A lot of work was going on in Helsinki in June... Roads being fixed, buildings being erected/torn down/tweaked and updated. In fact there was so much scaffolding and road works everywhere it was extremely irritating. Almost all iconic buildings were near to or surrounded by scaffolding. I know winters in Finland are bad, but so they have to do all the work at once?? Yes. It seems so.

ABOVE LEFT: The edge of Esplanade park with a view of the Harbour market in the background. Smashing. ABOVE RIGHT: Ye olde café in Esplanade park, which is a lovely building with an equally lovely interior. Sadly the interior is slowly being let to rot. And the café itself is crap,with crappy, crappy coffee. BELOW: The exterior of the former Pohjola insurance headquarters in Helsinki. Nice.

LEFT: Stockmann's flagship store. It doesn't sell flagships by the way. BUT it does sell almost everything else, including great sushi in the food department. ABOVE: Kiasma is Helsinki's Museum of contemporary art. 'Dive into the world of ARS' it states in their free 'comic'. Considering how well the Finns speak/understand English, I'm amazed that this ARS slipped through the net. It is, of course, Latin for ART, but that, and a combination of my sexually-devious mind, is deadly. Just look BELOW and you'll see a (guffaw) HILARIOUS message board wanting pilgrims to make note of their (cough) "Best ever ARS memory". Oh, the nerve.

ABOVE LEFT & RIGHT: Helsinki's iconic Uspenski Cathedral. The interior is BELOW LEFT. DIRECTLY BELOW: Another iconic cathedral, the cunningly-named Helsinki Catheral. A picture of the interior is below below!

LEFT: The Johanneksenpuisto Church. ABOVE: No idea. BELOW: ART (not ARS... no, never) on a WALL by a STREET near some DOCKS.

ABOVE: Helsinki's smashing Central Train Station. Does this mean it's time to leave? Well... no. Now I recommend you visit Helsinki's utterly marvellous Temppeliaukio Church, which is so lovely I devoted an entire page to it.