was for partly cloudy with sun breaks and a high of 70 degrees.  

We had breakfast in the buffet and grabbed some extra egg McMuffins for lunch.  We had no trouble getting off the ship, but there was some potential for confusion as there were two areas where passengers could leave the cruise ship. One was a taxi stand and Hop-On Hop-Off bus area.  The other was through a temporary terminal building with a metal frame and fabric roof housing shops.  We initially stood around the taxi stand, but then asked a security guard if we were in the right place for SPB Tours.  Fortunately, he said they usually pick up passengers on the other side of the terminal building, so off we went through the giant tent and we then could see the people with the orange SPB Tours signs through the terminal building.  We boarded a full sized tour bus.  Our guide, Ireena, said there were 14 in our tour.  Janet and I each took a row of seats on each side of the bus to have both sides covered.  It’s hard to take pictures through bus windows when the bus is in motion, but at least we had some idea what buildings went with what narrative.  The guide used Vox radios both on the bus and off the bus.  We found that the earpieces fitted poorly and worked poorly, so we substituted our own noise reducing earbuds.  

We don’t generally get much during the driving parts of these bus tours, but our guide did point out places that we would later be able to walk around and explained some of the highlights.  

Oddly enough, the very first tourist sight leaving the cruise terminal is a huge pink statue of a cartoony man urinating into a flowerbed. 

Naughty Boy!

He is totally naked and stands at least 20’ high.  Apparently, this had been originally a temporary art exhibit erected across from the Presidential Palace, but it was so popular with the Fins that instead of scrapping it when the temporary exhibit expired, it was moved and made a permanent part of Helsinki’s waterfront attractions.  He’s called “The Naughty Boy”.  

We learned that the main industries in Finland include timber, wood products, shipyards producing the world’s leading ice-breakers, cell phones (Nokia), and Angry Birds.  The National game is ice hockey, and everyone ice skates because all the lakes and rivers freeze over six months of the year.  There are islands that are served by ferries during the summer, and buses during the winter, although global warming is changing some of that.  

Our first stop was at Helsinki’s Senate Square, location of the “White Church” or Helsinki Cathedral. There is a large fountain of Alexander II in the center of the square. 

Alexander II and the "White Church"

We learned of Finland’s history of possession by Russia, Sweden and Denmark over history.  Ethnically they are closest to Estonians, with whom they share dialects of a nearly common language although some words have almost comically different meanings.  For example, marriage in one language means struggle in the other language.  With a few months of practice, Estonians and Finlanders can understand each other, but both languages are very hard to learn as they are neither related to Romance languages or Russian.  They are possibly related to Hungarian, though.  Children in Finland are taught to speak Finnish, Swedish and English.  The security guard we encounter in the cruise ship port spoke perfect English.  

When the Russians controlled Finland, it was very poor and didn’t really have any resources that the Russians wanted. They also couldn’t speak Finnish, and the Finns didn’t care to learn to speak Russian either.  When the Finns campaigned for independence, the Russians were being distracted by their deal with McKinley to sell Alaska to the Americans and the Bolsheviks, so they basically let Finland go with out much ado.  

The Government Palace and University of Helsinki, and Sederholm House- the oldest building of central Helsinki dating from 1757 all ring the square.  

The Helsinki Cathedral is a beautiful building with a white exterior topped by several green patina’d copper domes built in 1830-1852.  It is sometimes referred to “The White Church” colloquially, but was also known as St. Nicholas’ Church prior to the independence of Finland in 1917.  It sits atop an impressive set of stairs overlooking the square.  We opted to admire it from a distance and descend towards the waterfront to visit Market Square and Old Market Hall, with their outdoor and indoor stands of local and tourist fare. 

The most interesting finds were the seafood and meat stands in Old Market Hall with all manner of smoked and fresh fish and meat.  The smells of the smoked fish and meats were tantalizing.  Out in the open market, there are dozens of stalls selling beautifully knitted wool sweaters, scarves and capes, but what caught our eyes were the fruit stands with racks of colorful and fresh berries.  

Nearby is a Helsinki's version of their "Little Mermaid", only she looks more like a French prostitute.  She is called Havis Amanda, and it is said that if you splash your face from one of her fountains and shout "Rakastaa, Rakastaa, Rakastaa!", it's the Helsinki equivalent of taking Viagra.

Havis Amanda. "Rakastaa, Rakastaa Rakastaa!"

All too soon, we had to head back to our bus which took us past the central train station and then out to Seurasaaren Island, which is on a small island in an idyllic park setting.  The island is a park and museum with a collection of historic structures gathered from all around Finland as examples of the architectural styles and lifestyles of Finlanders dating to the 1700’s.  The park was founded in 1889.  They had a complete farmstead  from the 1820’s from western Finland to show how settlers lived in the time.  There were buildings in a rough figure 8 configuration with residential structures around one yard, and animal stalls, workshop spaces and storage around the other yard.  Some of the museum staff were dressed in period costume and they had period wooden furniture.  One interesting display was a rack on the wall containing a row of spoons.  In those days, they didn’t have many plates or bowls, so each individual had their own spoon that they used to eat from a communal pot with the food. There were also spinning wheels and looms reminiscent of the Rumpelstiltskin tale.  The farmstead had the feeling of a fort in the old west. 

