vi a servi ce - Finavia

can finland 

SAVE THE 

WORLD? 

THE AbbEy 

that crowned 

a turbulent 

king 

woes of the 

FOOTbALL 

HEROES 

Body&Soul 

– We’re Hungry!

AmericanAirlines and AA.com are marks of American Airlines, Inc. oneworld is a mark of the oneworld Alliance, LLC. © 2011 American Airlines, Inc. All rights reserved. 

Starting May 2, 

American Airlines will 

offer a new daily nonstop 

fl ight from Helsinki to 

Chicago where you can 

easily connect to more than 

100 destinations across 

the Americas including 

Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, 

San Francisco and Seattle. 

For more information, 

visit AA.com/fi nland. 

C 

M 

Y 

CM 

MY 

CY 

CMY 

K

contents 

4 .. 

13 

14 

24 

28 

32 

40 ... 

52 

vi

and those who do not travel read only a page.” 

– St. AuguStine 

There may be as many as 30,000 

aeroplanes in flight over Europe at one time. 

There are about 3.5 million articles in the 

English-language version of Wikipedia, the 

Internet-based encyclopaedia. Globally, 

the encyclopaedia boasts 365 million readers. 

In 

Figures 

The world’s 

highest 

restaurant 

has been 

opened in 

Burj Khalifa, 

in the tallest 

building on 

earth, in 

Dubai. It is on 

the 122nd floor 

at an elevation 

of 442 

metres. 

Business on the Wing 

More than 25 

per cent of those 

living above the 

60th degree 

of latitude 

reside in Finland. 

A passenger 

train tested as 

it travelled 

between Beijing 

and Shanghai 

achieved a 

speed of 

486 

indigo, a budget airline company in india, has lashed out on a real highflying 

spree. the company made the biggest purchase of civil aircraft of 

all time when it bought 180 a320s from european aeroplane manufacturer 

airbus. 

istockphoto 

MY MOMENT in Finland 

“I saw so many Moomin 

items in souvenir shops. 

I enjoy shopping and the 

Moomins are very cute. In 

Japan, not so many people 

know about Moomins, but 

I’m very fond of them.” 

Eri Kawakami 

student, Japan 

“I was surprised at the variety 

of food I could find in Finland. 

Before my visit I was wondering 

what the food would 

be like, but we could find 

food from all the continents, 

including Indian and Thai.” 

Dhulipala Prabhu 

engineer, india 

“I visited Jyväskylä in Central 

Finland and enjoyed just 

looking at the snowy scenery. 

You can’t find any snow in my 

hometown. It was really exciting 

just to see the snowflakes 

fall. It was the first time I have 

ever seen snow in my life.” 

Kazuko Matsuji 

teacher, Japan 

Fair Play 

TrANSPArENCy INTErNATIoNAL, an 

international organisation opposed to bribery, lists 

nations according to their level of corruption. 

The world’s least 

corrupted countries are: 

1. Denmark 

2. New Zealand 

3. Singapore 

4. Finland 

5. Sweden 

The most badly corrupted 

nations are: 

174. Uzbekistan 

175. Irak 

176. Afganistan 

177. Myanmar (Burma) 

178. Somalia 

source: 

transParency 

international 

V I A HELSINKI 

5

the more luck I seem to have.” 

– PoliticiAn thomAS JefferSon 

P Stands for Distance 

oVEr THE CENTUrIES, the Sámi natives of Lapland have 

learnt to live under Arctic conditions. In the old days – before 

snowmobiles became common – reindeer were important draught 

animals during the winter. As they plodded through the roadless 

wilderness on reindeer-driven pulka sleds the Sámi noted the 

distance they travelled using a natural recorder and a measure still 

generally referred to in Lapland as the poronkusema. It means the 

distance in reindeer urine – which can be up to 7.5 kilometres. The 

number of kilometres completed is noted by each stop, because a 

reindeer is unable to urinate while running, so it always stops to 

relieve itself. A reindeer can be driven up to seven poronkusema 

lengths in a day– in others words, more than 50 kilometres (about 

31 miles). 

Food’s also a problem 

FooD is a problem for one-third of the globe’s six billion 

people. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says more 

than a billion are already overweight. The United States has 

largest number, who make up one-third of the population. In 

Europe, the questionable top ranking is held by Great Britain, 

where one in four adults is overweight. At the same time, one 

billion of the world’s people go hungry every day, and the 

proportion of those undernourished is increasing. 

Photos: istockphoto 

TO THE POINT 

Chicago, 

Familiar but unknown 

BArAK oBAMA, Michael Jordan, Al Capone, the Chicago Bulls, 

the Chicago Blackhawks… Chicago is a city of world-famous 

sports associations and celebrities. 

It has also become famous through many films and television 

series: The Untouchables, The Fugitive, The Negotiator, ER… 

This city of 2.9 million inhabitants lies at the southern end of 

Lake Michigan. You notice its location particularly in the winter, 

when the piercing wind blowing off the Great Lakes drives people 

indoors, perhaps into one of the monumental skyscrapers in the 

city centre. Of these the most famous is still known as the Sears 

Tower, though now it is officially called Willis Tower. 

