Monday July 1 – Helsinki Finland

 We spent the morning on a bus tour of Helsinki with a very boring guide.  She, like most of the Finns, were happy with Russian rule.  After Riga and Tallinn we thought the city lacked soul.  Our guide claimed that the heavy stolid dark buildings were built by the Russians to make Helsinki a most beautiful monument to show what Russians did for the countries they conquered?????  Most of the architecture which might have been spectacular in pre Russian days was made of wood and has been burnt down in fires.

Our guide claimed that Finns are the happiest people in the world.  They love their sport and their saunas.  Even in winter when the river has frozen over, they have their sauna and then dig a hole I the ice and take a dip before returning to the sauna.  Today was warm and sunny and we saw many locals running, walking riding bikes and enjoying the sunshine.  The Finns have a high standard of living and food seems very expensive.  Imagine about $20 for a glass of pomegranate juice!

We went to Sibelius Park where there is a memorial to this Finnish composer.  The artist produced a sculpture that looks like organ pipes to commemorate him but the Finns wanted a likeness of him so the artist then did a bust of the man when he was in his fifties. He was actually 91 when he died in 1957.  He wrote Finlandia, which is not the national anthem.  The music for the Estonian and Finnish national anthems is the same.

The most spectacular part of Helsinki is the Temppeliaukio (Rock Church).  This is a Lutheran church built into solid granite rock.  The reason for this is that the people who lived nearby complained about the fact that a church was going to be built on the rock in their vicinity.  They felt it would obstruct their view.  So an architect came up with the plan to detonate the rock and make a cave with the rock walls of this cave being the walls of the church.  Natural light pours in from the church’s glazed dome and the rough stone interiors amplify sound, making it a unique concert venue.  22 kilometres of copper wire are wound around the ceiling to help with the acoustics.  There are no decorations or pictures inside the church which was built in 1969.  Because water weeps from the rock walls there is a narrow drain dug around the base circumference of the church so that water falls into it and does not lie on the floor and cause the floor to become slippery.