Cruise Day 7 Helsinki

Another day, another port, another shuttle bus. Oh well, at least none of the ports on this cruise require the use of tender boats. We were dropped off in the centre of the shipping district. On a Sunday morning. Helsinki is a sub-Perth size city with a similar amount of life - on a Sunday morning. Luckily we'd already worked out where to walk - to spot some sights and then hit the first feature that would be open. Thus we first noted the mix of Finnish and international shop names and brands and meandered our way to the waterside market square, which we ignored and walked back up the gentle slope to the Senate Square. I was just opining that I'd expected the slope to be steeper based on the photos we'd been shown, when I realised why. The square wasn't very elevated but there was a huge number of steps up to the level of the large Lutheran church. As we arrived a service was soon to begin so we ducked in for a quick look. Typically Lutheran, this was plain inside compared to the glitter of the Russians but it was still quite large and had a quiet majesty. I liked the look of the organ and quickly snapped a photo. From there and with some time to kill we picked a winding path through the streets with a vague hope of passing the library (but without bothering to research it - see, we don't plan everything). Instead we saw an interesting bank (now also a museum) and the national archives. Eventually we came to the railway station. This is one of those architectural highlights pointed out in the guides and port lectures. Except when it's being renovated - as so many buildings on this cruise have been. I don't begrudge this - I'm actually quite impressed with the pride and care that peoples, regimes and authorities in this region have for their assets. Many that we have seen and marveled at have themselves been recently restored - thus to be available for us to enjoy. From there we turned a corner and into the just-that-minute opening Kiasma art gallery. Yet another contemporary art affair with exhibits from near and afar and yet all the same distance from being definitely worthy of the name "art". Oh well, ce la vie. Best of show was a sideways multi-screen video of a large fir/spruce tree, such that it was like being able to see the lower trunk and uppermost branches as equally close. From there we headed off through some back streets and soon ran into a solid stream of tourists marching up the sidewalk. They were headed where we were, the "rock" church (actually named Temppeliaukion kirkko but let's face it Finnish names are not easy), which is notable for being in a circular pit blasted out of solid rock. It then has a unique single dome roof. This design gives it an impressive combination of acoustics and natural light. If you look online you'll see pictures of it as a meditative elegant space. Instead, we experienced it as a cacophony (low key, people were somewhat trying but mostly failing to be quiet, but still a cacophony) of camera wielding tourist-beasts. In itself an amazing sight. It was free to enter with an overlooked donation box - cleverly though, there was a charge for the toilets. After that we walked down the main road through the city, which took us past the parliament (not interesting) and the new music centre. This had an interesting foyer with a large sculpture hanging in space and nice spaces around the cafe both inside and outside. This is apparently quite recently built and it appears that there is more development in progress to make an arts precinct next to the Kiasma. Carrying on and passing the train station again our next feature was the Ateneum. This proved to be a fascinating building, which had started life as a Merchant's home, been adopted as a royal residence and is now an art gallery. Hence part that impressed was the building and part was the art. Like so many of the places we had been to in Helsinki, there was a good arrangement of cloaking or lockers - the latter all requiring a single coin to use and which returned the coin when usage was over. Apart from being zero cost, this guaranteed that I didn't run out of coins as we went from museum to museum. Take note tourist authorities elsewhere! The art was a mix of works which had been collected by or given to the estate (royal and civic) along with some featured exhibits of modern(ish) Finnish artists. One of these was Hugo Simberg, whose work The Wounded Angel I immediately knew I'd seen before. Otherwise, the collected items were only interesting for being such a collection. Next we meandered back to the shopping centres near our shuttle spot. Managed to find a food hall for a quick lunch before heading back the ship.