Sears Tower was built in 1993 and at the time was the highest 

building in the world, even higher than New York’s Twin Towers. 

It kept the title until 1998, when they built one even higher in 

Malaysia. From the 103rd floor of the 442 metre- (1,450 feet-) tall 

Willis Tower you can observe the seemingly endless labyrinth of 

buildings and roads that spans a metropolitan area of 8.3 million 

residents and plan an itinerary that takes in everything worth 

seeing in the city. 

www.chicagotraveler.com 

American Airlines from 

Helsinki Airport to Chicago 

from May 2011 american airlines 

will fly daily from helsinki airport 

to chicago during the entire summer. 

the boeing 767 that flies the 

route will take off at 14:00 and arrive 

in the usa at 15:20 local time. 

the flight leaves chicago at 15:40, 

getting to helsinki at 08:30. the 

time difference between helsinki 

and chicago is eight hours. 


7

which served afterwards to solve other problems.” 

– PhiloSoPher rené DeScArteS 

on the fortress was equipped to repel the West. A 

Finnish garrison was installed there on Finland’s 

independence in 1917. Even during World War II 

it played an important part in the air defence of 

Helsinki against Russian bombers. 

The entire area inside the more than six kilo- 

metres of fortress wall, containing almost 200 

buildings, is now a popular tourist destination. 

You can reach it easily by ferry from the centre 

of Helsinki. 

www.suomenlinna.fi/en 

the unesco (united nations educational, 

scientific and cultural organisation) 

world heritage list is a system 

aimed at protecting significant and endangered 

cultural and natural heritage. 

currently, the world heritage list in- 

cludes 890 cultural and natural sites 

in 141 countries. finland lists seven 

sites: the fortress of suomenlinna, old 

rauma, Petäjävesi old church, Verla 

groundwood and board Mill, the bronze 

age burial site of sammallahdenmäki, 

struve geodetic arc and kvarken archipelago. 

http://whc.unesco.org/en/about/ 

Culture in Turku 

CIrCUS PErForMANCES, underwater 

concerts, aerial acrobatics, Finnish sauna culture, 

exhibitions, modern opera, theatre… Finland’s 

City of Turku – European Capital of Culture in 

2011 – presents the whole spectrum of cultural 

expression this year. 

http://www.turku2011.fi/en 

ssshh! We Can 

Keep planes Quiet 

aircraft make two kinds of unavoidable noise 

– engine noise and aerodynamic noise. 

how loud engine noise is depends 

on the size of the engine, its type and 

its power output. 

aerodynamic noise, on the other 

hand, depends on the aircraft type, 

its disposition at any stage of the 

flight, and the speed of the aircraft. 

technological developments in 

aircraft and engines have reduced 

noise levels dramatically. 

the oldest engines in use pro- 

duce narrow jets of air at high 

speeds, while the newest engines 

give a greater volume of air at lower 

speeds, which makes them quieter. 

Propeller-driven aircraft on short 

routes are generally quieter than jet 

aircraft. 

cda (continuous descent approach) 

reduces noise. 

air traffic control can allow the pilot 

to reduce speed steadily without 

the need for a horizontal flight stage. 

noise decreases when you are 

more than 10 kilometres from the 

runway. 

cda at helsinki airport has been 

in practice for almost 10 years. 

envIronMenTal FACT 

noise studies at finnish airports 

have looked at the spread of noise to 

air routes, in accordance with an eu directive. 

l describes noise levels over a 

den 

24-hour period, where the weighting 

for noise in the evening (19:00–22:00) 

is 5 decibels and at night (22:00–07:00) 

10 decibels. in practice one aircraft flying 

at night is equivalent in terms of 

noise to 10 aircraft flying during the day. 

noise can be controlled with optimal 

planning of air routes, runway practices 

and descent and take-off procedures. 

helsinki airport uses the preferential 

runway assignment system. 

Measures are in place to try and ensure 

that as few people as possible live 

in an area affected by noise. 

in 1990 some 100,000 people lived 

within helsinki airport’s noise impact 

area. in 2009 the figure was around 

10,000. 

helsinki airport is a pioneer in the 

‘green’ descent approach – now 60 % 

of descents apply the continuous descent 

approach procedure, as it is officially 

known. 

. 


9

Bergen 1:55 

Amsterdam 2:35 

Brussels 2:40 

Düsseldorf 2:25 

Geneva 3:00 

Zurich 2:55 

Nice 3:35 

Milan 3:15 

Frankfurt 2:40 

Pisa 2:55 

Billund 2:20 

Stuttgart 2:50 

Hamburg 1:55 

Munich 2:35 

Rome 3:35 

Oslo 1:30 

Venice 3:10 

Gothenburg 1:25 

Copenhagen 1:35 

Malta 4:05 

Ljubljana 2:35 

Berlin 2:00 

Prague 2:20 

Vienna 2:30 

Split 3:00 

Dubrovnik 3:30 

Stockholm 0:55 

Norrköping 1:20 

Visby 1:30 

Budapest 2:25 

Gdansk 1:55 

Krakow 1:45 

Warsaw 1:45 

HELSINKI 

St. Petersburg 

0:55 

Riga 0:55 

Vilnus 1:15 

Tallinn 0:35 

Athens 3:40 

Muurmansk 3:00 

Chania 3:50 

Bucharest 2:30 

Heraklion 3:55 

Moscow 1:50 

Minsk 1:25 

Samos 3:50 

WORLD POLiTiCS Murmansk, Russia 

With more than 300,000 inhabitants, Murmansk 

is the largest city north of the Arctic Circle, but 

is drawn much larger than its actual size on the 

world’s political map. Its global importance comes 

from its militarily significant location and its permanently 

ice-free port on the shores of the Polar 

Sea. Honoured for its distinction during World 

War II, Murmansk was 

named a “Hero City” 

by the Soviet Union. 

