Helskinki was another stop on our cruise that we honestly didn't have too much background knowledge about. However, we tend to like when we don't know what we are "supposed" to visit and see in a city because it allows us to just walk around and explore only what we want to see. I had picked out two places from our tour book that I really wanted to visit - Temppeliaukio Church and the Sibelius Monument. The Temppeliaukio Church, also called the Church of the Rock, was built directly into a rock, and its copper dome sits just a little above ground level. The amount of copper used to create the dome measured over 13 miles long (just a little fun fact that I happened to remember!).
The Sibelius Monument was built to honor a Finnish composer by the name of Jean Sibelius. The artwork is open to interpretation, but to me it bears a strong resemblance to organ pipes, which makes sense to me since it is honoring a composer. Apparently some people thought the artwork was too abstract, so the face of Jean Sibelius was later added to appease the masses. It was in the middle of a beautiful green area, and the walk to the monument was also gorgeous.
We also enjoyed the Three Smiths Statue right outside of Finnish department store Stockmans, mainly because it contains bullet/shrapnel holes from WWII, and the statue is also a popular meeting spot for locals which made us feel like we were right in the thick of things. :) Helsinki also had a lot of great shopping boulevards, some beautiful cathedrals, and an interesting contrast of very modern architecture and older architecture.
Our Helsinki stop was capped off by the best night on our cruise boat - CHOCOLATE NIGHT! If you know me at all, you know I had only chocolate items that night, no dinner food for me! :)
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| The heart of Helsinki |
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| Three Smiths statue |
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| Bullet/shrapnel holes left over from WWII |
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| Outside view of Church of the Rock - it is built into the stone, mostly underground |
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| Copper dome at Church of the Rock |
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| Beautiful walk on the way to the Sibelius Monument |
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| Sibelius Monument |
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| Farmers Market near Helsinki's harbor |
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| Lutheran Cathedral |
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| Shopping boulevard |
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| That's me - a Chocoholic! |
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