Europe Trip 2013: Helsinki City

Yesterday I visited Helsinki City proper. I had held off until I found out how to get there and back to the hotel, which as it turned out was a simple case of catching a bus from the closest bus stop :-). The price for the bus was EUR4.50 each way which was not too bad for what is roughly a 30 minute trip, including both built up and relatively quite, almost rural, areas.

The city itself was quite nice. A lot of old buildings of course, but also some much newer areas in places. probably the best idea was when I saw a hop on, hop off bus. EUR25 is a bit expensive, but it did give a good look around the key parts of the city, including the ports, flash business and residential areas and key residential and political areas.

I can confirm that the Scottish Farmer's Family Restaurant [think about it...] is the same here as elsewhere :-).

One good score was the local Lutheran Cathedral - the major church in Finland and unlike many cathedrals elsewhere in Europe and the UK was free entry. There was a gift shop, but this was in a separate building so did not detract from the Cathedral itself.

Other things of note include the extensive tram network, the ports being close to much of the town, plenty of green spaces and everyone being very friendly. Actually, everywhere I have been people have been friendly, from the bus drivers to the hotel workers, from the supermarket workers to the random suit-wearing office worker from Finnair that said 'hello' at the airport earlier today [actually, he said something else, but when I said 'hello' he instantly switched to English :-)].

Anyway, here are the photos... I haven't labelled them individually - I wasn't taking notes. Just believe me when I say I enjoyed the visit and would be happy to come back again one day.

Europe Trip 2013: Welcome to Vantaa, part of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area

Today is my second full day in Vantaa [a city in its own right, and part of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area], having arrived two days ago at about 9:30pm from the UK via Copenhagen. I haven't done a huge amount of sightseeing as yet - I was a wee bit lazy yesterday, relaxing after a some exciting times with family in the UK and having stayed up to see that there was still some light at midnight [albeit only a little]. Mind you, as I right this it is about 9:30pm and still very light, and I might go for another wander at 10:30pm when it will only just be starting to get a little dull.

Today I did get out and took at 25 minute walk to the Finnish Aviation Museum [there will be more on this in my aviation blog in a few days] and had a bit of a look around the local area.

I've made two trips to the local shopping centre [5 minutes walk away], and I've planned my next big excursion, a bus ride into Helsinki proper tomorrow. That should be exciting!

Yesterday seemed to be a bit hot, but today's walk to the museum was pleasant with a gentle breeze and temps in the high teens [and up to 20 deg celsius today]. Tomorrow is supposed to get up to 21 degrees but with some rain - we'll see how that goes!

Anyway, a few pictures before I get right into the sightseeing tomorrow. First is a picture showing a road carved out between the bush - there seem to be a few of these around here - it's quite nice walking and occasionally provides a bit of shade. look also at the signs - almost all signs have Finnish and Swedish on them as both are official languages. Many have English as well and I've had no problems with communicating with anyone at all over here. In fact, everyone has been very friendly.

Second and third are of my hotel - the Hotel BONUS Inn... not sure what the "Bonus" bit is for, although it is pleasant enough. It perhaps needs a bit of a tidy, but it is clean and comfortable [I've included a video from the lift at the end]. Two of the best features in the hotel are a small kitchen in my room and very good wifi included.

Last picture is a picture of two sandals and a shoe. One of them is a rather tasty Finnish beer. The others would not taste so good :-(