Helsinki - Day 3 and 3 Churches

With Anna down for the count with a migraine, I headed out with the boys to explore “the daughter of the Baltics”, Helsinki, Finland.

Jason and I began the day alone with the “quick” 2.5km walk to town and the antique flea market (Note, another trend that developed, instead of waiting for public transportation, we found it easier to walk into town rather than waiting the 10-15 minutes for the bus. I would hate to imagine my waist-line at the end of the trip without these daily walks).

The flea market was not on the list of sites to see provided to us by the cruise, however, it was on the map and I figured it would be worth a hot lap… while the outside was nothing more than a flea market of used clothes and household goods, the antique market inside had great finds, including old nautical equipment, sterling silver and funky furniture. I thankfully made it out without buying anything, Jason wasn’t so lucky….With Jason’s newly purchased WWII compass in hand, we left the flea market and walked along a tree lined street towards the main promenade and square (the more touristy option). Upon arriving at the square, Jason and I found our way to the Havis Amanda fountain (a statute of a young naked, virgin girl claimed to be the young city emerging from the see, but called a common whore by the locals upon the unveiling) to meet up with Braden. After another hot lap of another square with food and craft stalls, we sat down to a lunch of reindeer meatballs and reindeer sausages.

And then the real tour of the city (all three main churches to be exact) began. We began with the Uspenski Cathedral, identified by its onion shaped dooms and ornate gold paint, followed by the stunning whiteness of the Cathedral of Helsinki in Senate and ending the day with the merging of rock and spirit in the Temppeliaukio “Rock” church, a crater in the center of a granite hill created via dynamite for the very purpose of creating a church. All very different, but beautiful in their own way.

Exhausted from the day, I opted to take the bus back to the ship for a much needed nap. At this rate, I would double the amount of churches and museums seen in my entire two years in Europe in just 10 days.

Museums visited – 0, Churches visited – 3