Published on : Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Dynamic and cosmopolitan Helsinki has seen some exciting new developments in 2014, raising the capital city’s global profile as a hub for culture, art, heritage and gastronomy. Some of the city’s most popular cultural sites have received makeovers and new attractions have been popping up all over the city.
Visit Finland reviews the highlights of the city’s latest openings and changes.
Finnair Sky Wheel
One of the most noticeable new features in Helsinki, the Finnair Sky Wheel opened at the beginning of June on a pier next to Helsinki’s Market Square. The giant ferris wheel, rising 40m above the city, offers passengers a birds-eye view of Helsinki’s coastal skyline and is an effective way of taking in all of the capital’s landmarks in one go.
Lonna Island
Former military island, Lonna, sits in Helsinki harbour and opened to the public for the first time in May 2014. The island is just 150m long and is currently home to a café and restaurant, while plans are in place to build a playground, a public sauna and seminar rooms by 2016. For 17€ per person, visitors can get a picnic basket from Lonna’s café and indulge in a typical Finnish maritime picnic while enjoying views looking back to Helsinki’s Market Square and over the harbour towards the fortress island, Suomenlinna. In its long history, the island has had various military uses, including a Russian Navy mine store in the 1880s, a base for clearing mines in the 1920s and in the post-war period ships were demagnetised on Lonna.
Lonna Island is open to visitors between May and September and is a ten minute boat ride from Helsinki’s Market Square. Visitors take the waterbus that continues on to Suomenlinna with departures approximately every hour until 21 September 2014.
The Abattoir
The Abattoir is Helsinki’s dynamic ever-changing food quarter; housing restaurants, food shops, a barbecue area, cookery school and a public sauna. Sitting on the site of Helsinki’s original abattoir built in 1933, the space has been used as a wholesale market in more recent years and is now undergoing long-term development to encourage the general public to enjoy urban food culture within the wholesale bustle.
The ultimate aim is to make everything in the Abattoir area edible; for example, the trees and other plants in the yard are being replaced by fruit trees and other crop-yielding plants. The central courtyard and open-air market is a dynamic space hosting weekly food-related events such as farmers markets, night markets and street food festivals.
Source:-Visit Finland
Tags: New to Do in Helsinki, Travel Destination News
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