The area still has 

important naval bases 

for russia’s nuclearpowered 

ships and 

submarines. 

Kiev 1:45 

Rhodes 4:00 

Istanbul 3:15 

Petrozavodsk XXX 

CHAnGE Gdansk, Poland 

Gdansk, Poland, hit the world’s headlines during the Cold 

War when the trade union movement born in the shipyards 

spurred the release of Eastern Europe from the yoke of 

the USSr. The history of Gdansk, however, reaches much 

farther back, for the Baltic city has been a significant centre 

of commerce for centuries. 

Poland is deeply Catholic and 

the best-known sightseeing attraction 

in Gdansk is St Mary’s 

Church, the largest brick church 

in the world. It can accommodate 

25,000 worshippers. 

Kos 3:50 

CULTURE Minsk, Belarus 

Paphos 4:15 

Larnaca 4:00 

Tokyo 9:25 

Nagoya 9:35 

Belarus – which means “White russia” – circulates 

its own rubles. The main building of the 

republic’s National Museum of Art is pictured 

on its one-thousand ruble note. In addition to 

White russian art, the museum also displays 

Slutsk belts, which have risen to the status of 

national mementoes. These belts have been 

important men’s wear in the culture of White 

russia, symbolising the wearer’s prosperity 

and power. Men exclusively 

wore these 

silk belts, and only 

men were allowed 

to assist in putting 

them on. 


11 

Osaka 9:45 

Seoul 8:35 

Hong Kong 9:50 

Beijing 7:40 

Shanghai 8:55 

Bangkok 9:45 

Delhi 6:40 

Ekatarinburg 

2:45 

Dubai 5:55

except when milk comes out of my nose.” 

– AmericAn Director WooDy Allen 

Helsinki Airport has often been voted one of the best 

COLUMN by Kaarina Hazard 

Helsinki Airport, Sublime Nothingness 

airports in Europe, by international magazines and 

travellers alike. The service is good, the guide signs are 

excellent, the facilities are great, and everything is clean 

and efficient. 

International recognition. For Finns it’s a portal 

from the Arctic gloom into the bright and cheery inner 

world of Scandinavian design. People want to come 

here. They want to transit here. It’s always nice arriving 

here. Folk enjoy just passing through. It’s wonderful. 

It is wonderful. Who cares if you’ve just driven 

through brown mud up to the door handle on the 

Helsinki ring road, if your hair is unwashed and you’ve 

no coins for the parking meter? Step inside and enjoy 

the warm, serene atmosphere, 

guaranteed to calm the most 

irritable mother picking up her 

sons from the arrivals hall after 

their jolly week in Ibiza. Penniless 

lovers board local buses to the 

airport to share a lukewarm coffee in a paper cup and 

dream about the plane that might take them away. 

People even come to Helsinki Airport to dream about 

staying there. 

Because… Helsinki Airport works. The escalator, 

the tap in the washroom, the conveyor belt, the security 

check – all demonstrate the same, reliable uniform 

quality. Spacious, bright, dependable – like banks 

used to be. Only the Arctic wind whistles outside – it’s 

so very pure, so very imperceptible, like an image in 

a women’s magazine become flesh. As if you were 

nowhere. And it’s odd but that is what the passengers 

love. Being nowhere. 

At the airport everyone has just come from wherever 

they have been, and it has never been as good as they 

imagined. The world isn’t one harmonious whole, 

it is a load of narrow-minded local communities all 

shrieking at one another. And by the time you reach 

the airport you’ve only just recovered from it all. All 

those embarrassments and hardships, endless queuing, 

sticky loo floors and broken mirror edges; sweaty old 

grannies and slobbering children who just get too 

Helsinki Airport 

is like the fantasy 

world of the 

commercials. 

close; bundles with unrecognisable gadgets spilling out, 

smells of daringly exotic snacks. You can’t escape it, no 

matter how tightly you clamp on your protective iPod 

earphones. And then it’s Helsinki Airport. The most 

international of international airports, they say. You feel 

like saying: “guaranteed nothingness.” 

There is nothing to ruffle you here, nothing to 

distract. It’s all as soft and soothing as that cloud you 

saw out of the window earlier on. No one is hassling 

you, no one asking for anything, no one pushing. No 

men in shabby jackets, no juices on sale squeezed from 

weird fruits the labels say nothing about. Nobody’s 

trying sell you disgusting local pies and pastries. We 

can all wallow in our own infallibility, with no one 

constantly trying to bother us. 

Helsinki Airport – as if you were 

nowhere. 

