Did this free walking tour today. It started at the Senate Square right in front of the huge Lutheran Cathedral. Our guide was Valentina and she was very friendly and welcoming. The tour took us on a two and a half hour walk around the city with a ten minute break about half way. The half way point was in front of the City Hall building where we could use the rest rooms inside and grab something to drink/bite across the road at the markets (opposite the City Hall). The sites and attractions that we visited and she talked about included, the statue of Alexander II (in the Senate Square), the old harbour, army barracks, orthodox cathedral behind the army barracks, the street with the new art nouveau buildings, the silent chapel, the presidents palace, the lovers bridge, the forestry building near the harbour, the mermaid statue, the street with the five star hotel where Justin Beiber stayed (Hotel Kamp), the library of Helsinki (opposite the Lutheran Cathedral, the Tor Tower (with the roof top view - we didn't go up or in the hotel to view it though but you can, it's free to use the rest room), the statue with the poet who wrote the first draft of the national anthem in Swedish. We finished off the tour in Kamppi (the bus station). It was here at this last stop that she showed us and pointed out more attractions to visit like the music museum, the railway station, the Olympic stadium, the rock church, the national history museum etc. These are all very close to each other and quite good to pop in and check out if you have time at the end of the tour. I went to the Rock Church and it was well worth it! The reason I gave this tour a rating of three is because I didn't really absorb what she was saying and ended up coming back to the hotel to google more key information about the sites and key facts then it made more sense. Also, her microphone wasn't working and given the size of the group (30 plus) it would have been helpful but she did her best to accommodate everyone and did say to us to speak up if we couldn't hear her.
