HELSINKI, FINLAND

        HELSINKI CHURCHES

After a walking tour and a general overview of the Helsinki's city center, we walked up to see the Russian Orthodox Church, Uspenski Ccathedral. Sitting on a hill, it dominates the skyline and is easily seen from the waterfront.  Built in 1868, it is the largest Russian Orthodox Church in Western Europe. The dark red brick exterior supports thirteen gilded cupolas (onion domes). The church is huge and the inside is gorgeous and much less cluttered than the Russian orthodox churches I saw a couple of years before in Russia. Fine icons decorate the inside. Although it hovers over Market Square it also faces the Lutheran Church---just as Russian culture faces Europe.

            From there we headed for the Lutheran Church.  With its prominent green dome and twelve apostles overlooking the harbor, the church is hard to miss. The master-piece of Carl Ludwig Engel was finished in 1854 after 20 years of construction.   The huge staircase leading up to the cathedral is a favorite meeting place for locals. The interior is considered to be plain, but to me it seemed understated elegance with its graceful curved archways decorated with intricate geometric designs.          

This church is the centerpiece of Senate Square. Once a town square with a church and city hall, its buildings were burned in 1808 during the Swedish-Russian war. Senate Square surrounded by pale yellow buildings form a unique and cohesive example of Neo-Classical architecture.  The church was rebuilt using St. Petersburg as a model.  A statue of Czar Alexander II is in the center of the square. Many university buildings are in the immediate area. The University accommodates 36,000 students, 60 percent of whom are female.  Diagonally across the square, the small blue stone building, 1757, with the slanted roof is one of only two pre-Russian-conquest buildings remaining in Helsinki.

SOME FUN FACTS

A LITTLE TRIVIA

When traveling I like to find the little bits of trivia that make life interesting. Often times it just means listening to people. 

Big Bertha

            What kind of a vision did you conjure up? In Glasgow, Scotland Big Bertha, the huge crane, is now a monument to the vast and prosperous ship-building industry that made the city famous.

The last ship built on the Clyde was the QE2 in 1962. During W W II a warship a day rolled off the rails into the River Clyde. The 24-hour a day operation was incredible when 2000 ships hit the seas in a six year period! Before the war most of the ships built were passenger ships including all of the Cunard line ships. At one point the shipbuilding industry employed over 200,000 people. The ships were not only built here, but fully outfitted  as well. To say something was Clyde built meant that it was quality and built to last. Big Bertha is huge and rightfully named and honored.

One potato, two potato

With a 110,000 acres planted in potatoes, it is  PEI’s largest agricultural crop.  Prince Edward Island grows 30 varieties of potatoes in its rich  red soil, supplying spuds to most of Canada. The potatoes are grown for food, seed, and the huge french fry industry. Canadian Farms, a french fry processing plant, is the largest industry employer on the island. It takes 27 tractor loads of potatoes a day to run the plant at full capacity! By the way french fries were introduced to the world at the 1939 World’s Fair.

The tart with the cart

This is one of the affectionate nicknames for the Molly Malone statue, located at the end of Grafton Street opposite Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. The semi-historical-legendary figure, commemorated in the song Cockles and Mussels, always drew a crowd and often a fellow playing the bodhran drum sat near by. The fishmonger-working girl died in one of the cholera epidemics which regularly sweep through Dublin. Locals lovingly call the statue ‘Trollop with the scallops’ or the ‘Dish with the fish’. Of course a must see when in Dublin.