Saturday, June 23, 2012

Helsinki, Finland, Day 3 - Temppeliaukio Church

10am Woke up and had pretty much the same breakfast as yesterday.  There's a whole bunch of Indians and Chinese staying at the hotel.  Not unusual nowadays.

1:30pm Checked out of the hotel.  Late check out is always a win.  The day's weather started off rather cloudy and you could sense it was going to rain.  The day's plan was to check out the Temppeliaukio Church which is a church built from a rock.  We caught the train to Central Station which just two stops or 5 minutes away. Ruoholahti to Kamppi to Rautatientori.  Cost is 2.20 euros.  Cheaper than the bus!


Catching the train...


...to Central Station.

As you can see there's a real lack of human activity, because it's midsummer so everyone's gone.


Inside Central Station.

At Central Station we dropped off our luggage and put them into lockers.  3 euros for 24 hours.  Bargain.


Apartments behind Kamppi station.

It started to drizzle about 10 minutes into our walk.  But we arrived after another 15 minutes or so, it wasn't very far off.


Fredriksgatan, which is the road leading to Temppeliaukio Church.


Outside Temppeliaukio Church.  The dome is made of copper.

What's impressive is the inside of the Lutheran church, which is frequently used as a concert venue.


One candle to rule them all.


The church organ is on the right hanging off the wall.  It wasn't in use today.


Piano man.


View from the balcony.


No bricks here.


Copper dome.

When we left it was already pouring rain.  So we stopped at the nearby souvenir shop.  We bought a moomin scarf and a decorative finland plate.  Then we walked all the way to Kamppi under the rain, and had some lunch at a stall there that was close to the bus interchange.

3:30pm Lunch was salmon, I think it was 11 or 12 euros.


We picked up our things from the lockers close to 4pm and 11 minutes later we caught the 615 bus to the airport.

Before 5pm Arrived into Helsinki-Vantaa airport with plenty of time to spare.  My flight to Denmark was at 6:35pm.  We walked around, and I bought more Angry Birds candy from a newsagent.  I'm talking about these guys.

For once I prefer pigs to birds.

The green pig packed candy is good.  The red angry bird, has coke and lemon ones, and these taste pretty bad.  They taste like black liquorice, which I'm not fond of.  But the pig candy, that's good.  I see they have hidden the black coke lemon liquorice candy in the above packaging. :)  Anyway, around 5:40pm I had to say goodbye and go through customs, which was smooth sailing as there were not many people.

I even had time to go around the airport, to terminal 2, where I bought rye chips and some blueberry pie chocolate.
Chocolate, everyone's friend!

Also took some photos of the design area of the airport, they actually have a dedicated area for chair design in terminal 1.


Life is above moving your bum from one chair to another...



Same view different angle.

After I bought the chocolates I walked back to terminal 1 which eventually turned into a dash when an announcement was made for me to board the plane. :)

7:15pm Arrived into Copenhagen where I stopped over for an hour or so.  Dinner was some chicken curry at a restaurant.  I boarded the flight to Oslo at 8:40pm and arrived into Oslo at 9:50pm.  Eventually I arrived home at 11:30pm or so.  And so ends this year's 2012 Midsummer. :)  It will now slowly start to turn dark again, and the long summer days will soon turn into long wintery darkness.

Helsinki, Finland, Day 2 - Helsinki Central Railway Station, Market Square, Helsinki Cathedral, Uspenski Cathedral

9:30am Woke up and had breakfast.  Breakfast was pancakes.  Nom nom.  I also had some yoghurt with berries.  Rockmelon.  Bacon, sausages and scrambled eggs.

11:30am After breakfast we caught a bus to Kamppi, a shopping centre in downtown Helsinki.  It's a nice warm sunny day to explore.


Choices choices... so many buses to choose from.

The bus stop was a short walk from the hotel and surprisingly to me, Kampi was just one stop after.  It cost 2.70 Euros for the one stop so it was quite expensive.  I'm not sure how the public transport system works but I think it's like in Norway, where you pay according to zones so even if it's just one stop away, it costs the same as any other stop within the zone.  The bus ride was only 5 minutes, and we arrived at the bus terminal which was underground.  Because it was midsummer pretty much everything was closed.



Outside Kamppi shopping centre.


Thingymajiggy outside Kamppi shopping centre.


Another drunken lamp post.  Also see Kristiansand, Norway.


Outside Kamppi shopping centre.

From Kamppi we took a walk to the Central Railway Station.


Tram.


The Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim statue, he was the 6th president of Finland.


Hippy looking bicycle.


