After a very smooth crossing we arrived in Helsinki, Finland.
After breakfast, we had a few hours until our tour so we disembarked the ship and took a walk around the area, then wandered over to a street-market that was going on nearby at the harbor. There were several pop-up tents with local goods and foods. I purchased a hand-made birch wood pen, and Adam purchased a tee-shirt.
An interesting feature of the harbor is a “Sea Pool.” They have a large platform right there at the harbor, and three big swimming pools in it – one is of sea-water, the other two are of filtered fresh water. It was a cold and breezy morning, but there were several people swimming in the pools. Must be very hardy people here!
After exploring the street market, we headed back on-board and had a light lunch before our tour. Our tour was “Helsinki Highlights” and they took us by bus to some of the more noteworthy buildings and landmarks right around the harbor area. I don’t think at any time we were more than about 10-15 blocks away from the harbor. We saw a big beautiful Lutheran Church, with a large city square in front of it…
and we saw a large monument in a local park…
and then we saw a church that had been carved out of a large rock…
Here’s some more ‘experimental’ 360 photos from Helsinki – my apologies for those who can’t view them…
Helsinki was an interesting and peaceful place, and we enjoyed our visit.
Click here to continue … on to Russia!