Touring Helsinki

 Today we had a guided tour of the city of Helsinki. We learned much about the Swedish influence; many of the street signs still have the Swedish names listed below the Finnish name. There is also a tile with an animal which identifies the various neighborhoods.


The Helsinki Cathedral in the background
The Oodi library, which is really a huge gathering place for everything from playing the latest video games, chess, building on 3d printers or making music in their recording studio. 

Artwork along the tree lined Esplanadi

This depicts what we were warned against; aggressive seagulls that will help themselves to your ice cream cones!

City market, where we sampled fresh berries and smoked reindeer



Interesting artwork on top of a building. We had lunch at the Old Market Hall - a variety of stalls that featured traditional Finnish food and wares. Following lunch we made our way over to the Allas sea pool for our first sauna experience and swim. As you can tell the day started out quite overcast and cool but ended up beautifully with sunshine. 

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