Bear Proof locker

Little Cabin

In Lieu of a China Cabinet.  Grab your spoon and dig in!

There were also windmills, waterwheels, a church, and many examples of storage and residential structures hewn from logs.  The most interesting was a food storage building built atop a pole to make it bear proof.  It looked like a giant fairy tale bird house.  The whole exhibit was in a very peaceful wooded island setting with ducks, geese and swans swimming about and brown squirrels scampering about.  There was a wide variety of trees and plants, as well as glacier scoured granite outcroppings like Goose Rock on Whidbey Island.  They had more hewn timber structures than even Jack City.

One of the more modern exhibits was of a traditional Finnish telephone booth, something that disappeared from the landscape shortly after Nokia became a leader in cell phone technology and Finland became the first country to have seamless nationwide cellular coverage in the world.

Traditional Finnish Telephone Booth

 

We were then treated to Finnish coffee and cinnamon rolls, which were very delicious and uniquely rolled and speckled with rough sugar crystals.  Our little coffee break was very peaceful and relaxing.  It was also hard to top the perfect weather we managed to have while we were in Finland.  The temperature was a perfect 70 degrees with scattered clouds and just enough light breeze to be refreshing.

Alas, it was time to leave the island paradise and get back on the bus, which took us by a park with a monument to the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.  In the center of the park is a unique sculpture made of hundreds of pipes, such that when a storm whips up the winds, it plays itself like a natural organ. We, unfortunately didn’t get out of the bus, and had to content ourselves with a view from the street curb. 

Helsinki Sibelius Monument

Our last stop was at a landmark called the Church of the Rock, which was literally blasted and carved out of a granite outcropping near the top of a hill.  The outside isn’t much to look at, but the inside is a masterpiece of Scandinavian design and beauty.  The wooden ceiling is suspended above the center of the church by ribs radiating out like the ribs of a giant mushroom.  The effect is quite stunningly natural and beautiful.  The acoustic inside are also amazing. There was a woman playing some sort of horizontal harp without amplification, and it filled the church with heavenly sounds.  

Then it was back to the ship, with plenty of time before the all aboard time.  We ran into a couple that had taken the SPB-Tours “Deluxe Hermitage” tour, who corroborated Svetlana’s description of what touring the main collection in the Hermitage at this time of year and with 6 cruise ships and the FIFA World Cup in town would be like.  They were not satisfied with their experience of feeling like they were herded shoulder to shoulder from one room or wing to another, rushed along so that they could only just glimpse the most important pieces in the vast collection that was both overwhelming and underwhelming at the same time.  They felt exhausted, rather than enlightened by the experience.  There were tons of stairs, poor ventilation, and cramped hard to find bathrooms.  We were glad we chose instead to concentrate on the Impressionists since we have never really cared for pre-renaissance artwork, of which the Hermitage main collection is mostly composed, despite their religious or cultural significance.  While the pre-renaissance artists were struggling to invent perspective, proportion and lighting nuances, in our age of photography and instagram, the impressionists were working on capturing light, movement and even emotions on their canvases, which we can still relate to.  As for being in the Winter Palace, the exhibit halls were cramped, dark and stuffy.  Catherine’s palace was really the place to experience the opulence and excesses of the Emperors and Czars of Imperial Russia.  

We were back early enough for a spot of tea before afternoon trivia.  We played with Dave from Virginia, as well as Micha and Gabby, whom we had met at the Disney trivia yesterday.  We got beat by 1/2 point.  They did have some very unique questions including what, if used, was taxed in England until 1862 (soap), and what was the name of the cat in “Meet the Parents” starring Robert DeNiro (Jinxie).  

We got changed into our formal wear for the last time this cruise and enjoyed a good lobster dinner this cruise. The lobster was definitely much better than what had been served on the Island Princess during our South America circumnavigation, and the waiter had no problem with providing us with a double portion.  The Chocolate Journey dessert was also a hit.  It was a pistachio chocolate mousse creation. 

Mmmm, Chocolate Journey😋

Dinner was followed by a Captain’s circle reception for Platinum and Elite members.  We learned that there were about 300 platinum members and 100 elite members on board.  The most experienced cruisers on this itinerary had only 500 cruising days under their belt. On our South America Cruise, there were 1500 platinum and elite members, more than half the total passengers, and the most experienced cruiser there had over 1500 days.  But we got free martinis, and to top off the event, we managed to win a drawing for a bottle of champagne.

 

The Showtime presentation was a pair of Scottish musicians, The MacDonald Brothers, who put on a fine show of singing, fiddling, and accordion playing with a high energy and entertaining show.  

We had another spectacular sunset, accented by a Costa cruise ship that our ship was slowly passing as the sun burned it’s way into the horizon accented with purples, oranges, and blues that are out of this world. You only see these kinds of sunsets at sea.  Twilight hangs around until well after midnight at this northern latitude.  

We turn our clocks back an hour tonight and arrive in Stockholm, Sweden tomorrow. We have our last SPB tour as well.