
Helsinki sits on a peninsula in the Gulf of Finland. Its central avenue, Mannerheimintie, is flanked by institutions including the National Museum, tracing Finnish history from the Stone Age to the present. Also on Mannerheimintie are the imposing Parliament House and Kiasma, a contemporary art museum. Ornate red-brick Uspenski Cathedral overlooks a harbor
Cultural Cities of Northern Europe (September-October 2017)
We departed Copenhagen later Wednesday heading for our next port of call – Helsinki. We arrived in the early hours of Thursday and would have six hours to explore the city before setting sail for St. Petersburg. We elected to have the city tour and set off to see the touristic sites and monuments.

Helsinki Central Station is the main station for commuter rail and long-distance trains departing from Helsinki, Finland. The station is used by approximately 400,000 people per day, of which about 200,000 are passengers

Alexis Kivi, born Alexis Stenvall, (10 October 1834 – 31 December 1872) was a Finnish author who wrote the first significant novel in the Finnish language, Seven Brothers (Finnish title: Seitsemän veljestä). Although Kivi was among the very earliest authors of prose and lyrics in Finnish language, he is still considered one of the greatest.He also died alone in a mental hospital
Our tour took us to the Sibelius Monument and Bust.

The Sibelius Monument by Eila Hiltunen is dedicated to the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The monument is located at the Sibelius Park in the district of Töölö in Helsinki, the capital city of Finland (Wikipedia)
On returning to the ship we spent some time in the Finish market at the dock – of course we bought some souvenirs, one stall in particular interested us. Susan was delight that the objects were made by the stall holder Marja Leena Suvela – Keraamikko Ceramicist , Helsinki