Helsinki Daily

Temple church inside the rock

2009-05-07T19:02:00.003+03:00

There is a church in Helsinki that don't look all that much of anything seen from the outside. The reason being that it's built inside the rockface. All you see is half a dome sticking over the rock with a stonewall around it. I had no time to go inside this time but it's certainly worth a visit. Perhaps I'll get inside too one of these days. Not that I haven't been but never with a camera in hand. Anyway here is what you can see of it from the outside as well as a bit of the street going past it underneath the rocky hill.

On the other side of the hill lies the entry, which looks pretty boring. Don't let that fool you though. Inside it is very atmospheric and also many classical music concerts are held in this church because the acustics work very well.

I took such a lot of photos that day at the end of March so these 'wintery' scenes just keep on coming. I will do a new shoot later in the summer when all the flowers are in full bloom.

Kamppi busstation

2009-04-30T19:57:00.003+03:00

There's the Mayday celebrations and carneval in Helsinki and other cities of Finland today and tomorrow. Unfortunately you will not be witness to these happenings through this blog as I'm heading off to the peace and quiet of the countryside for a few days.

Instead I leave you to ponder over the new built-in busstation complex Kamppi and on top of that a couple of furry creatures that I came across in the old town region.

The finnish horse, a tough and winter hardy working horse breed. Here undergoing a changing of fur and thus looking quite scruffy.

Another Gottland Russ pony. Also seemingly under process of changing fur.

In case you should wonder, all these photos in my blog were taken in the end of March. So the snow and ice was still present and not a lot of greenery. Not so anymore.

Happy Mayday everyone!

Main street and the Natural Science Museum

2009-04-25T23:53:00.006+03:00

This is the main street in Helsinki called the Mannerheim Road just passed the Parliament Building. It's the longest street and other streets leading to very many different parts cross this one along the line. On the left is the Sokos department store and further along the oldest and most prestigous store called Stockman. On the left is the Forum shopping center in four levels. In the middle you see one of those trams mentioned previously aproaching. To the left from this point is the railway station and to the right is the new built in bus station and shopping complex Kamppi (which we'll come to a bit later). A corner of the modern art museum Kiasma is showing at the very right edge of the picture.

Before we look at Kamppi we'll explore a few other bits and pieces. This building is the Natural Science Museum where you can enjoy and learn about the origins of life all to the species belonging to the finnish flora and fauna. The statue outside the entrance is an elk (amer. moose).

Finlandia House and Parliament Building

2009-04-23T15:10:00.004+03:00

Also along the bay of Toolo lies the Finlandia House, which was designed by the world famous architect Alvar Aalto (R.I.P.) also known for his furniture designs.

All sorts of venues take place in this building, which is panelled with italian marmor plates. International political conferences, fashion and cosmetics shows, concerts (mainly classical) and other types of medium sized fairs are among those venues. Larger fairs and shows take place in the Pasila Fair Center.

The red tower to the right is that of the Finnish National History Museum and to the left is the corner of the Parliament Building.

This is the facade of the Parliament Building, where the political parties gather to debate political issues with the ministers of the government. That is then televised. The different speaches are timed by a Mr Speaker (earlier it was Madam Speaker). All in all a pretty common political system within Europe.

Two opera houses, old and new

2009-04-21T23:06:00.002+03:00

This is the old opera house that then just became too small. Notice the cobbled street. In a few places these old cobbled streets have still been kept as they were originally made.

This modern version was then built a few years back by the bay of Toolo

Johannes church

2009-04-18T03:08:00.003+03:00

Here is a view from the railway bridge back towards the center

The two spires belong to the Johannes church

This is a closer view of the church

Now I'm again two days away so I'll leave you with a cute little fellow that I found during one of my walks in the old town region. This is a Gottland pony (no taller than a great dane) also called Gottland russ. (Gottland is an island in Sweden).

The railway

2009-04-16T22:50:00.003+03:00

Railways are perhaps not a thing of beauty but as I said at the beginning my aim is not to only show such things that I would consider beautiful but to show a picture of Helsinki the way I see it, wheather it be old, modern, quaint, nature, plantations or just constructions. The first two photos belong to the last category but even along the tracks are some nice details to see other than the bay which they run over.

Railroad viewed from the other side of the bay - or rather I was at that point right in the middle of it walking over the ice.

View from the railwaybridge towards Pasila and the main TV tower, a buzzling center of its own where there are amongst other things the ice stadium Hartwall Areena and the big fair center Messukeskus. Mostly the architecture there is modern. Any old buildings have had to give way but a few back streets with small, old and quite primitive wooden houses still exist even there. One of my friends lives in such a house.

