It’s an overcast day in Helsinki and shelves of black clouds around threaten to rain at any moment. We took the Helsinki city tour and our guide was super, giving us tidbits of interesting information along the way. For starters, Finland has 188,000 lakes.  Helsinki is on the Gulf of Finland, is 2/3 water and has 300 islands and 4 harbors.  Finland has a population of about 5.4 million people and 1.6 million of them live in the Helsinki metro area.  This time of year the sun goes down at 11 pm and returns at 3 a.m.  The winters are the reverse and long. During the long winter nights, people drink beer, go to the cinema and play Angry Birds (it was invented in Finland).

Our first stop on our tour this morning was at the Sibelius Monument. Sibelius was Finland’s greatest composer and a lover of nature, which he tried to reflect in his compositions.  The Memorial was amazing, I thought, looking simultaneously like trees and organ pipes.

I believe it was Sibelius’ wife who felt the monument was inappropriate and caused this sculpture to be made and displayed nearby.

Nearby the Sibelius monument was this fruit stand which implies that prolific local fruits are oranges, lemons and pomegranates. Just my guess.

The next stop was at the Temple Square Church. This modern Lutheran church carved into rock outcrops looks like a half-buried spaceship from the outside. The sun shines in from above, illuminating a stunning interior with birch pews, modern pipe organ, cavernous walls and topped with a striking copper dome. It’s a really striking and unique place.

The unassuming entrance to the church.

The church’s amazing copper ceiling. Actually the texture makes it look curiously like rattan.

More of the copper ceiling and natural walls.

Looking underneath the balcony toward the front.

These rhododendron and many more like it were surround the outside of the church. Rhododendron and lilacs are in full bloom here now.

This theatre is where Kiss played when they were here. Our tour guide said that during their visit, the 4 statues on either side of the entrance were costumed like members of the band.

Three-quarters of Fins are Lutheran and our tour took us to the beautiful Lutheran Cathedral of Finland. It’s stands high above Senaatintori, the huge main city square.. The cathedral itself is classically beautiful outside but very austere inside. Below are a few photos of the Cathedral.

There are about a million steps up to the Cathedral.

In the city square, an environmental project highlights the plight of the seals. More than 50 identical white seals, each with a fish in his mouth, were painted to make a statement about the cause, some messages more obvious than others.

A view of the seals from above the city square.

This seal had probably the most straightforward message.

While I thought this one had the most graphic, emotional message.

At her request, Chuck took our tour guide’s photo wearing the new Finland cap she bought in the square.

This afternoon we set sail for 2 days in St. Petersburg, accompanied by some serious June Gloom weather. We should arrive about 8 am tomorrow morning and we have 3 tours on the schedule for tomorrow. Feet don’t fail me now!