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I’ve traveled the width of Finland from west to east into Russia and now back east to west. One thing I’ve learned is that Finland is a snooze outside of Helsinki. The entire country is forest and farmland. Farmhouses are painted the requisite rust red, a holdover from when that was the only color available. Woods. Lakes. More woods, right up to the Helsinki city limits.
Our hotel, the Scandic Continental (not the Inter-Continental) is quite luxurious. I more or less love the heated marble bathroom floor, the elegant hallways, the comfy lobby, the first class restaurant, Olivo, off the main lobby, serving Mediterranean cuisine, unique for Helsinki. Yes, they have a sauna and swimming pool on the top floor. The sauna is free until 2:30pm, after which it is 100FIM. They offer body scrubs and massage at an extra cost. I’ve never felt so clean since arriving in Finland with its de rigueur saunas, showers and pools.
The concierge at the hotel even made reservations for us at a Finnish restaurant, Restaurant Kartano, after failing to secure a table at Lappi (totally booked on this Friday night). We taxi to Kartano, very walkable distance,
but an 80 FIM ride. The place is modern, understated elegance with large windows up front. We give in and order a traditional Finnish meal. My artichoke soup, very creamy, with reindeer bits was unique, spectacular really. The main course, glow fried white fish with creamy morels and potatoes were actually flat squares of deep fried (not in batter) whitefish plopped over morels and potato. Again, unique and quite good. Dessert was tiramisu but with a Finnish twist-Arctic brambleberries. Try and find that in New York, and all this for 235 FIM. Expensive, but not New York expensive, more like New York moderate. To top off this grand meal, more of that Finnish coffee we have grown to love-Colombian coffee, arabica beans and some others too numerous to mention.
In the morning, our tour of the city is expansive, covering the whole city. The previous afternoon and evening we were only able to cover the length of Mannerheimintie into downtown with a few detours for drinks with the very attractive Finns, cavorting in their natural habitat, smoking, reading Finnish newspapers and magazines, watching Finnish television, chatting amongst themselves and smoking again. The air quality chased us away.
Back to our morning tour, 3 hours from 9am to 12pm. First stop, Center Square, with the green-domed Lutheran church dominating the scene. The Esplanade is a grand street with designer shops, the finest Finnish and Russian restaurants with outdoor seating, all radiating out of the harbor. We stop for a picture moment at one of the many river sites where Finnish households hand wash their rugs and carpets, very labor intensive, as the Finns strip down to swimsuits to complete the task, then hang the rugs on wooden racks. Many of the husbands are doing penance as the wives use it as punishment if they have been out late, drinking.
Another fascinating stop-Kirkho, the "Rock Church" carved into and buried beneath solid rock. With its radiating glass ceiling letting in natural light that plays against the rock walls, it’s worth the pit stop.
Off we go past the Embassy "villas" with water views. The graveyards and cemeteries are important visiting places for Finns. There is a beach area along the Gulf of Finland.
Another photo op: Jean Sibelius (1865-1967) Park, a monument of 600 pipes welded together
by one woman-it took 6 years to make. Why didn’t she get some help? If she would have had enlisted the help of men, suddenly she would have men telling her what to do.
Back on the bus, we pass the residence of the Prime Minister (#2 man in Finland, the President is #1, his residence obscured by trees for privacy, sparing him the vulgarity of the site of tour buses from morning till night.
Market Square is another stop-we are certainly experiencing Helsinki efficiently and concisely this morning. The explosion of produce, flowers, crafts, gifts and post cards is worth a few pictures. The locals must learn Swedish if they are Finnish and Finnish if they are Swedish and one other language, usually English. We also drive by the Flea Market but do not get out to explore-it’s mostly Russian souvenirs for a lot more than we paid in Russia.
The mandatory trip down Mannerheimintie passes Stockmann’s Department Store (good shopping here for a picnic as well), the Forum shopping mall, the Museum of Contemporary Art (the long silver building with a string of outdoor tables), the Post Office Museum,
Parliament House (very stately and huge) and Finlandia Hall (a concert hall that does double duty as a conference hall off-season). The Helsinki City Art Museum with its avant garde figures outside intrigue.
Finally to the least explored area-The Sports Area. Helsinki hosted the Summer Olympics in 1952, the stadium held 42,000 people. The soccer stadium can hold 11,000. The statue of the runner must be seen. Within minutes, we find ourselves back on the northern end of Mannerheimintie, back at our hotel. Getting around Helsinki is easy, they say. Well, not as easy as Oslo, of course, but give me another day and I think I could master it, That seems to be my
dernier cri in each city – I need one more day.
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