Nordic Adventure, Part 1: Helsinki

On June 16, 2014January 26, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - The Nordics6 Comments

I scheduled a bunch of time off for another trip that didn’t quite pan out, so I decided to use the time to visit Helsinki, Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, and Reykjavik. I started my two week romp through the Nordics with a day in Berlin, where I checked off the last three Category One stations and attended a concert by Hayseed Dixie. The next day, I flew from Berlin to Helsinki, Finland.

My pictures from Helsinki are in no particular order.

This is the statue of Alexander II and the Lutheran Cathedral, as seen from about a third of the way into Senate Square. If you do a Google Image search just on the word Helsinki, the Cathedral is going to be the single most common image. It’s pretty well known.

This is Esplanade Park, a short walk from the Harbor. The statue is J.L. Runeberg, the national poet of Finland. This park is a meeting point for locals and tourists, and there are free concerts here during the summer.

A convergence of tram lines near the harbor.

Uspenski Cathedral, the Russian Orthodox behemoth of a church on the hill in the background, is walking distance from the Harbor.

Helsinki City Hall, I think. It’s possible that I made the wrong assumption here.

Uspenski Cathedral again, this time from a bit closer. Uspenski is the largest Orthodox cathedral in Western Europe.

I quite liked the feel of Helsinki. Any city that puts out paired lounge chairs for its citizens can’t be all bad, you know? I didn’t try out these chairs, but I should have.

The railway station. I walked through this building to see the inside, but it wasn’t as impressive as the front. This totally looks like it could be used for establishing shots in the upcoming Justice League movie, don’t you think?

Completed in 2012, the Kamppi Chapel of Silence in Narinkkatori square isn’t really a church. It was designed by architects, and is built out of wood (Alder, spruce, and ash, according to the signs.) It won the International Architecture Award 2010, and is part of the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 program.

Inside, the sound of the city is blocked out, and it’s muted and quiet- something you might expect from a place called the Chapel of Silence. This is only a kilometer from Senate Square, so it’s easily reachable on foot or by tram.

I had never heard of Moomins before this trip. This is yet another instance of the United States completely and utterly missing a swath of culture from other places. The Moomins, created by Swedish speaking Finnish auther Tove Jansson, have been cartoons, comic strips, stage shows, movies, novels, and even a theme park. They’ve had exposure in England, Russian, Japan, Austria, and Cuba… but until this trip, I’ve never seen a Moomin. The Jansson family has turned down offers from the Walt Disney Company, so that explains some of my lack of exposure.

The Three Smiths statue, unveiled in 1932, is another popular meeting place for locals. Also, it’s directly in front of the Hard Rock Cafe, if you’re into that sort of thing. I actually ate at Kaarna, another restaurant nearby. I had a delicious reindeer burger patty with braised onion and salad wrapped in Laplandish flatbread.

This sculpture still bears damage from being shot during World War 2.

The Church in the Rock, or Temppeliaukion kirkko, was blasted out of granite bedrock.

The outer walls still show exposed granite.

The ceiling is entirely made of copper.

The Jean Sibelius Monument in Sibelius Park. This was created in 1967 by Eila Hiltunen. The intension was for visitors to interact with the design by creating sounds and echoes in the pipes.

Artsy shot!

This statue is called “A Mother’s Love.” I thought it was nice.

Harborside Market, in Katajanokka. Here you can buy crafts and local foods.

The Helsinki Pool and Ferris Wheel isn’t open yet- It was slated for Spring of this year, but the 40 meter tall ferris wheel wasn’t open when I was there.

Suomenlinna could easily be separated into a separate blog post, because it’s an on a different island. Suomenlinna is a sea fortress built off the coast of Helsinki in the mid-1700s in order to defend the city. The fortress is well preserved and is a frequent attraction for tourists, but the island is also home to around 800 residents. There are tour boats that go to Suomenlinna, but you can just easily reach the island using the HSL ferry- if you’ve already purchased a day-ticket good for all the buses and trams, you’re covered for the ferry to Sueomenlinna as well. I purchased a multi-day ticket at the airport, and it covered me for the entire trip.