Close to the railway bridge high up over the banks are a few of these romantically pastel coloured wooden houses dotted here and there. Somehow they seem rather out of place in that environment but they do make a nice contrast to all that steelwork.

Views over the bay in March

2009-04-15T19:26:00.004+03:00

I'm back in business now.

Thankyou for all the interest shown by so many. I find that quite uplifting as well as receiving an award from a former Helsinki girl. Shows she approves of my presentation of the city she spent 20 years in.

These photos overlooking the bay of Toolo were taken at the end of March. The water there is now open and there's no snow left.
The streets seen in the photos belong to a part called Hakaniemi.

This is an office/shop building called the 'Round house'.

As you can see Helsinki is a city of both old and modern buildings side by side. Also houses from the fifties exist quite a lot due to the previous buildings having been bombarded down during the second world war. Some suburbs still exist were there are mainly whole streets of old wooden houses and others were there are only modern office block buildings. It's thus like many big cities in its versatility.

Mallards in bay of Toolo

2009-04-08T02:38:00.003+03:00

I leave you for a few days with these two images of some of the birdlife in Helsinki. Allthough the sea is still quite frozen closer to the shores this bit of water gets ice free early on as it is close to a bridge and there's always a stream under bridges. That is of course good for the birds.

I'd like to wish all my visitors a happy Easter. May the Easter bunny have a lot of chocolate eggs to bring you.

This Easter cactus of mine will enchant this blog until after Easter. See you then.

Botanical gardens

2009-04-06T13:27:00.004+03:00

We have now walked past that National theatre building in the previous post through the left hand side little street.

View from behind the theatre allthough there's a newer and not so pretty office building just behind it, as you can see. On the left of the picture is a more traditional style of building. Through the gap you can see a bit of the Amos Andersen art gallery. The spire belongs to the Johannes church, which will be featured later on in this blog.

There's a walkway soon after that little street going alongside the railway tracks and passing the bay of Toolo. The railway tracks go right over the bay, which narrows down significantly on one point so that there's a bridge over that part.

Before reaching the bay there is the Botanical gardens building, housing all sorts of exotic species of plants.
The outside areas of these gardens have these days been badly ravished by ever increasing numbers of rabbits, not natural to our fauna, that have been let loose from rabbit farms and seem to be able to live and multiply in this kind of environment with plenty of shelter from the elements. People also feed them quite a lot. They are spreading to other nearby areas as well.

Railway station and National theatre

2009-04-05T21:34:00.003+03:00

First of all thankyou to all the commentators and visitors so much for the interest you have shown. I joined a site called City Daily Photo, and have been accepted. I suspect some of the people commenting were from that site. Please don't feel neglected if I haven't payd you a revisit yet. I most certainly will as soon as I get a moment. I am so interested to see how other places in the world looks like.

Anyway we left the Senate Square behind and walked to the very central area of the city. There we have the central railway station and also the national theatre. In the middle of the station square is an ice rink in the winter time.

Main entrance to railway station, designed by architect Eliel Saarinen and taken into use in 1919.

The national theatre (grey building) founded in 1872 and the skating rink in front of it.

Helsinki cathedral and university library

2009-04-04T02:20:00.003+03:00

Passing the university building up the street on the left hand side of the cathedral we approach the university library

Here is that building as seen from the front

From that vantage point we get another view of the cathedral from the side.

The next etapp will be the very center of the city. That's were we'll get tomorrow.

The Senate square

2009-04-03T02:11:00.005+03:00

We have now arrived at the Senate square featured above on the header. On the right hand side of the Helsinki cathedral is the Government building.

In front of this building, where many an important issue has been decided upon, is the statue of Alexander the second. He was the Tzar of Russia at the time these buildings were being built.

Here's a view of the whole building

On the left hand side of the square is the Helsinki university, which is the largest university in Finland.

The guard of the Guard and walking along

2009-04-02T01:27:00.004+03:00

The house of the Main Guard always has a ... well a guard posted by the entrance. I admire these young men, who can stand there like statues for long periods at a time no matter what wheather it is, hot or cold. If it was me I think I would just start swaying back and forth after a while until I would topple over completely long before my duty was done. Not sure how frequently the changing of the guard takes place.

Passing the Main Guard house we turn towards the Senate Square through this bit of street running up from the seaside.

The Senate square houses, apart from the Helsinki cathedral, also other buildings of importanse but that is the post for tomorrow.

Presidential palace

2009-04-01T01:47:00.007+03:00

The building in front is the president's official residense.

