At the far end is the train station, to which our hotel, The Scandic Grand Central, is attached. Across from the station’s plaza is the Center City Mall–complete with groceries in the bottom floor and food court on top. Center City encompasses the area south and east of the train station to the harbor, where the open-air Market Square is. Helsinki University is located in Center City not far from Helsingin tuomiokirkko, Helsinki Cathedral, a Lutheran church finished in the mid-1850s.

The entire area is very pedestrian friendly, except for the trollies. And yes. Mr. Big Food did have to solve a trolly problem. Let the trolly run me over or pull me from the tracks. He chose to save me.

From my journal

June 4 5, 8:42 Local

Just finished up John’s review of yesterday’s dinner. Flight. Helsinki. Big cities suck. The end.

We spent the first day and morning and afternoon of the second getting acclimated and finding the buildings where the conference activities were scheduled. The next two I was more or less on my own during the day. We had Friday until we headed out to the airport hotel. (And once there, another walk to the suburban mall in search of an Alko store and Laplandia Lingonberry Vodka–no luck.)

So let’s do a little shopping and see what caught my eye.

That’s over $200 for a pair of gloves. Reindeer leather but still too rich for my blood. Hats are a thing, and to be honest, I would not mind if we brought back hats but I do not foresee that happening.

Gloves and mittens were everywhere in stores. These are at Market Square, priced around 50€ or just over 50 bucks. I did not see any ‘seasonal’ markdowns on things like gloves, scarves, coats.

And you can see why I didn’t see any sales.

Market Square had the usual big city market offerings. Looks as if I didn’t get any photos of this but lots and lots of produce, including tons of potatoes, winter squashes, and these mushrooms which G-translate is telling me are labeled “Finnish ear fungus.” Another sign identified them as false morels. Naturally, we had lunch at the market. Reindeer hotdog for me, and what we’d call fried bait fish for John.

The shops and restaurants along the avenue leading to Market Square–also the location of the day-cruise ships–cater to a different crowd than the market.

This is from the iittala store:

You’d be hard-pressed to find a Finn or fan of Finnish design that doesn’t recognize the iittala logo, designed by Timo Sarpaneva in 1956 and inspired by his “i-line” range. The logo serves as a symbol of quality craftsmanship, timeless design, and thoughtful functionality. Many collectors of iittala will leave the logo sticker on their iittala designs as a badge of authenticity.

https://www.finnstyle.com/iittala.html

Daughter C–the artist and designer–had told me about the Finnish architect, Alvar Aalto and his iconic vase, the Aalto Vase, or Savoy Vase. She had asked for “Anything by Alvar Aalto…even a print or magnet of his work. Or tote bag.” She did not get a print, magnet or tote bag. 🙂

Just a few more sights and two more finds to share perhaps later in the week. Time to get back to normal. Found some different books the other day!