The Daughter of the Baltic

Thursday, August 13, 2026

Helsinki, the capital of Finland is a clean, modern city of nearly 700,000 and a metropolitan area over 1 million. The population of all of Finland is about 5.7 million. Helsinki has one of the highest urban standards of living in the world and always get top scores on ratings of “happiness.” 

Helsinki was officially founded by King Gustav I of Sweden in 1550, although there had been settlements in the area for many centuries before that time. The buildings were mostly wooden and the town suffered from recurring fires, war, and disease over the centuries. It wasn’t until 1809 that the town began to grow into a significant port city under Russian dominion The city was made the capital of Finland in 1812.

Given this history, it is no surprise that Helsinki does not have an Old Town, though it has a typical and charming European townscape full of neoclassical buildings as well as structures influenced by Art Nouveau and romantic nationalism.

We took a shuttle from the port to a street corner near the Esplanade where we board a return shuttle later in the day. 

Havis Amanda, 1906

The President’s Palace

Market Square - the white tents sell crafts and non-food items

Food is sold in the orange tents

Senate Square

Helsinki Cathedral (Lutheran)

Senate

University of Helsinki on the left, National Library on the right

Cinnamon pastries and lattes at Cafe Engel

After our coffee break (a very Scandinavian thing to do), we walked along the shopping street that runs along one side of the Esplanade. We couldn’t resist ducking into Iittala (glassware), Arabia (ceramics), and Marimekko (fabric and housewares). We did a little shopping and a little geocaching and then realized we were out of gas, so we decided to go back to the ship while we could still walk. You may have noticed that we have had port visits for several days in a row.

A ferry sailing along while the sun sets

I liked the shopping  because I love the Scandinavian minimalist approach to housewares and furnishings and they don’t sell all kinds of crap from China, but I liked Helsinki in general a bit less than I liked the other cities we have visited so far. Helsinki seemed to have less personality or character. The tourist attractions were quite spread out, and they didn’t seem as interesting as I expected. The things we did see were not evocative. I was disappointed that Market Square was simply a bunch of tents. Most of the buildings were shaped like big boxes (though they were well-maintained and not unadorned).

A lot of the architecture here is based on the principles of functionalism, which means design follows function - but aesthetics, not so much. Maybe that is what I was reacting to. On the other hand, people here are among the happiest in the world, so . . . ?

What would someone from Scandinavia think about Anchorage? Most of our buildings were not designed with any design philosophy in mind, merely expedience, and our townscape was planned to accommodate cars over people. Are people in Anchorage happy? I would be surprised if Anchorage made a list of the world’s happiest cities.

I believe there must be a lot of intangible things you can’t see when you walk around that affect happiness. Perhaps buildings don’t affect happiness much at all. How much of it is cultural? I wish I had had a chance to meet some Finnish people.

Today’s fabric is “Kukasta Kukkaan” (“from flower to flower”) by Marimekko, a major Finnish design company.