Helsinki history in a nutshell is 600 years under Swedish rule, then 100 under Russia, and then the most current 100 independent. The 1940 Olympics was scheduled to be held in Helsinki, but the war throughout Europe had that year’s Olympics cancelled. The main buildings were already under construction so they did finish the buildings to be used in the 1952 Olympics. A Finnish runner for the 1000 meter race was pushed and fell during the race, and yet still managed to get the gold medal. Jean Sibelius, the composer of Finnlandia has a monument sculpture that is total artsy fartsy gibberish. 2015 marks Sibelius' 150th birthday. It is a bunch of pipes together and when she was asked if it was organ pipes she said no and that she would not tell the significance so that each person can come up with their own interpretation. As a compromise to total nonsense sculpture, she put in a bust of the composer coming out of the rock that I like much better. The Temppeliakio Rock Church was carved directly from stone with the inter pieces being used around. It was dug as an open hole and a beautiful wooden roof was built on top. The acoustics are extraordinary. Owen also decided to test the acoustics by screaming. The Helsinki Cathedral with huge domes sits on top of an enormous stair case. It has a very simple interior with a simple main altar. The organ is very beautiful. The cathedral is on the Senate Square with a sculpture of Alexander II known as 'the good czar'. This city has a positive experience with the Russian time as Alexander the good czar built the train system and other infrastructure that is still in use. The port is used for cruise ship construction and other large ship repairs. We went to an open market where we had some local moose meat balls. It was a rather short port call.
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