Helsinki Airport is piped 

music incarnate, like a window 

display they vacuum clean in 

secret at night. It is a kitchen exhibition where water 

never runs and washing-up liquid forms no rings. 

Helsinki Airport is a project, with a schedule that holds 

and a budget no one argues about. It is bread and 

butter and a glass of warm milk – you can’t possibly 

hate it. Helsinki Airport doesn’t feel like anything, 

which is precisely why it is so wonderful. 

Helsinki Airport is like the fantasy world of the 

commercials. Dad, sober and straight, the family’s well 

cared for dog (paws clean of course!), jumping onto 

the back seat of the car while mum nimbly folds the 

walking gear into that designer rucksack. And the kids 

are still playing ball on the newly cut lawn. Helsinki 

Airport is controlled sunshine and refreshing summer 

rain. Grandma Duck’s blueberry pie cooling on the 

window sill, a freshly polished man’s shoe, a child’s 

spotlessly clean pullover, a friendly hug, a mobile phone 

with the battery always topped up. Helsinki Airport is 

a quarrel-free Christmas with the family, like a child 

snoozing through the night; like two lovers achieving 

ecstasy at the same time. 

Kaarina Hazard is a Helsinki 

freelance writer. 


13

14 V I A HELSINKI 

FOOD 

iS A CUSTOM.

TEXT NINA PINjoLA SIDEBARS TErHI KIVIKoSKI-HANNULA PICTURES jArI HÄrKÖNEN 

iS HiSTORy. 

wilight on Christmas Eve in Finland. The snow 

takes a bluish tinge, it is freezing and nearly dark, 

though light shines out from the windows of many 

homes. All over Finland the same ritual is taking 

place as families gather around tables groaning under the weight 

of food. 

There is plenty on the table. Christmas ham, roast turkey, 

carrot, swede and potato casserole, Christmas salad, different 

types of fish, maybe roe, salads and perhaps blinis (Russian 

pancakes) too. There may be home-brewed beer, Christmas 

beer or red wine. For dessert, perhaps fruit salad or plum fool, 

cake or chocolates. Spiced Christmas beverages such as mulled 

wine are imbibed before or after the meal. 

At Christmas in Finland, we indulge ourselves without in- 

hibition for three days. We no longer fuss about whether to 

scoff the starter first and then the main meal, or take a bit of 

everything at once. At other times of the year, Finns are quite 

sensible about eating. There’s usually a starter before the main 

meal, typically soup or salad, and after the main meal, some 

kind of dessert with coffee, such as a piece of cake or ice cream. 

And that’s it. 

To Italians, our eating habits might seem odd. To them, food 

and its preparation are an art. Usually an antipasto is brought 

out first; a starter and various pieces or sticks of toasted bread 

(crostini). These are followed by the main course, il primo, 

then a second main course, il secondo. Finally, comes dessert, 

dolce. It’s a time for leisurely delectation. 

Though gastronomy plays a less important role in Finland 

than it does in Italy, Finnish food can hardly be accused of 

being bad, though Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi 

claimed so when he visited Finland. Could this be about his- 

torically different food cultures or do some countries really 

have better food than others? 


15

IMaGIne THIs: JoeY CHesTnuT WolFs doWn 

54 HoT doGs In Ten MInuTes. 

Patriotic Pizza and Chips 

Finns call chips “French potatoes” (also known as pommes 

frites, French fries) but fried spuds didn’t originate 

in France. Belgian journalist Jo Gérard asserts that chips 

were first made around 1680 in Belgium. The poor inhabitants 

of the Meuse Valley ate fried fish with their 

meals, but when the river froze in winter they replaced 

the fish with potatoes cut lengthwise into strips and 

fried them in oil. 

Like chips, hamburgers are often assumed to be 

American food, but unlike those French potatoes, we 

can trust the name. The hamburger really did originate 

in Hamburg, Germany. 

The pizza too has a long history. The tomato arrived 

in Europe from Peru and Chile with Columbus’s second 

voyage of exploration at the end of the 15th century and 

was originally thought to be poisonous. By the 18th century, 

the people of Naples in Italy were already filling 

their flat bread with tomatoes, and pizzas took off. It is 

said the pizza became such an attraction that tourists to 

Naples swarmed to the poor districts to taste it. 

Perhaps the best known of modern-day pizzas is the 

classic Margherita. It too has a story. It was concocted in 

1889 by the baker Raffaele Esposito, who created a patriotic 

pie in the form of the Italian flag, in green (basil), 

white (mozzarella) and red (tomato), to honour the visit 

of King Umberto i and his Queen, Margherita of Savoy. 

So the next time we chomp on a Margherita pizza, let us 

remember the queen. 


istockphoto 

The first 

Jamie Olivers 

Our cave-dwelling forefathers probably had their own par- 

ticular way of preparing food, though you could hardly de- 

scribe it as cooking in today’s sense. Yet such ancient civili- 

sations as Egypt and Assyria, respected cooking. The wealthy 

took pride in their extravagant banquets, which were a far 

cry from the morsels of the masses. 

