Helsinki; Friday, 22 July, 2005

With a massive breakfast in my belly I left the hotel to the first stop of the day, the Temppaliaukio Church has been hollowed out from the rock and is a bizarre sight, if not only for the number of tourists ignoring that it is actually a church and shouting & running around.

From there I caught the tram into the centre of town and visited the Russian orthodox Cathedral. The building is quite plane on the outside (as is standard in the Orthodox churches) but not as colourful inside as the one in Riga, again another church that was heaving with tourists, most of them the same ones from the rock church (I was obviously following the same route as many of the tour parties!)

To get out of step with the tour groups I had a wander through the market near the cathedral and stopped for a bite to eat, a raindeerbratwurst! From there I walked up to the visually stunning and skyline dominating Lutheran Cathedral. After looking around I went outside to sit on the steps briefly and ended up watching a midday performance by, I think, the Finnish army band.

With the weather starting to turn, and the temperatures dropping I popped back to the hotel to pick up my jacket. In the end I stayed at the hotel for almost 2 hours as a massive downpour took place outside. When it stopped I left the hotel and caught the tram back into town.

From the market place I caught the boat service out to the zoo and had a look around. Whilst on the ferry the sky cleared and a pleasant evening started.

Although the zoo is open until 8pm I don't think anyone told the animals as they all appeared to have gone to bed or were hiding. I saw a few, but most cages appeared to be empty! I caught the last boat back into town and went for dinner.