Day 12 September 19th Helsinki



president's palace and market

inside Rock Church

Our next destination was Helsinki (they are coming thick and fast

 at the moment) and we had docked by the early morning.  It was not such an early start for us as we had no tour booked. It was overcast with the threat of showers and so we took our 

inside Rock Church

waterproofs with us as we began our own tour.  We had been on a port lecture and both of us agreed that the one place we wanted to visit was the Rock Church.

outside of Rock church

  The ship had docked very close to the city centre and we soon made our way across the presidential palace square where there was a market and then found the Tourism Information centre.  Armed with a street map, tram tickets and instructions we just about made our way to the drop off point and found the said 

the Lutheran Cathedral

church.  It was hewn from solid granite

leaving Helsinki

 and hence our interest even though it was quite a modern church.  Once inside we found a wonderful, calm, plain atmosphere with a pianist playing which was a different to highly decorated cathedrals and churches of St Petersburg.  We spent some time taking internal and external photos.  After this we thought we deserved a coffee break and found the local coffee shop.  We caught the tram back to the centre of town (by this time it was beginning to rain and donned overjackets).  We had a wander and looked at the Lutheran Cathedral from the outside.  We then 

exiting through small islands

went back to the ship as she was

an island lighthouse

 sailing soon and as we left the port we took some photos of the small islands on the approach to the city.  It was a short visit and we did not get to everywhere we would have liked but we had a good taster of its architecture and history.  On discussions over dinner, others had been on a waterways cruise which sounded a very good idea considering the nature of the city layout.