Gastronomic literature only came into existence later, 

though, in Greece. The word gastronomy derives from the 

Greek words gaster (stomach) and nomos (law), and means 

familiarity with and expertise in the preparation of food, 

as well as the ability to enjoy it. The word gastronome came 

to describe an expert in cookery and a discerning lover of 

good food. 

While Greek gastronomy was refined and sober, gluttony 

became the craze in republican Rome, whose feasts feature 

vividly in countless books and films. Gastronomy took a re- 

al step forward in the Renaissance, when Italy gave birth to 

western cuisine, from which French cooking also drew its 

influence. A royal wedding took things further when Ka- 

tariina de Medici married French king Henry II, and she 

brought with her to France an army of Florentine chefs. The 

French word la cuisine (kitchen) began to mean both 

food and its preparation. 

Food cultures evolved in dif- 

ferent ways in differ-

ent countries and depended greatly on local conditions. Har- 

vest time is short in northern Finland and winters long, so 

unlike the Italians, say, Finns had to devise proper methods 

of preservation. Salt was imported and expensive, so Finns 

settled on drying and acidifying food. Even today, Finnish 

food often has a sour taste. 

Food culture took its greatest strides towards the present 

day with three insights. The first concerned seasoning. Ini- 

tially, spices largely obscured the flavour of ingredients, but 

in the 17th century chefs began to use them to emphasise fla- 

vours. The second big step came with the French Revolution 

in 1789, when food preparation and enjoyment moved from 

the homes of the nobility into restaurants, and “eating out” 

became more common. The third insight was food customs. 

As time passed, other food cultures came to the fore. Be- 

sides French and Italian cuisine, Chinese, Japanese (especially 

sushi) and Thai spread widely. Indian, Turkish, Mexican and 

Greek food, for instance, have also increased in popularity. 

It is ironic that the national cuisines that have spread 

abroad are often only variations on an original. Food in It- 

aly, France and China, will vary greatly from one province 

to another, so, in Piedmont, Italy, it is pointless looking for 

the same fare as in Tuscany. National cuisines that have trav- 

elled are only a set of raw ingredients and recipes from dif- 

ferent regions of a country. There is no common theme in 

Italian or Chinese cuisine beyond what exists in our minds. 


17


Peas on 

the knife? 

Many of us pause for a moment when we find three knives 

and three forks beside our plate. What was that etiquette 

again? And, where did those rules originate? The etiquette 

best known in the west, the rules of good manners, is actual- 

ly French, and dictates how you should behave at the dining 

table. For example, in western etiquette you show by the po- 

sition of your cutlery whether you have finished your course 

or would like some more. 

French dining etiquette is not universal, though, and 

each culture has its own rules. Eating habits and even the 

utensils vary from country to country. In the west we de- 

pend on the knife and fork, China eats with chopsticks and 

Thailand uses a fork and spoon. You use the fork to push 

the food onto the spoon and eat from that. 

We should be aware that many dislikes and ideas about 

food are acquired and culturally based. While fried cock- 

roaches may be a huge delicacy in Asia, westerners might 

well squirm at the thought. Indians wonder how westerners 

can eat a cow, a sacred animal. For Indians, eating the flesh 

of a cow is about as weird as eating a pet dog would be to 

westerners.

Crab With 

a Bite 

MICHelIn CHeF MarKus 

areMo BelIeves IF You 

Feel Good WHIle 

You CooK, Your Food 

WIll Turn ouT rIGHT. 

“When you are passionate about cook- 

ing,” he declares, “it’s the careful work 

rather than the ingredients that guaranteed 

good results. However, most important 

of all is the mood around the dining 

table. I have never drunk bad wine whilst 

in good company. 

“Here, from various well-known dishes, 

I have chosen crab soup, because 

there are various types of crab around 

the world and it is easy to prepare. It 

doesn’t even matter if the soup burns a 

little on the bottom – this just accentuates 

the toasted flavour of the crab shell. 

And if the meat is taken away before the 

shells are boiled, it can be used for the 

next meal. The flavour and some of the 

red colour comes from the shells. The 

tomato puree also gives colour. I don’t 

use dill as I feel it belongs in the boiling 

water used for the crabs, and not in the 

soup. 

“you know the meal is a success when 

you’ve finished one plate and want some 

more.” 

Why do we eat? 

Our first answer is to stay alive. Believers in evolution contend 

that we eat because we are driven by an ancient survival 

instinct, meaning we eat as much as possible, whenever possible. 

Others may say that some of us eat too much because 

our bodies have lost a healthy link to their regulatory mechanisms. 

This may be a consequence of overeating in childhood, 

for example. If you have been forced to always finish 

your plate whether you’re hungry or not, your body will eventually 

no longer recognise what is enough. 

Whatever the truth, we today seem to be eating for the 

most curious reasons – to derive pleasure from food or drink; 

for the sake of company; when there is nothing else to do; 

for comfort; because we dare not refuse food or drink; to 

achieve a certain mood; to recall and remember an earlier 

eating event; even to win a prize. 

