Helsinki and Stockholm

Now that we are in Dubai and have free, reliable WIFI we can finally post the Helsinki and Stockholm blog without having to take out a bank loan.

Photo 1: Helsinki - Lutheran Cathedral.

Photo 2: Waterfront market.

Photo 3: Two icebreakers.

Photo 4: Summer cottages on an island in the Stockholm Archipelago.

Photo 5: Stockholm waterfront.

Photo 6: Nordic Museum.

Helsinki

Helsinki is a lovely city on a peninsula and surrounded on three sides by 300 islands. It is much like the other cities we have recently visited in terms of architecture and possesses some beautiful buildings, especially the Lutheran Cathedral.

Something we noticed here and in all the other cities we have been to is the extensive use of light rail. Interesting given the controversy at home.

Of course everyone associates Finland with saunas. They have a population of 5.6 million people and 2 million saunas! Every new apartment block has a sauna in each apartment. We learned that the popularity of the sauna is historical and very practical. Because everything freezes in winder – including even deeply buried water pipes – wood heated saunas were the only way to get liquid and hot water until the early 20^th century. Even babies were born in saunas before modern hospitals came in to being.

Finland is still a very cold place most of the year. We were told that the Gulf of Finland freezes to a thickness of 5 metres of ice! So it’s not surprising that one of their big exports is icebreakers.

Stockholm

Stockholm is one of the attractive cities we have seen. It is set on 14 islands and partly on the mainland and sits between the Baltic and a large lake. We sailed into the city through the Stockholm Archipelago which consists of 3000 islands many of which are quite small and have summer houses. Beautiful!

The city is one third parkland, so with lots of greenery and water frontage it is a very pleasant urban environment. The old town dates from the thirteenth century but most of the buildings date from the 18^th century. They include the impressive Royal Palace and the Parliament. There are many other wonderful buildings including the opera house and the Vasa Museum, which holds the well preserved remains of a massive warship that sank 20 minutes into its maiden voyage in 1628. It sank because the king insisted on it having an excessively large number of cannons which made it top heavy. One gust of wind and down it went. Oops!

We are nearing the end of the holiday so our final blog will be from here in Dubai tomorrow.