Arriving in Helsinki

Arriving in Helsinki my first thoughts were why am I doing this? Pouring with rain, I could barely see out the windows of the airport bus. Having got up before 6am after a late night I was also pretty tired, so I got into my hotel room unpacked and had a little kip. And then early evening sauntered outside in search of a restaurant.

But then the sightseeing gene took over. And I just kept on going through the centre of the city in search of that elusive perfect restaurant, each one teasing me to go just a little further to see if the next one might just be better. And in the meantime of course I ended up going past many of the city centre sights, including the wonderful Helsinki Cathedral, surrounded by other superb classical buildings, designed by Engel, and built when Helsinki was nothing much more than a village.

But first I should start with the station, itself an architecturally renowned building and right beside my hotel. The Holiday Inn is pretty characterless, and the view from my room (below) was especially awful (railway track petering out into construction site before disappearing into foggy or rainy gloom. But the airport bus stops right outside and everything else pans out within walking distance from the station, so the location is ideal.

 And then in the Square in front of the cathedral I came across what I think was the dress rehearsal for a bizarre concert to introduce the European Athletics Championships, half the stage being a basically traditional stage and the other half containing dancers/audience all dressed in Arnold Sidebottom masks. Like this