July 4th, 2010 and Joey Chestnut, already three time victor 

of the hot-dog eating competition, wins again. He wolfs 

1 KG CRAb SHELLS 

100 ML TOMATO PUREE 

100 G CELERy 

100 G FEnnEL 

2 SPRinG OniOnS 

3–4 SPRiGS OF THyME 

1/2 bULb OF GARLiC 

¼ RED CHiLLi POD 

400 ML WHiTE WinE 

100 ML bRAnDy 

2 L FiSH STOCK OR WATER 

40 G bUTTER AnD 40 G WHEAT 

FLOUR FOR THiCKEninG 

500 ML DOUbLE CREAM 

AnD 200 G bUTTER 

SALT AnD PEPPER 

(AnD A LiqUEUR OR 

LOCAL SPiRiT) 

AVOCADO OR CROUTOnS 

PLACED On TOP OF 

THE FiniSHED SOUP 

MARKUS AREMO 

areMo’s crab souP 

• chef at la table bistro in helsinki from 2010. 

• achieved Michelin one-star ratings for the restaurants george (2006) 

and carma (2008), which he then left so that he could cook in a more 

relaxed environment. 

• became finnish chef of the year in 1999. 

Heat the crab shells, tomato puree, chopped 

and peeled vegetables, garlic and thyme in 

olive oil in a pan. Add the brandy and white 

wine and quickly bring to the boil. Pour the 

fish stock into the mixture. Cook the stock 

for one hour. Prepare the thickening in another 

pan. Strain the hot crab stock into 

this. When the soup is thick enough, season 

with butter, cream, pepper and salt, which 

you can add generously. You can give it an 

edge by adding a dash of liqueur or spirit. 

down 54 hot dogs in ten minutes, securing the 95th Nathan’s 

Hot Dog Eating Contest, an annual munch-fest on Coney 

Island, New York. Last year this world’s most famous hotdog 

eating joust was watched by more than 40,000 spectators, 

while more than 1.7 million viewed it live on television. 

And there’s this: Mexican Manuel “Xavier” Uribe (b. 

1965), still the world’s heaviest man a year ago, weighed at his 

heaviest about 597 kg (1,320 lb). He could no longer get out 

of bed without the help of his mother and fiancée. Manuel 

sought expert help and tried desperately to slim down. 

Modern disorders such as obesity, anorexia and bulimia 

show that our relationship with food has become complicated. 

We no longer eat purely for our body’s needs. 

It is claimed that eating is the first manifestation of love. 

For adults, food may be a substitute for love. Dream interpreters 

suggest the same thing. In dream symbolism, food 

indicates the feelings and longings of the dreamer. The food 

in the dream might suggest certain missed experiences or 

what the dreamer longs for in life. Similarly, it matters who 

provides the grub (or love) in the dream. Or who refuses it. 


istockphoto 

19

a sudden overdose oF BeauTY Can MaKe You 

JusT as sICK as an eaTInG BInGe WIll. 


How does 

food affect us? 

Do you order “the usual” or vegetarian on a flight? Do you 

think about what you eat? Do you eat healthily? Are there a 

lot of additives in your meals? Do you choose low fat prod- 

ucts, locally-sourced or organic food? 

We constantly face such choices. We are drowning in a 

sea of comestible data, but it’s inconsistent. Scientific find- 

ings and recommendations change all the time with new re- 

search, so we feel uncertain. Am I eating well? It is ever hard- 

er to answer this question. There’s an increasing proportion 

of additives and genetically modified or otherwise altered 

ingredients in our diet and no one knows the consequences. 

A completely separate question – but just as interesting – 

is how the ingredients we eat or drink affect how we experi- 

ence the world. Yet one thing is certain, they do have an im- 

pact. Plant-derived sedatives and drugs have been around 

for aeons and people around the world have used them to al- 

ter their consciousness. Modern science does the same with 

synthetic products in particular, such as sedatives and anti- 

depressants. We also like to change our consciousness our- 

selves and splash out huge sums on stimulants, such as al- 

cohol. What does this tell us? Do most of us really want to 

escape from our own lives and surroundings for a while? 

Not all substances blur our sense of reality the way alco- 

hol does, and the effect may be the opposite, heightening our 

Capital Tastes 

COPEnHAGEn 1 hr 35 min 

the success story of Smørrebrød, the 

danish sandwich, began in the latter half 

of the 19th century, when the copenhagen 

officers’ club created the first sandwich 

menu. key to Smørrebrød is that you can 

be imaginative and relaxed about preparing 

them. and you can enjoy them as an 

everyday snack, as a main meal, and with 

a beer or schnapps. you can pile absolutely 

anything you want onto a thin slice 

of bread – vegetables, cheese, meat, even 

chocolate, fruit salad and whipped cream. 

awareness, at least if you believe essayist, novelist and social 

critic Aldous Huxley. He became a guinea pig for a research- 

er studying the effects of mescaline on the human mind and 

on interpretations of external reality. 

One May morning in the 1950s, Huxley swallowed 0.4 g 

of mescaline in a glass of water. Huxley reported that that 

minuscule drop of mescaline taken from the peyote cactus 

drastically changed his perception of reality, of himself and 

his body. He based his world-famous book The Doors of Per- 

ception on his experiences. 

Surprisingly, Huxley did not feel that mescaline fabricat- 

ed reality but conversely, it helped him understand its in- 

nermost make-up. Encouraged by his experiences, he asks 

in his book whether we actually see the world as it is, at all. 

