Hockey Weekends

As many Elk's Street followers will know, the Ice Hockey World Championships were recently held in Helsinki and Stockholm. After much prevarication it was decided to visit a couple of games - Tiina being the prime mover of this plan.


Weekend 1


The first hockey weekend was a trip for Thomas. Henry couldn't come as he was trying his hand at dinghy sailing.

The Hockey Bird mascot (a part of the Angry Birds family)

Thomas enjoying a pre-game hot dog.

Tiina

The teams, Switzerland and Kazakhstan, lined up for the national anthems.

The cheerleaders doing their thing.

An out-of-focus Thomas delighted at meeting the Hockey Bird.

Those looking carefully at the photos will notice the dearth of spectators. This was perhaps the major scandal of the tournament. The organisers, blinded by Finland's success the previous year, sold the tickets in packages of games and at prices that were far too high. The audience voted with their feet and the organisers eventually offered concessions. 

Weekend 2


The second weekend involved Henry, with Thomas staying at home this time. Henry's main task was to revise history with Tiina - 16th century Finnish history. With various members of royalty squabbling, it is easy to forget that the most important event of the era was the arrival in Europe of the potato.


The game we went to see was the semi-final game, Russia vs Finland. An Evgeni Malkin hat-trick saw Russia run out winners, 6-2. Finland went on to lose the bronze medal game to the Czech Republic and the Russian team beat Slovakia to take the gold medal.


In view of the ticket prices, this hockey game was an adults only affair - Henry went instead to Heureka Science Centre, a bit further down the line from the stadium in Pasila.

 Sesse and Tiina looking forward to the game.

The end of game ceremonies, with a rather glum Finnish national team.

The next day, after breakfast-buffet at the German Café Crustum, Sesse set off back home to Kotka, and Tiina and Henry went to do their history revision, leaving me to wander the streets of a sunny but chilly downtown Helsinki.


Below, a few photos.

 Central Helsinki (near the famous Cafe Strindbeg).

A museum tram at the Market Place.

Two vessels moored in Helsinki harbour in front of the Palace Hotel.

The sharp-eyed will note that the vessel on the right is M/S Brahe, which was moored in Lappeenranta over the winter and shown in the previous post. The vessel on the left is a private yacht,  Lady Kathryn V.

 

 The view from the bow.

For those of you planning a celebration, this 61m vessel, tax-efficiently registered in the Cayman Islands, is available for hire. There is room for 12 guests and the current rate is around 395,000 Euros per week. (Your correspondent will spare readers the sermon on the link between this kind of thing and current troubles in the world economy. )

 

On the Tähtitorni hill.

Tähtitorni.