Wednesday, August 15, 2012

We spent a delightful morning yesterday on a walking tour of Helsinki's city center.  Blessed with bright blue skies, it only took about three hours to stroll  by & through most of the important buildings because this is a relatively small city of about a half million unless the surrounding towns are included in which case it's close to a million.

The buildings are mostly built in the 1800s in a style similar to most of St. Petersburg...four to six stories in height, no space between buildings, some trim and various muted colors.  There is water visible from almost any location.  Unlike Russia, there are relatively few churches and they're almost all Lutheran meaning that even the cathedral is relatively plain although imposing.  The Finns have two "state" religions: Lutheran and Russian Orthodox; "state" meaning that for those people who declare a religion, the state collects 1% of their salary and gives it to the church!  The Finns are about 90% Lutheran and 10% Russian Orthodox although those numbers are decreasing since the younger generation wants to keep the 1%...until they get married, need a baptism or funeral service, all of which require a church membership.

While we're on statistics, the Finnish government provides free education through four to six years of university and free health care.  For that (and other services, of course, they pay a tax of 28%-36& for most, 60% for a few.  It's no wonder the Finns seem a happy, relaxed people although unemployment is creaping in.

One of our stops on the tour was at the open air market down by the ferry port:  marvelous selection of fresh fruits (it's berry season and they can be picked almost anywhere outside of the city, even on private property without asking permission) and veggies, fish, hand-made craft items, great fur products, etc.  We came back after our tour, bought a great lunch from a couple of stands and then strolled the whole market before returning to the Radisson, window-shopping along the way.

We ended the day with our usual scotch, cheese & crackers in our room then strolled back to a great Finish restaurant, the Fishmarket, located across from the market.  Excellent, Harley even had a whole smoked whitefish.

Today at 10 AM we'll take a fast ferry (about 90 minutes) across to Tallin, the capital of Estonia, spend the day there then return in time for a 6:45 PM dinner reservation.