Outside of Central Railway Station, along Stationsplatsen.


Inside Central Railway Station.


Inside Central Railway Station.


Inside Central Railway Station.


The other side of Central Railway Station,  along Kaivokatu.


Outside Central Railway Station.  Suomen Kansallisteatteri, Finnish National Theatre building on the right.


 Valtion taidemuseo, the Finnish National Gallery.

After that we took a walk to the Helsinki Cathedral which was about 20 minutes away.  Hard work in the sweltering heat.


In the background, Helsingin tuomiokirkko, Suurkirkko, or the Helsinki Cathedral, originally built from 1830-1852 as a tribute to the Grand Duke of Finland, Tsar Nicholas I of Russia.  The statue located in the front of the steps is a statue of Emperor Alexander II of Russia.  Lots of tourists.


Helsinki Cathedral.


Inside of the Helsinki Cathedral.


Inside of the Helsinki Cathedral.  It has a very plain interior.  No murals on the walls, nothing.

After that we stopped for a while at a nearby souvenir shop and bought some souvenirs.  I dropped a magnet on accident and broke it so I had to pay for it.  So I was a bit peeved off.  Anyway, next stop was market square.  Close to market square was an ice cream shop where we stopped for some ice cream, and also a tourist information booth where we grabbed some brochures.


Along Kapellesplanaden, which is next to Market Square.


The Havis Amanda, sculpted by Ville Vallgren (1855-1940) in 1906 in Paris.


Kauppatori or Market Square.  Where it's all happening, food stalls, fruit stalls, and other shops.

There was a British guy who asked where we were from, he guessed American.  He was trying to sell us Chaga, which is a mushroom and he swears by the stuff.  He said it tastes like caramel.  5 euros (?) for a small one.  It looked like a rock (to me anyway), the size of half an adult fist.  He has only been in Finland for 3 months and moved here because of his girlfriend.  After we basically said no, the other guy who was next to his stall showed me a Superman bronze necklace.  Haha.  Well I turned him down, it was going to cost 40 euros. :)  Instead I visited another souvenir shop and bought more souvenirs from there.  It was cheaper too.  And I didn't break anything this time.


Harbour along Kauppatori.


Harbour along Kauppatori.


Harbour along Kauppatori.


Carpark :)

2:42pm We were famished at this point so it was time to get some lunch.  I originally wanted seafood paella but settled for salmon with vegetables instead.


10 euros for salmon and vegetables, prepared by these ladies.

3pm After lunch we took a walk to Uspenski Cathedral, it's close by, along Norra Esplanaden.


Cycling on a modified bike of sorts.


Uspenskin katedraali, or Uspenski Cathedral.  Built in 1862 - 1868.

The church was closed so we couldn't go in.  So we just walked around and took photos instead.


There's market square in the distance.


Helsinki Cathedral.


Halkolaituri wharf behind me.

3:33pm We took a walk back to market square after that.  Walking along Kanalgatan.


Fancy looking restaurant!


Harbour along Kauppatori.

There's a ferry that takes you to Suomenlinna which is an old fortress, but we didn't take it that day.  Maybe another time.  Also considered the zoo but that's closed.  So we took a walk to one end of the Esplanade, and sat down to rest a bit.


Södra esplanaden


Södra esplanaden

4pm ish We left and decided to walk around the city a bit more, and to get something to drink.  And of course capture more pictures of the city.


Strawberry plants along Centralgatan Keskuskatu.  Too bad no ripe strawberries.


Along Centralgatan Keskuskatu.


Along Aleksanterinkatu.


Shop along Aleksanterinkatu selling gold dentures.  Want the gold, not the dentures!


Along Aleksanterinkatu.


Along Aleksanterinkatu.

5:15pm Stopped at an Irish pub called Molly Malone's for apple cider.


6pm ish Resumed walking.  Looking around a place for dinner.  Eventually we settled for pasta at a restaurant called Vapiano.  Not many places were open.


Nude figures just outside Stockmann shopping centre.


Outside Stockmann shopping centre.  Not many people as you can see.


On the left we have an Asian pasta with brown spaghetti, and on the right we have linguini with clams cooked in white white.

I stopped taking photos after dinner.  We bought some bottled water and food just in case.  Actually what happened was we went to a nearby 24 hour shop to get a drink for me, and then walked to Kamppi with the intent to purchase food there but it was shut and there was no shop closeby that sold normal no-gas water, so we had to walk all the way back to the same shop to get the water.  Then we walked back to Kamppi to catch a bus back to the hotel.  The match between Germany and Greece served as entertainment for the rest of the evening.