Wild Goose Chase

One of the things I looked for on my Europe trip was the interesting shot of the buildings in each city. Some had that perfect look, the one that simply looks European. I like the one here because it shows the multiple tram wires overhead, the location of our wild goose chase.

We signed up for a shorter tour, which was wonderful, because it would drop us off downtown with some time on our own. A Samantha Brown visit to Helsinki on Travel Channel had clued us in that the multiple tram lines were easy to use as transit OR as sightseeing, but there was one particular sightseeing tram we just had to find. Sparakoff, the local beer, sponsors it and it offers a 45-minute circle of the downtown area with views of all the sites. The Beer Tram also has a bar aboard, and everyone is invited to have a cold draft. Sounded exciting, and it was.

Trying to speak English to Finnish people was not very successful. Most understood we were asking about trams but none knew about the Sparakoff or the Beer Tram. We walked, we tried to read schedules, and we finally found our way to a tram terminal where we located a tourist information office. One with an English speaker. She knew the Beer Tram and in fact gave us the flyer shown here. She also knew where and when it ran.

It does not run on Sunday. So the wild goose chase was over and in a way it was as interesting as if we had gotten aboard. Trying to talk to people with helpful looks on their faces, walking and looking: it was a tiring but enjoyable event in its own way. And if we ever get back to Helsinki, we will try to be there on a Tuesday-through-Saturday schedule.

Next post will be on to Hamburg.

Inside the Rock

"Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock . . ." In the book of Isaiah, the prophet indicates that God consider himself the Rock, the solid base for life. Inside the powerful grotto that the Lutheran Church has built in Helsinki, it is easy to see how wonderful a place it must be to worship. The feeling of strength is clear, the sound of quiet strength is massive. Light pours in through the skylights and reflects onto the copper ceiling, a work of art of its own.

In the tour guidebook, it sounded like an interesting oddity. In actuality, the Rock Church was another in a series of wonderful, positive surprises we found in Europe. A poem:

ROCK IN HELSINKI

Neighbors accepted the proposed church in Lutheran Helsinki;
Arguing only that they preferred not to have a tall cathedral
Right in the middle of their downtown. Problem was solved
When they blasted one out of the solid granite under the city.
Inside on a sunny summer midday, all the congregation gone,
Buses full of tourists file through to see the creative result.
This fortunate parish wound up with a big-city Lutheran grotto,
A holy place where we were proud to light a candle.

Next post: chasing wild geese in Helsinki.

Sibelius & the Sky

We looked at the traditional viewpoint for the Sibelius monument in the previous post, but I think the reason I remember the monument so powerfully is that it is inviting and open to exploration. As I climbed up and through the pedestal, I saw the bright blue sky and some wispy Sunday clouds as the background. Some monuments are nice enough to look at but this one wants to show off the sky, the openness, and the beauty of the area.

Tell me another composer who has a monument so active and so alive; if you can do so, I will put that city on my travel list!

Next post visits a Lutheran Church in a special location.

Senate Square

The downtown area we saw in the previous post is literally two blocks from an open air market, where items of clothing, lots of trinkets and souvenirs, and several booths of food are for sale. But we could not take the time to visit there for long, as the town itself is perfectly beautiful. In the bright Sunday sunshine, we saw statuary and fountains, shops and cafes, all along cobblestone streets and walks surrounding Senate Square.

And we kept crossing several tram lines, knowing that we had plans for a special tram ride after noon, one that we had seen on a Travel Channel visit to Helsinki featuring Samantha Brown. We knew we had a few things to see first, but the tram ride would certainly be worth it. Our next post will be away from downtown at a powerful memorial sculpture. We will return for a cold one on the tram after that.

The Good Czar

On a brilliant Sunday morning, our trip into Helsinki started at Senate Square, a public square right along several of the tram lines. The square is dominated not by a government building as the name might suggest, but by a Lutheran Cathedral atop of mountain of steps.

But in the center of the square itself is a statue to Czar Alexander II, the so-called "good czar." His image was erected in Senate Square as a protest to another czar, a wise strategy for Finland to take. How could a group express displeasure with a powerful monarchy, do so in public, and not be disciplined in any way? By building a monument to the predecessor. Apparently everyone on every side knew the intent, but the selection was perfect. No one could complain. And now Alexander II stands tall over a free Finland and its beautiful Senate Square.

More from Helsinki in the next post.

Flock Welcome to Finland

Stepping onto the balcony of our stateroom in Helsinki Harbor, I noticed a flock of seagulls. This is not uncommon in cruising, and the gulls often mass in huge flocks obviously looking for food. This flock was fed by several people out on the balconies and they came much closer to the ship than most do.

Grab the Nikon and start shooting! Truly, if Richard Bach is considering writing a sequel to the photo-studded JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL, he could negotiate with me. I think I have enough photos to support another novel, and some of them are among my favorite bird photos ever.

My backlog of Europe photos was so huge I just gravitated to double posts most days in August. Now that September is here I plan to get back to the single post most days. Tomorrow we head into Helsinki.