We finally came round at 9, and went to the buffet to have breakfast - needless to say Margo misses Cagney's and thinks they have superior bacon. No worries - we will be returning there for breakfast tomorrow.
Without having a tour booked, we decided to go for the Hop-On Hop-Off option for 20 euro each. Originally, 25 euro, but I asked if there was any student discount and of course there was not. But she asked if we had the paper from the cruise ship that gave 5 euro off and we said we didn't bring anything with us because of the rain - got a 5 euro discount. Still don't know what paper she is talking about...
The weather is what we expected on our Baltic cruise in May - cold and rainy. We've been extremely lucky with the weather everywhere else so I'll definitely take a day of cold and rainy in Helsinki rather than St. Petersburg.
The first stop of our mini-tour was Rock Church - AKA Temppeliauko Kirkko - a mouthful in Finnish! The church looks like a mini-fortress rising in the distance. Built in 1969 into the solid rock that was there previously, it now serves obviously as a church and a concert hall. Someone was playing piano when we were there - the acoustics were fantastic. And bonus points: it was free and indoors.
We drove by many other buildings on the way to the next stop - we decided it was much nicer to look at they through the windows instead of getting soaked. We passed by the 1952 Olympic Stadium originally meant to be used in 1940. Because of WWII, Olympics were a no-go so all Helsinki's plans had to be put off by 12 years.
We next hopped off near the Helsinki railway station which is supposed to be "One of the Top 10 Railway Stations in the World". It was nice, but I wouldn't go that far. It definitely was appealing because again it was free and indoors. Next we headed to the largest department store in Finland called Stockmann's. We had a wander around and got stuck on floor 1A. The Finns have these weird half floors that make no sense. We decided to have lunch here, and we both still don't know what we ate. But it was a decent price, very tasty and again - indoors!
We next headed to the Marimekko store whose designs are well known - who knew it was from Finland? I was very tempted to buy something but my suitcase is already too full of souvenirs and I can get it in the states for the same price:).
We hit our obligatory souvenir shop next for my Christmas ornament obsession. It had a Christmas shop - bonus points! It also had a floor dedicated to the "Moomins" - a Finnish group of cartoon characters that look like hippos (I thought of Fredi!)
Time to head home because the rain was starting to pour sideways. We dashed back to the sh-boat for a warm up with a hot drink!
After our epic nap (still recovering from St Petersburg), we are off to dinner to have Beef Stroganoff which we didn't get to try in Russia. Good evening all!
Pics:
1. Church of the Rock candles
2. Inside of Helsinki Rail Station
3. Some Finnish - it was for an outdoor book sale
4. In Market Square trying to stay dry
5. Senate Square
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