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HELSINKI WHEN THE SUN SHINES
 Our Helsinki
sightseeing began at the ferry quayside, with a local guide ready waiting as we clambered
aboard a tour coach. Central Helsinki starts right there at the harbour, outside the
dignified Town Hall, with open-air stalls selling vegetables, fish and meat, reindeer
skins and Lap hunting knives.
Until 1809, the settlement of Helsinki had only 5,000 inhabitants living in one-storey
log houses. Then Finland was captured by Russia from the Swedes who had ruled the country
for the previous 650 years.
With this new addition to the Russian empire, the Czar promoted Helsinki to be the Finnish
capital, easily reached from St Petersburg. Big money poured into the city, and two gifted
men were placed in charge of building a capital from scratch.
Travel Facts
Visit our holidays,
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TRAVEL FACTS
In 2007 the biggest seasonal event is the Helsinki Festival from Aug
17 to Sep 2, with music under
a big tent, and food sampling in Senate Square.
Despite Finland's distance from the rest of western Europe, it's part of the Euro zone.
A 24-hour Tourist Ticket costs 6 Euros for unlimited use of Helsinki city transport
- buses, trams, trains and metro. A 3-day pass costs 12 Euros.
Finland is not a shoppers' paradise. Beautiful handicrafts have out-of-reach
price-tags topped by VAT at 22%.
All hard-drinking Finns take a booze ferry to Estonia to
get their supplies.
During summer the sun shines for extended hours. In winter the sea freezes over, and
icebreakers keep a passage open for commercial traffic. A white Christmas is guaranteed.
A favourite winter pastime is to skate across the ice with a hand-drill, open up a hole
and dangle a fishing line. Essential equipment is a bottle of vodka, to keep warm while
waiting for a bite.
More information: Finnish Tourist Board, P.O. Box 33213, London W6 8JX. Tel: 020 7365
2512. Web: www.visitfinland.
com/uk
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One was a city planner, and the other was Carl Engel, a German architect who had studied
in Russia. Together they designed the majestic centre around Senate Square, with
government buildings, university and a dazzling-white Russian-style cathedral topped by
green copper domes. Helsinki blossomed with dozens of streets and buildings, all in a
19th-century style called Russian Neoclassic.
Later in the century, the favourite style switched to Neo-renaissance and then Art Deco.
Following the Russian Revolution in 1917, Finland declared its independence, which was
immediately OK'd by Lenin, who had enough problems in Russia itself. From the 1920s
architecture went functional and modern, to give still more variety and eye-appeal.
During postwar years, the resemblance to parts of St Petersburg or Moscow paid off.
Whenever Hollywood wanted to make movies with a Russian setting, Helsinki was chosen for
outdoor scenes of films like "Doctor Zhivago", "White Nights",
"Reds" and "Gorky Park".
Finland's area is the same as Italy's but it's mostly forests, bogs and lakes with only
five million population. It's all very prosperous with modern industries like Nokia mobile
phones, shipbuilding, paper and timber. There's water, water everywhere. Just
about every family owns a yacht or motor-boat, and a summer cabin. Helsinki itself has
500,000 population, mostly living in the forested suburbs.
 Our
city sightseeing passed by the Olympic Stadium, built in the 1930s in readiness for Games
that were finally held in 1948. Outside the stadium is a statue of Paavo Nurmi, the so-
called Flying Finn, who won nine gold medals and three silver in the Games of 1920, 1924
and 1928. It's often said that Paavo Nurmi put newly-independent Finland on the world map.
The statue shows him running naked, but that was just sculptor's license.
Another character who helped put Finland's name on the world map is the classical composer
Jean Sibelius, whose music was inspired by the national forests and lakes.
So he likewise rated a monument which took a Finnish woman sculptor seven years to
complete. Most monuments get a yawn and are soon forgotten. But the Sibelius memorial is
unique: 600 different sizes of stainless steel pipes, set amid parkland trees.
People were shocked at
the unveiling, and asked the sculptor what it meant, but she didn't want to say. It's a
piece of modern art, which can have a dozen explanations.
 Most people think it looks like organ pipes; or maybe a Finnish forest; or it
could be Manhattan. Visitors poke their heads up the larger pipes and warble or shout
their names. It all makes the Sibelius monument quite unforgettable, which is perhaps what
the sculptor intended.
When our city-sightseeing coach tour finished at midday, the free-time alternative was
more sightseeing. Instead, I bought a tasty Balkan hot dog as a quick lunch and took
a £9 boat trip from the Market Square.
The Helsinki archipelago was formed during the Ice Age, when enormous ice masses gouged
out a passage from north to south. This left behind thousands of little islands which now
are mostly privately owned, with summer cabin and a jetty for the family boat.
As central Helsinki is built so close to the shoreline, most highlights can easily be seen
by boat-trip. The circuit included the commercial harbour, and a view of shipyards where
big luxurious ferries and cruise liners are built.
Back in town mid-afternoon, there was still time for more sightseeing.
The deal I took was the 3T Tourist Tram. This is a regular-service tram which does a
figure-of-eight circuit of central Helsinki, halting at virtually all the main tourist
sites. Or 3B does the same thing backwards.
The fu ll
circuit takes an hour, and costs 2 euros. You can stop anywhere for a photo or a more detailed
visit, and then catch another 3T which comes trundling along every ten minutes. But that
means paying a little more for a transferable ticket.
So that made three sightseeing tours of Helsinki in one day by coach, boat and tram.
Thirsty work, sightseeing. So the helpful Finns offer yet another possibility: a city tour
by an hourly Pub Tram between 2 and 9 pm in summer with a can of beer included in the
7-euro fare. It's the
only city tram that has a toilet.
Copyright: Reg Butler Consider these other Baltic destinations
ESTONIA - plenty to sing about
LATVIA - Varied
weekend in Riga
LITHUANIA - The bumpy road to
Vilnius
"Books to read - click on cover pictures" or
click on the links below
Finland Insight
Pocket Guide - A useful compact guide, with recommended circuits for those who have
time to explore beyond the capital.
Lonely Planet :
Finland by Jennifer Brewer - A heavyweight guide for those who want to
plunge still deeper into Finland and its cultural background.
Jean
Sibelius - Admirers of the music will enjoy this biography of the composer who
evokes the spirit of Finland.
Scandinavia,
Finland Green Guide (Michelin Green Guides) - an excellent
guide to the country, in Michelin's traditional green pocket-book
style.
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