We continued our tour of Helsinki with sights that are a bit further outside of the downtown area. The first stop was the Church of the Rock (Temppeliaukion Church). It's a relatively new church, only completed in 1969 but it is amazing. It is a large circular arena with natural lighting and a huge central dome made of copper. It is also an active Lutheran Church.
The unusual thing about the construction of this church is that it is built into bedrock instead of sitting on top of it. That can be done in Helsinki because the bedrock here isn't under layers of dirt but sits near the surface. They left the surface of the bedrock as is, including drill marks, because the acoustics are great as is.
We then stopped at the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art. All I can say is that the building was much better than the exhibits inside.
Our final stop was at the Sibelius Monument in a park on the outskirts of town. The monument is dedicated to the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) and was dedicated in 1967. The design is an organ pipe-like structured that represents the forest, hence it's also a nod to Finland itself, which is the most forested country in the world.
One final word about our cinnamon roll taste contest. They have cinnamon rolls here but they're not good at all. They seem to prefer Karelian pies.
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