Helsinki, Capital of Finland

Before you read the rest of this, just to let you know that when you get to the bottom, you can go on to read all about St Petersburg Day 1, (you lucky people you).  This was because I forgot to post it yesterday.  Sorry 'bout that.

We woke up to the announcement that the temperature outside was -5^o C, and that it had been snowing.  Things were going to improve though, the temperature was expected to rise to -2^o C.

After breakfast we had a quick look out on deck to see the snow.  Anyone would think we'd never seen the stuff.  Well, we have of course, just not in October.

Then we down on the quayside, grabbing a map from the tourist information lady and setting off into the city to see what was about. 

The map was good, telling us where to see what, the only thing we got confused about was the Rock Church.  I couldn't find it on the map, even though I know the TI lady had pointed it out earlier.  Turns out it's called The Temppeliaukio Church....... so  I was close, but not close enough

So today we saw the Uspensky Cathedral

The Bad, Bad, Boy,

 and the Senate Square and Cathedral.  We would have taken a look at the Station, except it was covered in scaffolding, and the Kiasma Museum of Modern Art, but that was closed with loads of boards around it. 

No worries, we went until we got to the Rock Church, which was something completely different.  The space has been hewn out of the rock and left unfinished.  Apparently the acoustics are fantastic and it hosts classical concerts and other musical events throughout the year.  I really liked the place, and thought how I would be very happy to listen to a concert there.

We had plenty of time, so we went to have a look at the Sibelius Monument, quite unusual

We started to make our way back to the ship, first passing the Toliviken Lake and then the Finnish National Opera House.  As we walked, we approached a hooded crow on the path ahead of us.  He obviously didn't want to fly today, (mebbe it was too cold, ice on the wings or something), so he walked along the path ahead of us.  Then, we he got to a zebra crossing, he paused, checked for traffic and crossed the road.  (OK, mebbe the checking for traffic bit was a bit of an exaggeration, but it did seem like that was what he was doing).

But then, just to prove a point, he turned left ahead of us, checked for traffic, and walked across the road again, at a zebra crossing!  A coincidence? Or was it a crow that has learnt his green cross code?  I prefer the latter.

Our last brief touristy thing on the way back was to look at this sculpture outside the National Theatre

Then it was a quick cup of tea in the local M&S. (Yep, we've managed to export Marks n Spencer's to the Finns).  The Finnish don't really do tea, not Tetley's or PG Tips anyway, so we ended up with Red Bush, something I've not tasted before.

It's a short day in Helsinki, so we were back on board by 3pm.  Peter decided to do a painting this afternoon, of the Church on the Spilled Blood.  It's really good.

The ship has decided to make a diversion due to bad weather.  We were due to go to Nynsham in Sweden, but it's going to be a bit rocky, and Nynsham is a tender port.  The crew have worked out that they ain't gonna be able to get all these old fogies (meant in a nice way), onto the lifeboats in rough weather.  They've opted for the safer option and we're going to a port in Lithuania.  Apparently it's really nice there.  I'll tell you tomorrow.