Travelog for: TobiHH

I wanted to see the Cathedral so there we went. The church is dedicated to Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and it gained its present form at the end of the 15th century. It can accomodate 800 people at the time. The small chuch (red wooden building right next to the cathedral) is dedicated in 1740. It accomodates 170 people. My host got married in the small one - and they christened their first born there too.

The Cathedral has been burnt several times. Last time it was burnt by arson in 2006. It took them 3 years to rebuild the roof and wash the interiors.

The pink'ish house in the 3rd & 2nd last photos is the Poet's House. The city rents it for free to artists of various kinds. The artist who wins the rent gets to live there and do his/her art for a certain amount of years.

Here are the rest of the pics we took on our meetup.

We saw a very cool car. Pink watering can, handmade elks...

At the Small Chocolate Factory, next to the cathedral, we found that little toy doggie. We had a long discussion and when we realized he had been hanging there for quite a while my host decided to rescue him. Do you think she'll make a tv of him...?  The Small Chocolate Factory was so small we couldn't even take pics! You can buy chocolates and pastries handmade by the master chocolate-maker. Some of our human company bough some.

It was a good trip!

We spent the Midsummer at my host's parents. Instead of a real big bonfire we had a small bonfire in a barrel  We barbequed some sausages, added vegetables - and had cake for dessert! Yum! You can see in the photo that we ate ourselves quite full 

Later we played some petanque. It was so much fun! Especially because I won once! We had some pretty tight matches, we had to measure the distances at times.

The weather was on our side too: it was cloudy but didn't rain untill in the evening. This was one cool Midsummer 

My host had to run some errands in Helsinki and naturally I got to go with her. Here I have found the Cathedral of Helsinki! It looks so big on the outside but isn't as big on the inside (though it's bigger than the pic). This Cathedral was designed by Carl Ludwig Engel and built in 1830-1852. You can see the harbour from there! That's where I headed next...

The monument in front of the Cathedral is a statue of Alexander II, made by Walter Runeberg in 1894. Alexander II is sculpted making his speech on the Porvoo Diet in 1863.

On my way to the harbour I saw The Orthodox Church called the Uspensky Cathedral. It looks awesome too! It's designed by Aleksei M. Gornostajev and it's finished in 1868. Both Cathedrals are popular tourist attractions too.

This is the Kauppatori, the Market Square with the harbour. I saw two cruise ships! Those are Silja Serenade and Silja Symphony of Silja Line. My host swears she took a pic of me with a Viking Line cruise ship too but somehow it doesn't exist in the camera...

The Market Square was full of people selling stuff and food - and full of people buying them. It was fun to watch 

Oh, and in the 5th and 6th photo is the Presidential Palace! The building used to be a salt warehouse!  Later it was used by the Czar Alexander II (his statue was on the last update) and his family. During World War I the residence was converted into the Military Hospital of the Finnish Senate. In the beginning of Finland's independence it was renovated and re-furnished to become the Presidential Palace. The Independence Day Ball is held there every year - the predisent invites all sorts of famous and/or important people to the ball and the media talks about the dresses... The Palace has nearly 3,000 square metres of floor space so there's plenty of room to dance 

The president (Mrs. Tarja Halonen at the moment) stays in Kultaranta during the summer so there's no guard in front of the Palace now.

From the Market Square we continued our walk on the Boulevard. It's a long park way where people like to sit and enjoy the sun and watching other people. In the first photo is the famous Havis Amanda statue.  It was sculpted by Ville Vallgren in Paris in 1906 and transfered to the present location in 1908. Every year on Vappu (May Day aka Labor Day) students of the local universities put a cap on the statue on an elaborate ceremony. For many it is a "must see" event.

The Boulevard was full of people, but no wonder as it was such a beautiful (and hot!) day. I even saw a Midsummer Pole there  It's a traditional Midsummer decoration in Åland Islands and the coastal Finland - althought my host has seen one only once. People decorate the pole, lift it up and dance around it.

Finally we got to the main street and waited for a tram...

We took the tram to get faster further  First we saw the Olympic Stadium where they held the 1952 Olympics! Almost next to it is the Opera House (The Finnish National Opera).

While walking we saw another park in the city. Also here people were sunbathing - and playing huge chess. And I found a souvenir shop which had a Moomin guarding the door.

Then there was the National Museum of Finland and the Finlandia Hall. Finlandia Hall was designed by Alvar Aalto in 1962 and built between 1967-72.

Then we came back by tram to the spot where we jumped on the tram. That's where is the statue of the Three Smiths. It's designed by Felix Nylund and revealed in 1932. Felix Nylund had boxers and wrestlers as models for the work.

That chair was on the street, it wasn't there the last time we checked. We don't know what it's supposed to represent but we decided to take a picture anyway.

And last but not least - we ended up participating in a postcrossing meeting! We were just shopping for stamps and postcards and glanced to the cafe - and there they were! It was a fun suprise and a good way to end the day 

Alfie Langer is the Voyager of the Week! WOW! He's VOTW  Our host thought we should celebrate and thus we went to restaurant Rosso. It's a nice italian style, comfy restaurant. We studied the menus - Alfie decided to take Reindeer Pasta and the rest of us (me, Gary, Leonard) shared a huge (tv point of view) pizza Al Capone. Alfie called it Alfie Capone which cracked me up  It was all very filling and we couldn't even think of dessert...

Congratulations Alfie!

PS. To me it was also a kind of a farewell dinner as I'm going to continue my journey on Monday...

After a couple of days being stuck in an envelope I have arrived in the UK - and its sooo hot! As my host didnt get back from work till quite late she hasnt had time to give me a full guided tour yet but I did get a bit of sunshine outside.

I also met with next doors cat, I think she likes me!

Today I had my first trip into town with Spadge. It wasnt too exctiting as poor Spadge had to go to work but I did my best to try and help her. Not sure I was too much help but she appreciated my efforts i think!

Today a new TV arrived - Queen Elizabeth 1 ! It was very exciting to have a new friend arrive although I was a little nervous that she is royalty!

Today Spadge has allowed me to play on the PS3 - it's great fun! At the moment me and Queen ElizabethI are playing rainbow six! I think this may be the first time either of us have played video games.

Now we have finished playing we are going to try a little sewing, Spadge is just trying to finish off another TV - Fuzz_bear but the sewing machine has been playing up and making spadge pretty mad!
Then Spadge introduces me to some other toys - two polar bears! Gustav and Igor arent TV's (mainly because they are far too big and would cost a fortune to send anywhere but also Spadge likes keeping them around!) Gustav seems to be sniffing me....I'm a little scared, he's much bigger than me! Ah it's ok - he just wanted a hug!

Today we went on a surprise trip to Nottingham! After raining all the way there (I have been told this is normal of a british 'summer'!)the weather brightened up.




And guess what?! We went to visit a castle, Nottingham castle. Queen Elizabeth I was especially excited seeing how she is royalty and i must confess i was a little excited too!






We went to the top of the castle and looked over the whole of nottingham! (which was a little scary but spadge made sure she didnt drop me over the edge!)


We also got to loook at the Robin Hood statue, which we tried to get a picture of but couldnt manage it. Instead we got the floral version!


And we finished off by playing on the playground!