A Day in Helsinki

We'd built a day in Helsinki into our plans, mostly because |I wanted to go to the Ateneum; Finland's National Art Gallery. We had a lovely time there, although a lot of the pictures I expected to see weren't on view because some of them were in a special exhibition devoted to a particular Finnish artist and some of them had been put away to make room for the exhibition. That said we saw some wonderful art. 

I thought this was very reminiscent of some of Margaret McDonald's designs, also her husband's,  Charles Rennie Mackintosh. 

and this one was a bit Italian renaissance  in feeling. 

They had a very nice cafe, and a lovely shop, and as we were over 60 we got in very cheaply indeed.

 Once we were done in there we strolled down Esplanadi, which is Helsinki's main street. We dropped into a few rather nice shops we remembered from previous visits, and then walked to the harbour where we indulged in an ice cream.

 I was a bit unsure about my choice, which was lemon and liquorice; it wasn't that I didn't think I would enjoy it, but that I was intending to have a reprise of the raspberry and liquorice one I hah had last summer in Savonlinna when we got there this year. Turned out having the one in Helsinki was a good call.