Happiness in Helsinki, Finland
The Thursday night concert was moved to 10:00 p.m. because everyone was so delayed in St. Petersburg. That was going to end too late for us, so we bailed and went to sleep early instead.
On Friday we enjoyed another beautiful sunny day, this time in Helsinki, Finland. It was cool at first, maybe in the 50's, but it warmed up enough by the end that we didn't need jackets. (We DID bring our jackets this time!) The forecast for the day was 68 degrees. Our tour left at 9:00 a.m. and we were bussed to the city center where we got out and started our walking tour with guide Raija (pronounced RYE-yuh). We started in front of a beautiful Russian Orthodox cathedral, the focus of the square:
In the square there was also a statue with the best seat in the house on top:
Here is a photo of our tour guide, Raija:
Here is a nice photo of Brock in the square:
Every statue we encountered had a friend on top checking things out:
We walked past the train station, adorned with stoic-looking gargoyles holding lamps. Raija said they represented the four Finnish emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, and fear:
If you notice, all four gargoyles are the same!
Raija told us that Finland had been identified as the happiest country in the world, and that the Finns were shocked about this. To me, that means that they don't view themselves as that happy!
We are close to the arctic circle. The days are long right now: sunrise is at 4:20 a.m. and sunset is at 10:15 p.m. Even at 11:00 p.m. there is still a colorful sunset. I like this abundance of light. But conversely, the winters must be difficult for those who struggle with depression, because daylight is fleeting and there are a few days when the sun never rises.
Like Stockholm, the city is full of trails, with designated bike lanes on one side and pedestrian lanes on the other. There were lots of green spaces.
We found Helsinki to be a very clean and beautiful small city:
One of the highlights of our tour was visiting the "Rock Church". It is a church in a granitic rock cave. I can't say that I've ever seen anything like that before. There was a lot of natural light filtering into the church:
Here is an image of the organ in the rock church:
The water in Helsinki has a very low salt content, therefore it freezes in the winter time. All boats have to be pulled out during the winter, and ice breaker ships are used to keep a lane clear to the sea. Many people in Helsinki live along canals and have their own boat slips:
Tallinn, Estonia is only 60 miles away from Helsinki, and people from Helsinki commonly ride a ferry boat or train there to shop because merchandise is a lot cheaper there. They can also go to St. Petersburg, which is 3-1/2 hours away by train.
Our short tour delivered us back to the ship by 1:00 p.m., and the ship left port around 2:00 p.m. We then began working our way back to Copenhagen. As we were leaving Helsinki, I noticed many islands nearby and lots of sailboats sailing in the open sea.
Our Friday night concert featured most of the artists on the ship covering music from the 70's. It was lots of fun! Those artists have really worked hard these last 2 weeks, performing multiple times per day.
On Saturday we will be at sea all day. We are hoping to get up a game of miniature golf with John and Becca. John has had something come up business-wise, and they may have to return to Tucson early and bail on the Iceland part of our trip. We will find out more today.
On Saturday, while in our cabin, we heard and saw what we think was a Russian fighter jet flying low, at eye level. It was gone in an instant, traveling at a very high rate of speed.
This has been a fun cruise. The entertainment has been excellent, and we have really enjoyed all the different countries we have toured. Perhaps we will return to a few of these countries to explore more thoroughly.
The sun is setting on our Dave Koz Cruise. We will arrive in Copenhagen early Sunday morning, and everyone has to be off the ship before 9:00 a.m. Brock and I will then catch a taxi to the airport and fly to Iceland, arriving mid-afternoon. We will resume the blog in Iceland.
Here is a beautiful sunset, taken from our cabin between 10:00 and 11:00 p.m.:
