Helsinki Zoo and other walkabouts

A change in the weather
During Christmas time it was bitterly cold in Helsinki with lots and lots and lots of snow.  Not that we’re complaining.  We find all the snow very romantic.  The last few days though have been a bit warmer with temperatures reaching +4 °C at times.  Some of the snow and ice started to melt which made driving a bit tricky (turning the Snowmobile into a Skimobile).  The photo below is an example of the slushy roads.

 

The following photo is of a frosty Alex as we went for a rather chilly morning walk.

 

North Harbour

These pictures are of Pohjoisatama (North Harbour) during a particularly snowy day.

 

As we walked along the North Harbour we came across the lady featuring in the following photo.  She actually took a swim in the freezing cold water!  Something which the Finnish people apparently like to do after a sauna session.  We are not brave enough to try this yet as we’re too afraid that our bodies might go into shock or cardiac arrest.

 

Observatory Hill (Tähtitorninmäki)

We went for a morning walk to go and have a look at Helsinki’s Observatory located on Observatory Hill.  We’ve mentioned in a previous blog post about the blue laser light that shines from it at night.  Observatory Hill used to be called Fire Hill as huge fires use to be lit there to warn people of oncoming enemies from across the sea (especially during the Great Northern War during the 18^th century).  The Observatory itself was built in 1834.

 

 

Around the Observatory is a lovely park.  We particularly like the snow which gathers in the trees.

 

At the top of Observatory Hill is a lookout point with stunning views of central Helsinki and South Harbour.  The following photo is of a large cruise ship with the Uspenski Cathedral in the background.

 

These photos are also of South Harbour and of the “Viking Line” cruise chip which mainly travels to nearby Sweden and Estonia.

 

Helsinki Zoo

As it’s the festive season and Alex is off from work, we thought that we’ll go and have a look at the Helsinki Zoo.  The zoo houses an impressive 150 animal species and was founded almost 120 years ago.  We didn’t see all the animals as we suspect that some of them are in hibernation.  Here are a few photos of our trip.

 

Jip, and poor Rudolf the Reindeer was also there.  We say poor Rudolf as he sometimes features as a meat dish on menus (Alex likes to have some smoked Rudolf on a rye sandwich for lunch).  The most interesting specimen that we came across was an actual real life dwarf.  He wasn’t very talkative though….