Huxley explains that beluga whales, for example, perceive 

the world in four dimensions and not three, as humans do. 

In bats, hearing and touch are combined with sight, so their 

awareness of phenomena is more comprehensive than ours. 

He believed that the operation of human senses via the brain 

and nervous system tended to eliminate rather than produce 

sensation. So, we don’t perceive everything that exists. Only 

part of it filters through to us. 

In this other consciousness, the “ego” became less impor- 

tant and Huxley says he felt more like a small part of a large 

entity. Also, his relationship with his own body changed, as 

though he had strayed from his body without identifying 

with it. Different things now seemed important and he be- 

came more interested in the deep meaning of things. Time 

as a phenomenon disappeared, and he noticed he no long- 

Helsinki airport is also a gateway to a world of flavours. The cuisine typical of the places awaiting you at the end of 

ViEnnA 2 hr 30 min 

a culinary speciality in the cafes of 

Vienna is Sachertorte, a chocolate 

cake flavoured with apricot jam. this 

came into existence, like diamonds, 

under extreme pressure. in 1832, Prince 

Wenzel Clemens Metternich ordered 

his kitchen staff to produce a particularly 

tasty dessert for some unexpected 

guests. when the head chef was taken 

ill, his 16-year-old apprentice Franz 

Sacher had to fill in for his boss. the 

rest, as they say, is history.

er perceived his environment primarily through perspective 

but via colours and the inner meaning of entities in particular. 

This way of looking at and seeing the world and himself 

was completely different, but at the same time, Huxley said, 

it felt more real than real life. 

Was he describing a reality that had opened up to him 

momentarily when some shutter mechanism had switched 

off? He believed so. No need for the rest of us to take mes- 

your flight is part of their soul, a summary of their culture. Photos: iStockphoto 

nEW yORK 8 hr 40 min 

hot-dog stalls and carts are 

a familiar sight on the streets 

of new york. there is no precise 

information about the 

inventor of this popular commodity, 

but it is said that this 

fast-food classic came ashore 

in the big apple around the 

1870s, when the german-born 

immigrant Charles Feltman 

began to sell sausage buns 

on coney island. 

caline or drugs, but perhaps similar experiences are possible 

without them. Huxley’s accounts are surprisingly similar 

to those found in sacred books of different cultures or, 

for example, the collective discussions of physicist David 

Bohm and the philosopher Krishnamurti. Could that widening 

of consciousness we call enlightenment open a window 

to a different kind of reality than the one we have become 

accustomed to? 

bEiJinG 7 hr 40 min 

Peking duck, referred to as one 

national dish of china, has already 

spoiled gourmands for hundreds 

of years now. requiring much 

time and effort, it is mentioned 

for the first time in 1330, in the 

recipe book of the imperial kitchen. 

Peking duck is produced 

from birds specially reared for the 

purpose, and is roasted so that its 

skin becomes particularly tasty 

and crisp. 

SEOUL 8 hr 35 min 

in korea, the taste 

of all tastes is the 

fiery kimchi, lacticacid 

fermented 

chinese cabbage, 

served as an 

accompaniment 

and as part of a 

dish, such as kimchi rice or soup. the spices 

used are chilli, onion, garlic, radish and 

ginger. the roots of this national dish extend 

back to the 7th century. 


21


Feast the eye, 

feed the soul 

Mediaeval illustrations show black demons fleeing the 

mouths of the healed, while golden threads are said to bind 

the mouths of poets to heaven. Food and the mouth are closely 

associated with each other and to spirituality. We eat our 

food and breathe through the mouth, which also generates the 

speech by which we communicate. They also say the mouth 

speaks what fills the heart. 

Many artists are convinced that man is not purely a physical 

being but also a spiritual one. For them, a beautiful environment, 

music, the visual arts, literature, poetry or a walk 

in the garden or in the wilds seem to satisfy a different kind 

of hunger than a physical one. A person who craves food for 

the soul or what is pleasant to the eye will waste from within 

exactly as if they were to starve. 

Yet a sudden overdose of beauty can make you just as sick 

as an eating binge will, as Italian psychiatrist Graziella Magherini 

noticed in her work in Florence. Foreign tourists often 

arrived at her practice complaining of similar symptoms; 

nausea, palpitations and confusion. 

She realised their symptoms stemmed from an exceptionally 

intense art-related experience, from art-induced ecstasy, 

a kind of extreme reaction to an aesthetic experience. She diagnosed 

the condition unofficially as Stendhal syndrome, referring 

to the French author Stendhal (1783–1842, real name 

Marie-Henri Beyle), who described similar symptoms in his 

work Rome, Naples et Florence. In 1979, the sickness was diagnosed 

as psychosomatic. 

Huxley too, became convinced that man, aware that he is 

not seeing the full picture, tries to reach towards it. Besides 

edible food, we need food for the soul and a feast for the eye. 