On the walk in the direction of the King’s Gate.

Kustaanmiekka is part of the original bastion fortress with guns constructed by the Russians at the end of the 19th century for coastal defense.

Plus it looks a tiny bit like the Shire.

I didn’t manage to see the Vesikko while I was there Vesikko is a Finnish submarine built in the 1930 for World War 2. It has been restored and set up as a museum. Regrettably, I didn’t find the Vesikko, but I did spend quite a while on the defensive wall of the fortress.

The original structures from 1748 still stand and can be explored.

There are people in period costumes all over the Fortress museum area.

The Suomenlinna Church was a Russian Orthodox garrison church in 1854. In the early days of Finnish independence in the 1920s, it was converted into an Evangelical-Lutheran church. The steeple still operates as a lighthouse for air and sea traffic.

helsinki-27 ccc

Katajanokka as seen from the ferry back from Suomenlinna.

Have you ever been to Helsinki or Suomenlinna?

The Art of the Brick

On June 12, 2014January 26, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Europe11 Comments

When my friend Charlotte was in New York, she went to an Art of The Brick exhibit. She posted about it on her old blog back in April.

Art of the Brick is an exhibition of art by Nathan Sawaya. Rather, it’s a series of exhibitions. There are currently exhibitions in New York, Miami, and Dublin. I caught the Brussels exhibit in its last weekend there. Everything in the pictures below is made of Lego brick.

What’s the biggest Lego kit you’ve ever built?

The Palatine Chapel, Aachen

On June 9, 2014May 30, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Inside Germany4 Comments

On the way back from the Netherlands, we stopped in Aachen specifically to check out the Palatine Chapel and the Aachen Cathedral. The Palatine Chapel is an early medieval chapel which was originally part of Charlemagne’s palace. Most of the palace no longer exists, but the Chapel has been incorporated into Aachen Cathedral.

This building is Aachen’s theater, and has nothing to do with the Cathedral.

This is part of the wall just outside the Chapel. When we arrived, it was about fifteen minutes before the Chapel would be open for visitors so we walked around a bit.

A statue near to the cathedral called The Circle of Money.

This is the Aachen Rathaus (town hall), across from the Aachen Starbucks.

Germans really do love their ice cream.

The Chapel opened at 12:30 and we were inside soon after. In the main entryway, there are pine cones dating from the year 1000.

This is the “She-wolf,” a Roman female bear from the 2nd century. Recent research has dated this sculpture back to ancient Greece, claiming that it is part of a hunting scene.

The Cathedral administrators charge you €1 to take pictures with your own camera. When you pay, they put a green band on your camera strap to indicate that you’re allowed to be taking photos. This seems entirely reasonable to me.

This is the main octagonal part of Charlemagne’s chapel. The main structure dates back to roughly the year 800.

The ceiling of the Chapel.

Stained glass with several items visible on the altar. I’ll come back to these.

Detail in the ceiling near the main entrance.

The gold box closest to the camera is the Shrine of St. Mary. It contains four Aachen relics, which are taken out every seven years and put on display. Behind that is the Adlerspult (Eagle stand), a brass music stand in the shape of an eagle. The furthest gold box back is the Shrine of Charlemagne, and it contains the remains of Charlemagne, who died in the year 814.

The Shrine of St. Mary and the Adlerpult.

The Shrine of Charlemagne.

In the gallery upstairs is Charlemagne’s throne. (Thanks to Robert for taking this picture. You had to join a tour to go upstairs, and he did.) Originally, the throne was white marble, but it was covered it in tar paper after the war and buried in sand- a bomb attack blew out all the windows and they were doing their best to cover the inside from the elements. The tar paper has left stains on the marble and these will not be cleaned for fear of damaging the marble.

This is the Aachen cathedral in its entirety. The rounded cupola in the center is the portion containing the Palatine Chapel.

