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July 17: the delights of Helsinki, and another extraordinary coincidence

We discovered that most of the museums we wanted to see were closed on Mondays, but fortunately Helsinki is not short of things to do. Started with the imposing Temppeliaukio church, designed in 1969. It's essentially a large bowl dug out of solid granite and topped with a glass-and-concrete roof, and looked very impressive with the morning sunshine streaming through the roof.

We had decided that everyone was allowed one Persverse Choice of attraction to visit, and Patrick gleefully selected the Post Museum. It turned out to be an excellent choice. I can honestly say that it makes the history of the postal service as interesting as it is possible to make this subject. The whole place is suffused with multilingual interactive multimedia installations, allowing the lucky visitor to virtually experience all the thrills of mail sorting and delivery.²¹ After an excellent lunch at a university canteen, we continued to the Senate Square, containing a large statue of Alexander II²² and the sparsely Lutheran cathedral.²³

Next we took a boat to the fortress island of Suomenlinna, a short way outside Helsinki. Originally built while Finland was under Swedish rule and subsequently appropriated by Russia, Suomenlinna now functions mainly as a nice day out and a museum of its own history. Unfortunately most of the museums were closed by the time we got there, and we had to content ourselves with walking around the fortifications and taking a look around the Vesikko²⁴, a World War II submarine. Then it started raining and we got the next boat back to the city.

Pretty soon it was raining with great vigour and seriousness, limiting our options for the evening to those which could be reached by tram and underground. Took shelter in a café and formulated a plan for the evening.²⁵ Got on the underground²⁶ to go back home for some clothes. On the train we were approached by someone who turned out to be my cousin Anders, who I hadn't seen for two years.²⁷ To celebrate the happy occasion, we had a couple of beers in the nearest bar²⁸, after which we went back to Anders' flat in Espoo, a short bus ride west of Helsinki, for a quiet evening in. Returned home, eventually.

Footnotes

... delivery.²¹

Actually, the most interesting thing didn't have flashy lights and buttons. It was a display of letters from around the turn of the century, when Finland was under Russian rule and Russia was still using the Julian calendar. All the letters from this era are stamped with two dates differing by a couple of weeks.

... II²²

Actually pretty decent as Tsars go, and hence more widely commemorated in Finland than his successor Nicholas III.

... cathedral.²³

Above the main cathedral door is a large carving of an eye in a pyramid, the symbol of the ancient secret society of the Illuminati. I don't dare to speculate as to the explanation for this.

...Vesikko²⁴

``Mink''

... evening.²⁵

I forget what the plan was, but it was a good plan.

... underground²⁶

The Helsinki underground is refreshingly easy to navigate: it has only one line.

... years.²⁷

This was the third strange coincidental meeting of the summer.

... bar²⁸

Actually, Patrick had a coffee and a beer. Unfortunately he attempted to order the beer, whose brand name was ``Koff'', in Finnish. The barman, understandably failing to realise that Patrick was speaking Finnish, served him with a coffee. Gemma and I did not let him forget this incident for the rest of the summer, and I doubt that we ever will.