The penultimate stop for us on our Baltic Cruise aboard the Crown Princess was the Finnish capital city, Helsinki. When we’d been researching the various destinations on this cruise I’d given some serious thought to not booking an excursion here as most of what we wanted to see seemed to be reasonably easy to get to and possibly even within walking distance of the port given our expected arrival time and scheduled departure time. The exception, though, was the Sibelius Monument (we’re fond of art), set some way apart from other potential points of interest, so to make the best use of our day we booked an excursion that would include it and a few other key tourist spots.

One of the first things I noticed as our coach drove us from the port to Sibelius Park was just how slow everything seemed in Helsinki, especially seeing how little traffic there was. It felt like forever just to get to the monument and we were very pleased that we’d not considered walking or trying to take some public transport there as the rain simply never let up throughout the journey (or, indeed, day). At the monument some people decided that the coach was close enough to see it and chose to stay on but the majority of us got off and sludged across the sodden ground to the sculpture where we proceeded to jostle for shots that weren’t blocked by umbrellas or blurred with rain. What was nice was that none of the monument was blocked off; you’re free to get up as close as you like and to touch it.

The Sibelius Monument was the winning design for a sculpture announced after the composer Jean Sibelius‘s death. While it appears to be an abstract organ this isn’t actually the case and it was simply meant to represent the composer and his music in general. The design was not well-liked when it was unveiled – the addition of the face was a late addition to appease early critics – although popular opinion has changed regarding it in the intervening decades.

A dark grey, metallic structure under a light grey sky does not ultimately make for the most interesting of photos (or the easiest to take when your camera is metering for a near-white background at points) and the rain did not make for the most pleasant of environments to appreciate the artwork and significance of the piece fully. With good weather the monument and the surrounding park would be very pleasant indeed but if you had limited time in Helsinki then I’m not sure I could strongly recommend visiting it because of its isolation from anything else of major interest.

Our coach parked up along Runeberginkatu which left a fairly straightforward walk of a few hundred metres before crossing the road and heading up a short sloped road on the left to the church. Why am I telling you this? Well, partly because it might help to know that there’s a short walk with a bit of an incline if you’re on the same sort of excursion we were on, and partly because… well, that will become clear at the end of this account of our visit. I grabbed a few photos on the way but the weather and general architecture were both pretty miserable.

Temppeliaukion is a Lutheran church built in the late 60s by architect brothers and, as its name suggests, is a church built into solid rock. The original plans called for a church around four times larger. The entrance to the church was tightly packed with visitors purchasing tickets and we needed to group together while our tour guide did the purchasing for us and sticking tour stickers on us so we could enter. Our main concern at this point was getting under some cover so that coupled with the lack of much light in that entrance area meant I skipped taking pictures here too. Once inside, however, there was plenty of space to walk around and admire the architecture and design and material choices of the building.

The original design did not have exposed walls but it was discovered that the acoustics were superb in this raw state so they were left that way deliberately. A curved copper dome supported by delightfully brutalist concrete beams channelled natural light into the church although there wasn’t a great deal of that on this particular day.

The organ looked quite impressive and it was nice to be up close to the various pipes that made it up. To one side of the organ a woman played on a piano so that we could all hear how well the sound was picked up throughout the church’s interior. Around her were a number of signs telling people not to photograph or film her. You’ll never guess what some people were doing. Quite why she didn’t hit them over the head with the sign is beyond me because I would have.

There was an upper balcony with some more seating and it would have been remiss of us to not take the opportunity to climb the steps and take a look once more at the church from another angle.

We gathered outside and headed back to the coach; there were a number of places nearby where people had discarded their tour stickers over the years (something we’ve seen in other places too) so I got rid of mine in the same way.

Now… remember me mentioning how getting to the church from the coach involved a straight walk, a turn to the left, and a short walk up a hill to the church? How would you get back to where you started from there? You would walk down the hill, turn right, then walk in a straight line. In fact, you might walk down the hill and get confused but when you looked left and right at the bottom you’d realise that in one direction was nothing of interest and in the other were a line of coaches much like (and including) the one you arrived on.

