Another rainy day, but there are still sites to see and only about 6 hours in port, so off we went in the rain. We took a bus into the center of town and then walked to Market Square where you can shop for everything from fruits and flowers to local arts and crafts. Not too many shoppers out. We then walked to Uspenski Cathedral. We ran into the Bishop and the priest from Florida at the church. It is a red brick cathedral and it has 13 onion domes representing Christ and the twelve apostles. Inside there are many icons and one is believed to work miracles.
Our next stop, in the rain, was to Senate Square where we went into St. Nicholas Cathedral (a Lutheran church). This Finnish church is also known as Tuomiokirkko. The church is a large white structure towering over the square. It is very plain inside compared to other churches we have been seeing. We also went down into the crypt, which is now used as a café.
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| The Crypt |
Our last stop was to Temppeliaukio Church aka “Rock Church”. This is a circular church carved into the rock with a copper dome roof. The acoustics are supposed to be very good in the church because of the rock wall interior. It was very modern. One of the interesting things is that the church has no bells and they play a recording of bells over the speakers.
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| Entrance to Rock Church |
We didn’t stop for a beer in Helsinki since the weather was so bad, but as we were making our way back to the bus stop, we walked down a street and saw shirts hanging on lines from buildings. At first, I thought that people were hanging out their laundry. We later found out that this was part of an outdoor exhibition. This was the work of famous Finnish artist Kaarina Kaikkonen. We found our bus stop, got back to the ship and it was still raining. No hot tub today.
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