Helsinki - Moomin

The Moomins (Swedish: Mumintroll) are the central characters in a series of books, and a comic strip by Swedish-speaking Finnish illustrator and writer Tove Jansson, originally published in Swedish by Schildts[2] in Finland. They are a family of white, roundish fairy tale characters with large snouts that make them resemble hippopotamuses. The carefree and adventurous family live in their house in Moominvalley, though in the past, their temporary residences have included a lighthouse and a theatre.

Reference: Moomin.
 

Helsinki - Father Christmas

Father Christmas resides in the mountains of Korvatunturi, in the Lapland Province of Finland, according to local folklore.  Evidently he makes a visit to this street corner every July.
 

Helsinki - Corner

Looking down, at the corner by a shop

Then, looking left, up the cobblestone avenue

Walking up that avenue, espying a neat but well-worn brick corridor, to the left

Helsinki - Kiss

We were walking toward the Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel, along Mannerheimvägen, when this kiss caught my eye from across the street.  As it turned out, my new Windows 10 has an excellent app for zooming clearly into a photo detail:

Ismo Kajander is a Finnish artist, born in 1939, and he has a retrospective - Anartisti - at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma.
 

Helsinki - President

I showed this photo to a shop owner nearby, and she said that Kyösti Kallio was a former president of Finland. He was in that office beginning 1937, and died soon after resigning in 1940. He sits in a little park, off Mannerheimvägen, and just a half mile south of the Crowne Plaza.
 

Helsinki - Cathedral

May we say that we visited the Helsinki Cathedral simply by virtue of photographing a photograph of it at the Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel (wink)?
 

Helsinki - Gymnaestrada

We came to Helsinki for the 15th World Gymnaestrada, and signs such as these dotted the city.  Performers, with their matching sweatsuits and backpacks, were everywhere in this beautiful locale.  Our taxi driver from the airport to the hotel said there were 22,000 visitors, and it was exhilarating to know that we were among them.