On our way home we had a 10 hour lay over in Helsinki. We landed at 1.30pm which gave us the afternoon/evening to head into town and check it out.
We caught the train from the airport to Helsinki central station and then followed a recommended tourist route we found on TripAdvisor.
Central station itself was quite grand.
It was a short walk from the station to Esplanadi, which is a parkland esplanade leading down to the harbour.
At the end of the esplanade, by the harbour were the Kauppatori Markets. It was late on a Wednesday so there were only a few stalls open in the square. It was quite cold, 6 degrees, a big drop from the beautiful weather we had in Split. Bel bought a beanie from one of the stalls and I tasted and bought some Cloudberry jam (they’re an orange berry I’d never heard of). Hopefully customs like them too.
Overlooking the harbour there was a Russian Orthodox Church that was on a hill alone and stood out amongst the other architecture.
We wandered around the harbour a bit more and then realised that the Kauppatori Markets are mostly housed inside the old market hall (thanks google).
We went across and explored the stalls inside which were mostly food. The big thing seemed to be Reindeer, but Moose and Bear were also on the menu.
Not far from the harbour we found Senate square which is apparently the most photographed area in Helsinki. It’s not hard to understand why when you see Helsinki Cathedral. There are also tram lines everywhere across the city.
With the sight seeing done it was time to try the local beer. We found a great little craft beer pub called Bier Bier. Very nice inside and lots of beers.
I tried a local craft pale ale which was nice and Bel had a wine. The waitress (pictured) was very friendly and helped us find a restaurant that had traditional Finnish food.
Dinner was at Kappeli restaurant by the Esplanadi. The food was beautiful and very expensive, actually we found most things in Helsinki to be very expensive.
We started with some local breads, one was the Finish archipelago bread (Saaristolaisleipa) which was yum. I had the traditional Salmon soup for entree. The waitress said she makes this at home at least once a month. It was delicious. Bel had a pumpkin and squash soup which was also very nice. For mains I just had to have the Reindeer fillet. Yum – sorry Rudolph.
Dinner done, it was an easy walk back to the train station and we headed to the the airport for our long journey home. It was the end of another great trip.