Noon in Helsinki. The sun hardly makes an appearance at 60 degrees North and barely gets much above the horizon. As we’re right near the winter solstice we only got about six hours of light, but it was hardly light as it was overcast and dark and dreary all day.

A lot of ties to Russia in Helsinki. Here’s a statue of the Russian Emperor Alexander II right on the Senate Plaza in front of the White Lutheran Church.

The Helsinki Lutheran Cathedral is a central landmark of the city. It was built between 1830-1852 and designed by the renown architect Carl Ludvig Engel, who designed many of the buildings you see today in Helsinki.

Uspenski Cathedral. Located in the Katajanokka district, Uspenski Cathedral was completed in 1868 and is the largest Orthodox church in Western Europe. With its golden cupolas and redbrick facade, the church is a clear symbol of the Russian impact on Finnish history.

Helsinki was hit hard with snow in the couple of weeks prior to our arrival and was really struggling to haul the snow out of the city and dump it in the ocean.

It was quite pleasurable just to walk around Helsinki and appreciate the varied architectural designs.

We wanted to try out Finnish cuisine so went to a restaurant specialising in traditional Finnish food. For an entree we had a mixed platter of local delicacies. Joseph was quite fond of the Reindeer Tongue. No kidding. He actually ate it and enjoyed even it looks it looks like he’s gagging in this photo. For a main we had Reindeer Steak and for desert some very nice licorice flavoured ice cream with currants.

Helsinki was covered with snow after recent heavy snows and frigid yet absolutely fascinating as it was so different than any place I’ve been to. The Finnish language is impossible to comprehend and I couldn’t even master a Good Morning. Fortunately pretty much everyone speaks English.