Have you ever been to the Palatine Chapel?

Tiger & Turtle – Magic Mountain

On June 5, 2014May 30, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Inside Germany7 Comments

In Duisburg, Germany, there is an unusual structure called Tiger & Turtle – Magic Mountain. It looks for all the world like a roller coaster, but it’s actually stairs, and it’s considered a sculpture. You can climb on all parts of it except the inverted portion of the loop, for obvious reasons.

We never did figure out why they named it Tiger & Turtle.

Have you ever been to Tiger & Turtle? Why do you think it was given that name?

Scheveningen, The Hague

On June 2, 2014January 26, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Europe6 Comments

When we went to Keukenhof for the tulip festival and flower parade, we stayed in Scheveningen, a district of the Hague which borders the North Sea. It contains a nice seaside resort area.

Before we went, I was convinced that the name of the place sounded a little bit like a lawnmower starting up. I was wrong, though. Click play on the sound bar below to hear what it really sounds like.

The three of us stayed at a nice hotel called the Boulevard Hotel. We wanted to stay near the ocean, and it was one of the few places in our price range that had a room with three beds. My bed actually folded up into a console when not occupied. Jenny said I looked a little bit like Harry Potter under the stairs when I was on this.

As soon as we dropped our stuff off in the hotel room, we walked back out to check out the beach and boardwalk, and to find some dinner. It was windy, but amazing.

We stopped at ‘t Pannekoekenhuisje, a pancake house, for dinner. When we were walking in, this adorable little moppet was playing in an alligator and I couldn’t resist taking pictures. Cute, eh?

Anyway, back to the pancake house. In the Netherlands, pancake houses aren’t much like iHop or anything that most Americans are used to. For one thing, the pancakes are served as one ENORMOUS pancake that tends to be larger than the plate it’s served on. For another thing, not all pancakes are sweet; some are savory. Mine had mushrooms, garlic, and bacon.

After dinner, there was more walking around the boardwalk- this far north, the sun doesn’t set until pretty late, so we had plenty of daylight. I was tickled by some of the touristy stuff going on here.

I also think it’s kind of brilliant that spaced along the beach at intervals were poles with cartoon animals, the better to help children remember where their family is set up. The beach wasn’t very crowded when we were there, but I can imagine that on a warmer day it would be utterly slammed with people.

There’s a seaside trampoline park here! I was tempted to go for a bounce.

Not far from our hotel is a pretty amazing sculpture garden. We missed it on our first trip down the beach because it’s up on the sidewalk and we were down on the beach. On the way back to the hotel, however, it was impossible to miss. The first two visible statues are enormously tall.

This was one of my favorites: the traditional boy with his finger in a dike.

Most of these were based in fairy tales. In fact, the entire sculpture garden is called SprookjesBeelden aan Zee (Fairytale Sculptures by the Sea) and it contains 23 sculptures by American sculptor Tom Otterness.

The sculpture garden is part of the Museum Beelden aan Zee, which is dedicated to sculpture and contains roughly one thousand different sculptures. This one is called Crying Giant.

Some of them are tiny by comparison. This one was just a few inches tall.

The fable of the Lion and the Mouse. The lion had previously allowed the mouse to go free, and the mouse returned the favor later, after the lion had been captured by hunters.

The Herring Eater, a twelve meter tall statue.

I think we all know what this one is.

I’m not sure which fairy tale this represents.

These two are looking up at the Herring Eater. I love the tiny ones hanging out with the midsized ones.

Hansel and Gretel, trapped in a cage. The one in the background that I did not capture fully is also Hansel and Gretel, after they’ve been fattened up.

I really enjoyed these whimsical statues.

This one was my favorite.

Gulliver. I didn’t even notice the Lilliputian by his feet until Jenny pointed it out to me later.

I kept walking for a while after I finished looking at the sculpture garden. I thought this was quite colorful.

Further down the beach is a traditional lighthouse and a memorial statue. I haven’t been able to learn exactly what this is for, but the text on it says November 1813.