We got back on the coach and our guide did a head count but we could already tell we were short by about six as a large group of Asian people had been seated in front of us and were clearly no longer present. The guide walked back to the church, then came back, then looked up and down the road, and was getting a little bit frantic. At this point we were running 15 minutes late which was the point at which the guide could officially leave them to find their own way. He had already started phoning back to the ship when we spotted the group coming towards us. What really annoyed us was that only one person who got on late sheepishly apologised with the others not saying anything or, in one case, looking around angry and shouting at the guide for allowing them to get lost. Apparently, they’d not stayed long in the church and decided to get a coffee but nobody had a clue where they actually ended up. People!

Anyway, I’m fond of architecture and very fond of visiting churches the world over especially when they’re as uniquely designed as this one was. We remarked that it had the feeling of a James Bond villain’s lair about it and we very much approved. There’s not a massive amount to do there because it’s just a church and it isn’t lined with historical artefacts as some much older churches are but I think it is definitely worth a visit.

Helsinki Cathedral looked very attractive from the outside but suffered a little from all Lutheran churches we’ve encountered on our travels by being just a little spartan inside so we spent enough time to take a nose at the more interesting aspects of it before heading off to explore the city.

Just to the south of the cathedral was Senate Square, the oldest part of Helsinki. The centre of the square contained a statue of Emperor Alexander II but it was difficult to pay it any attention whatsoever as much of the public space was taken up with sculptures of seals painted by various artists and organisations. Our guide had explained before we’d wandered off on our own that the seals were being used to promote cleaner seas around Finland.

From Senate Square we continued southwards to Market Square situated on the coastline. The first thing we did when we got there was duck into the City Hall to get out of the rain for a few minutes, take a nose at the art exhibition taking place, and – mostly – to use the toilets. Being rained on for hours can have that sort of effect.

Back outside we took a look around the square. As its name suggested there was a market in operation although it was a small affair with only a few stalls offering either food or souvenirs. Around the square the obvious sights were the SkyWheel (a Ferris wheel), the ferry terminal, and the Russian Orthodox Uspenski Cathedral.

It’s at this point that I owe the city of Helsinki a little bit of an apology. When we got back from our Baltic cruise on the Crown Princess it was Finland’s capital that we found the least appealing of the cities we had visited; it had the least to do and see and for me it was architecturally-unappealing. It’s now that I’ve been going back through the photographs and processing them for publishing that I realise the designs of the buildings were actually very impressive. The rain during our visit obviously had more of an effect on us at the time than I had been aware of; I can only assume I had my head lowered so much to avoid blinding I’d missed a lot more than I realised.

We headed westwards through the Esplanadi park, a narrow bit of greenery that would possibly have been very nice under the sunshine. Along the way we passed a stage where some performers were singing to a crowd of about five (including us for the few minutes we hung around). Throughout the city there had been a number of venues preparing for concerts to celebrate the country’s centenary and I hope they eventually had better weather for it.

Turning northwards up Keskuskatu at the end of the park we headed towards the impressive-looking Helsinki Central Station. Our guide had remarked on its architecture and interior design and we certainly couldn’t fault him regarding the building’s exterior. Inside, though, there was a feeling of Lutheran influence again in the clean emptiness and we didn’t stay long.

At this point we decided we’d had enough of Helsinki’s rain which far from letting up was starting to get heavier. With several hours still in port and plenty of Euros still to spend we decided the best use of our remaining time would be in a bar and as luck would have it we’d passed one on the way to the railway station. We duly made our way back to it and after a chat with the helpful barman set about grabbing some lovely locally-made ales.

We’d just about dried off when it was time to make our way to the bus stop that would get us back to the cruise ship. Subsequently, we were drenched by the time we got back again.

The most impressive of the pieces wasn’t facing the ship but rather down the street our bus had just driven. Being fairly narrow it wasn’t possible to get far enough back to take it all in with one photo but this did mean a lot of detail could be captured in the very-detailed piece of street art. Obviously there was a connection with the nautical location and the presence of the mermaid imagery but quite what the whole piece represented was beyond me. I think you can see, though, that it’s a fabulous example of artwork.

And now some of the details of this excellent example of Helsinki street art.