Here is a small bridge crossing over the channel from the mainland to the island where the Viking Line cruiser's terminal is. The circular light blue building behind the bridge is that of the Main Guard.

Here is a closer look at the Uspensky cathedral, also built onto that island (Katajanokka).

Market square

2009-03-31T01:18:00.004+03:00

We are still moving around at the harbour areas but are now approaching the market square on our walk.

Here is a view in towards town and the dome church, that stands as a header on this blog, is clearly visible behind the buildings around the market square area.

Once upon a time there was film called 'Reds' made and these streets were the site where this film with Warren Beatty and Dianne Keaton was actually filmed. Filming inside Russia (the Sovjet Union in those days) was not an option.
I had the dubious pleasure of becoming aquainted with one of the film crew. I was a very young person in those days and of course it was ever so exciting. Thus I can with my hand on my heart tell, that I have been to a private party with Warren Beatty (a non drinker supposedly) and Dianne Keaton. The state of my shallowness in those days can be figured out from the fact that I was rather dissapointed that no press was allowed. Perhaps a good thing. Dear Mr Beatty was anything but sober.

Moving along from that sidestep onto memory lane we take a look towards the other side and see behind the modern office building the Russian Orthodox Uspensky Cathedral.

The Sveaborg ferry is in the foreground.

Our final picture of today is of this old sailing ship which functions as a restaurant these days and behind it is the Helsinki Town House.

Lingering on

2009-03-30T11:58:00.003+03:00

We will linger on for just a little while still around these cruisers. In the first shot the regularly to and fro trafficing Sveaborg ferry (the fortress island) is passing by Gabriella. It gives some perspective to the size of these cruisers. Gabriella is still the smaller one of the two.

Ferry, which can be used with the regular public transport pass, returning to the mainland with passengers.

Gabriella has departed and is passing just behind the restaurant Palace Kämp.

There she goes out to sea ploughing through the floating ice.

The cruising boat terminals

2009-03-30T01:26:00.000+03:00

Cruises from Helsinki to Stockholm and to Tallinn in Estonia are very popular. On our seaside promenade we have reached the first of the big cruisers, more like luxury boozers really, that are trafficing between Helsinki and Stockholm every few days.

Behind this statue, representing the working people, the first cruiser Silja Serenade has already departed towards Sweden.

Here it's about to pass Viking line's Gabriella, which has it's terminal on the other side of the harbour and is still waiting for departure about half an hour later but also headed for Stockholm.
The white house with the green roof on that little island belongs to the Helsinki sailing club and is a restaurant.

Along the seaside promenade

2009-03-29T17:46:00.000+03:00

Helsinki is a city of a substantial amount of cafes, restaurants, bars and pubs of every thinkable variety. Especially during the warm periods the commerce in those street cafes and bars, that are abundant around the central areas, is lively. Us finns love to meet up in such places and sit there watching the world go by.
The above cafe Ursula is alongside the seaside promenade at the bottom of the most beautiful park, the Kaivopuisto, a popular recreation area and a site for many different kinds of outside concerts among other happenings during the summer.

Further along the promenade is this charming island restaurant, The Palace Kämp, which can be reached by a regularly trafficing boat.

Ship building harbour

2009-03-28T15:26:00.001+02:00

Yesterday we had a view of the place were it all started. Helsinki is built by the sea and thus there is of course several harbours around. Luxury cruise building has been a big business in Finland. It cannot happen without the proper equipment and machinery. Thus we will today take a look at the docks were this ship building takes place.

I will point out that all these pictures are as I see things. This is therefore Helsinki through my eyes. As in any city there are beautiful areas and those not so beautiful. All are necessary for the functioning of the city.

Where it all started

2009-03-28T02:58:00.000+02:00

This is my new blog and as the name suggest it will feature pictures only from Helsinki, Finland's capital city. There'll be a daily dosage of shots but only max three at a time.

We'll start today with just the one shot. It is of Sveaborg. The island were the Helsinki story started. It was originally a medieval fortress built for protection against the russians. The original stone walls and many cannons are still there on the island.

Slowly the small village of Helsinki started to grow on the mainland as the soldiers of the fortress and their families and servants were in need of all sorts of services for their maintenance.
The reason Helsinki became eventually the capital is another story. The original capital was Turku but it practically burned down once in the great fire and rebilding it took so long that a new capital had to be established. At this time Helsinki had already grown to a proper town and so it was decided that it would be the new capital.

Many of Helsinki's buildings show russian influence due to Finland having belonged to Russia before independence was granted in 1917.