Arrival
Unlike Stockholm or Copenhagen, there's no train option to go from the Helsinki airport to town. But the public bus 615 option at 4 Euros per person is very reasonable, and there are plenty of luggage space on board. Soon we arrived at the main rail station by bus.
Bus 615
Bus 615
Train station
Train station
Our hotel Radisson Blu is about 15 minutes walk from the main railroad station, but it's right across from the Kampi metro station, just a stop from the main station. It began to rain pretty badly, so we hopped into the subway stop across from the railroad station, and navigated our way to the hotel. The station names are shown in Swedish and Finnish, but neither is easy for us to pronounce !
Hotel Radisson Blu
We got a very good Friends and Family rate for the Radisson Blu, and while it's far from the airport bus drop off, it's very easy to find when getting off the Kampi station. We were given codes to access the wifi, and were told we could use the saunas and the breakfast room also. On the other hand, our schedule was so tight that we had to leave the hotel before breakfast started on both days of our stay.
Kamppi station
Hotel
Room
Radisson Blu
Helsinki Activities
We then went to the main station again to start our Helsinki exploration. First stop is a coffee shop inside a department store, and then we simply got onto the 'tourist' tram 3T/3B that circles most of the famous sites in Helsinki. There's no bike tour that we know of, but after the biking in Chicago and Copenhagen, it's time for a break.
Snack
3B/3T bus
3T outside of the Senate Square
Lutheran Cathedral
Pub on the move
Helsinki
Esplanadi park
After seeing many sites, we got back to the main rail station and started to look for a Finnish restaurant for dinner and ended up in the Restaurant Lasipalatsi. We found that Finland had just reduced the VAT of food from 22% to 13% since early July, and the menu shows both the old and new price. It still does not seem too much bargain, as we spent about 80 Euros for our fish and beef entree, wine and desserts. The food was very good though.
Restaurant Lasipalatsi
Pan-fried fillet of pike perch
Grilled marbled sirloin of beef
Desserts