On Friday we stopped in Helsinki Finland for a short day at port. When I researched Helsinki I didn't find that much historical to really go see. Pretty much everything on our list was churches. We ended up taking the cruise shuttle bus (which you have to pay an arm and a leg for) into the city. Off we started on our walking tour of the city. Helsinki is very pretty, quaint, and small. It would be a fun place to spend time just shopping and eating at sidewalk cafes but when you are on a cruise, there isn't time for that. Our first stop was the Helsinki Cathedral. It was set up on a hill with lots of steps and beautiful white. It was one of the few anglican churches we went to so it seemed a little stark which my Mom loved since it wasn't so busy and overwhelming. Anyone who knows my Mom knows that she likes things clean.
From there we continued to another church that was also set way up on a hill. This one was Russian Orthodox so we were back to the super busy, tons of art, mosaics, etc.
After the two churches, we spent some time wandering a little street market which I really enjoyed and had decided to meet up at a certain time to go find lunch before our bus tour. Well, finding lunch didn't quite work out and we ended up running around trying to find a place to eat. Finally we just stopped at a little street vendor type place and ate some pastries to hold us over.
The weather kept threatening to rain and right when we were getting on our bus tour it let loose. What better timing than to get to sit in a nice comfy bus while it rained! The bus tour was interesting but at times a little boring. It was nice to see more of the city and since it was raining it was even nicer! It made a stop at the church in the rock which is a really cool church built carved out of rock.
It also stopped at a monument in a park. Jake and I stayed on the bus for this stop since it was raining but other family members got off and took some pictures. It was a very strange, kinda confusing monument.
When the bus tour was over we slowly made our way back to the bus stop with a pit stop at McDonald's to make up for our lack of lunch. We were very surprised to find how LONG the line was for getting on a bus. Holy cow, good thing we arrived early. Here are just some pictures from our time walking around the city.
Up next on our trip: Russia!!
