I normally do a lot of travel for my job, but that stopped in March 2020 due to Covid. With restrictions easing, I just made my first business trip in almost 20 months – to Helsinki. Since I was teaching there on a Friday, Doug flew in with me and we spent the weekend. It was fun and also kind of weird to be travelling again. There were tons of forms to fill in, and tests to take, and lots of new procedures involved in travelling in a Covid world, which we had to get our heads around, but it was great to get away.
Helsinki is lovely. Many of the buildings reminded us of Potsdam, where we lived for a decade shortly after reunification, but Helsinki is on the water, and the miles of harbour give it a unique feel. There are lots of boats, and fish, and marketplaces; sometimes all three in one:
There are boats sailing on the water:
There are interesting architectural shapes:
This bird has a prime spot:
This being Finland, there are knitting shops! This is Snurre:
This is me shopping in Snurre:
It is a fantastic shop, with two rooms packed full of gorgeous yarn and other knitting stuff:
A knitter, after visiting Snurre, might find herself with a small bag of goodies to take home:
A knitter, in fact, may find herself sitting by the water and knitting while enjoying the sights of the busy harbour:
The city seems to have negotiated Covid fairly well, and it felt safe. Even these guys were wearing masks:
It is a lovely place for tourists to wander while wearing dapper hand-knitted waistcoats:
Or for tourists to look relaxed and happy while wearing lovely hand-knitted tops:
It’s amazing what a short change of scene can do for your mental health!
I’ve just returned from two weeks in Helsinki as I love it there so much!
It’s cool, isn’t it? I had such good food, there, too.
Thanks so much for these great photos I’ve always thought I’d like to visit. Good for modern architecture I hear, which one of your pix suggests. Love the graphic on the Snurre bag.
There is an interesting combination of architecture as you may expect given the history; we saw many buildings with art deco features, as well as Soviet post-modernist architecture. I think this is why it reminded us of Potsdam or Leipzig. But you are right, there is some cool modern architecture as well and, I thought, some great uses of wood as a medium. We were there only three days; not enough to explore.
I love everything about this post. Helsinki is on my must-go-there list!
Thank you! I hope you make it there!
Yay for getting to travel again! Thank you for sharing your pictures. It looks like such a lovely place! Glad Doug got to go with you and you got some relaxing time in while you were there! You were very restrained in your shopping – what a wonderful store 🙂
I didn’t have any checked baggage, which made it easier to be restrained!
That looked a lovely picturesque trip. The statues on the side of the building wearing masks made me smile. Yay for the lovely yarn shops – that was a yay with envy!
It was so nice to actually be in a yarn shop, much less such a well-stocked one. Buying yarn on-line just doesn’t measure up, does it?
I do both, but I love a good squish of yarn and you can’t do that online!
Great that you are enjoying travelling again and with Doug! Such beautiful scenery and so happy you shared the sights, especially the yarn shop! The weather looks conducive to wearing lovely hand-knitted garments which you had on hand!
It was nice to get away. Doug and I walked over 10 miles on the Saturday there, just traipsing around the city. (And we needed that to counter the fantastic food!)
So glad you got away. And also, lovely crows in Finland. 🙂
Ha ha! I made Doug take photos of the crows just for you, June. I really like this photo, but it doesn’t hold a candle to your work.
Helsinki is on our list of places to visit. I must add that yarn shop to the list.