Instantly loveable,
Helsinki is remarkably different from the other
Scandinavian capitals, and closer both in mood and appearance to the major cities of Northern Europe.
Today, cruisers will find a youthful buzz on the streets, where the
boulevards,
outdoor cafés and trendyrestaurants are crowded with Finns taking full advantage of the short summer.
Following a devastating fire in 1808, and the city's designation as Finland's capital in 1812,
Helsinki was
totally rebuilt in a style befitting its new status: a grid of
wide streetsand Neoclassical brick buildings modelled on the then Russian capital, St Petersburg.
Esplanadi, a wide, tree-lined boulevard across a mishmash of tramlines from the harbour, where your MSC
cruise ship awaits your return, is Helsinki at its most charming. At its eastern end, the
City Museum at
Sofiankatu 4 offers a record of 450 years of Helsinki life in an impressive permanent exhibition called "
Helsinki Horizons".
To the north is
Senate Square (Senattintori), dominated by the exquisite form of the
Tuomiokirkko (Cathedral). After the elegance of the exterior,
the spartan Lutheran interior comes as a disappointment; more impressive is the gloomily atmospheric crypt, now often used for exhibitions. About 50km east of Helsinki, Porvoo, one of the oldest towns on the south coast and one of Finland's most charming, is just waiting to be discovered on an MSC Northern Europe excursion.
Its narrow cobbled streets, lined by small colourful wooden buildings, give a sense of Finnish life before the capital's bold squares and Neoclassical geometry. The old town is built around the hill on the other side of Mannerheimkatu, crowned by the fifteenth-century Tuomiokirkko, where Alexander I proclaimed Finland a Russian Grand Duchy and convened the first Finnish Diet.
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