Day 18 - Helsinki

We went to the Olympic site today. It’s kind of our thing if we are in a city where the games have been held. I was ready to tout our prowess on public transportation right up until we missed our stop, lol. We didn’t know you had to hit the red button for the tram to stop and the button was, literally, on the pole between us. I just assumed it stopped at every stop. Nope. Sigh.

Once we got to the correct stop, we walked to the stadium. There were no tours today but we could go up the tower. Remember, it’s Helsinki in January so cold, rainy, and windy.

In pic 6 you can see the swimming and diving venue. The Olympics were held in August so the weather should have been good for out door swimming and diving.

Wiki: After Japan declared in 1938 that it would be unable to host the 1940 Olympics in Tokyo due to the ongoing Second Sino-Japanese War, Helsinki had been selected to host the 1940 Summer Olympics, which were then cancelled due to World War II. Tokyo eventually hosted the games in 1964. Helsinki is the northernmost city at which a summer Olympic Games have been held. With London hosting the 1948 Olympics, 1952 is the most recent time when two consecutive summer Olympic Games were held entirely in Europe. The 1952 Summer Olympics was the last of the two consecutive Olympics to be held in Northern Europe, following the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway.

They were also the Olympic Games at which the most world records were broken until they were surpassed by the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.

The Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Israel, Thailand, and Saarland (MT: this country no longer exists and is part of Germany) made their Olympic debuts at the 1952 Games. The United States won the most gold and overall medals at these Olympics.

Between the two of us, Martha and I have been to twenty one Olympic host cities, and we make it a point to visit the stadiums when we can. Martha’s Olympic quest started early as her one claim to fame is that she dove off the 10 meter platform at the Munich Olympic pool in 1979.

Our Olympic cities:

Antwerp 1920

Amsterdam 1928

Athens 1896/2004

*Atlanta 1996

Barcelona 1992

Berlin 1936

Calgary 1988

Helsinki 1952

Innsbruck 1964/1976

London 1908/1928/2012

Los Angeles 1932/1984/2028

Mexico City 1968

Milan 2026

Moscow 1980

Munich 1972

*Paris 1900/1924/2024

*Salt Lake City 2002/2034

Seoul 1988

Squaw Valley 1960

St Louis 1904

Stockholm 1912

*actually attended the Olympics that year

We stopped for beer in the cafe and had Stadion Pale Ale made by Helsinki Bryggeri. You can only get this beer at the Olympic Stadium, which is very cool.

The cafe is at track level. If this was a thing in 1952, color me very impressed. It is definitely a thing now at baseball and football stadiums in the US.

In the US we may think about WWII occasionally, but in Europe the reminders are everywhere. The Olympic Stadium was bombed by the Russians for three days in February 1944. There are statues that still show bomb marks. The history of the war is everywhere.

We trained to the City Center for a bit of light shopping. But since the weather is garbage and we didn’t want to wander aimlessly, we searched out a rooftop bar. I mean, why not. It’s Saturday in Helsinki! If you wonder why Martha’s not in these pics, she’s the smart one who stays inside, lol.

Views from the roof.

Martha came out for one picture. ONE! Without coats.

MD: The stairs from the elevator were impossibly steep and curved up one more floor. One way traffic only. How do they get away with that? Are there no people with accessibility issues in other countries? I am being so careful (like old lady with a walker careful) not to slip and fall on this trip, but this one tested my abilities and that was coming up; I’ll let you know how going down after a couple of glasses of wine goes.

To add my two thoughts on Martha’s on people with disabilities, I would say they 98% do not give a sh&$ here. There’s barely a ramp, the sidewalks are covered in pebbles to break up the ice, most elevators would not accommodate a wheelchair, and many long staircases don’t even have a handrail. I have no idea how people manage in this environment.

We walked back to the hotel through the park.