He believed art, religion, carnivals, dance and prayer served 

as doors in an enclosing wall. We try to pass through these 

doors to extend our consciousness beyond the enclosing wall 

– and thus see more of reality. 

numerous encyclopaedias and websites have been used for information in 

this feature, including the Spectrum series, CD-Fakta and wikipedia, among 

others. other references: J. krishnamurti and david bohm: The Ending of 

Time, anthony de Mello: Awakening, Meister eckhart: The depths of the soul. 

The World on a Plate 

Helsinki Airport offers a plethora of tasty delights for 

peckish travellers, whether you’re in a terminal or on the 

plane. At this intersection of food cultures you’re sure 

to find something to satisfy you, whatever your taste or 

mood. 

AT THE AiRPORT… 

…light snacks are on offer at Bar Delight (gate 14), Café 

Picnic (terMinal 2) and Café Tuuli (gate 27), where you 

can also buy food to take away. take-away fare is also available 

from Picnic Take Away (terMinal 2/arriVals 2a) 

and Go! Café (gate 20 and terMinal 1). 

finnish cuisine is provided by Café Alvar A (gate 24), 

decorated in the style of architect Alvar Aalto, and Seasons 

restaurant & Café (gate 14). 

savour a full-course meal at My City Helsinki (gate 35), 

amid decor that draws from finnish nature and design, and 

Fly Inn restaurant & Deli (gate 27), commanding views of 

the runway. 

it is worth stopping at Cesar’s Pizza & Food Court (terMinal 

2) for a buffet meal or at breakfast time. Coffee Spoon 

(check-in area of terMinal 2), is the place for snacks, 

soups and salads. 

in THE AiR… 

…the conditions may be tricky and there are limited options, 

so meal planning becomes important. Planning depends on 

the route. “the length of the flight determines the arrangements,” 

explains Maarit Örn, head of Product development 

at finnair catering, which is responsible for supplying meals 

to many other companies besides finnair. on long-haul 

flights, the meals on the return journey are sourced from the 

destination country to guarantee their freshness. 

the dishes are also selected on the basis of the route. 

they must appeal to as many people as possible. 

“our current theme is nordic cuisine, but we also take 

account of the food culture of the destination countries,” 

Maarit notes. 

she says the scandinavian theme is apparent in the simplicity 

of the meals and in their ingredients. salmon, reindeer, 

chanterelles and finnish cheeses and berries are much 

in evidence, though other national tastes are also taken into 

account. for example, Japanese passengers are offered 

white fish, and indians are always offered vegetables as a 

choice of main course. 

the caterers also take ideas from asia for european 

flights, because eastern food is enjoyed right around the 

world.

When Flavours Meet 

WHen easT MeeTs WesT In THe KITCHen, 

TWo ToTallY dIFFerenT Worlds oF TasTe 

CoMe FaCe To FaCe. WHICH Is preCIselY 

WHY THeY Have so MuCH To oFFer. 

“it is worth throwing Eastern and Western flavours together in the 

same meal, rather than on the same plate. If you combine them in the 

same dish, too many compromises have to be made. You can certainly 

try to combine the methods of preparation and cooking”, says chef 

Matti Jämsen. 

In his opinion, the best part of Eastern cuisine is its spiciness, which 

should be introduced to the West. “The world of flavours is richer in the 

East: there is fieriness and sweetness and a lot of flavours in between.” 

The converse idea is more difficult in his opinion, but in the East 

they could at least learn something from the simplicity of Western 

cooking. In the production of sushi, for instance, the idea is certainly 

coming to fruition. 

Jämsen represented Finland in the 2011 Bocuse d'Or, the world's 

most respected cooking competition. In October, he participated in 

the Helsinki Airport Food & Fun event, which brought together 12 top 

experts in Asian and Western cuisine. The participants were split into 

Eastbound and Westbound teams, of which Jämsen belonged to the latter. 

For Thai chef Manit Poonhiran, who represented the East, when 

different styles of cuisine come face to face, it is a question of borrowing 

ideas above all, and not so much about mixing food cultures. So if 

the original ingredient is not available, he will use a local equivalent 

without a second thought. In Finland, papaya can be replaced with carrot 

or swede. 

Local tastes. The flavours of various countries are shaped, first and 

foremost, by their climatic conditions. The characteristics of food cultures 

are dictated initially by custom and constraints. 

Many ingredients commonplace in Thailand, such as lime, lemongrass 

and coriander, were for a long time unknown in Finland, and even 

today they are still imported. Before industrialisation, the raw ingredients 

were grown, collected and caught by the user. In countries with 

a short growing season, the shelf life of ingredients was paramount, 

which explains the strong foothold of salt, cabbage and swede in traditional 

Finnish food. 

In Thailand, it has been difficult to preserve raw ingredients for the 

opposite reason. Food goes off quickly in the heat. The basic spice of 

Thai food, renowned for its fieriness, is chilli pepper, which keeps food 

edible for longer, and in tropical regions the capsaicin in it is useful in 

another way too, cooling the body by making it sweat. 

Stepping into the fire. Both the fireworks of Eastern spices and the 

mild flavours of Western food demand attention. 

We acquire our fondness for certain tastes, which develop according 

to our surrounding food culture, which is why Thai food, for example, 

seems too fiery for many Finns. 

“Fieriness has not been part of our food culture. You become used 

to fiery food when you start eating it as a child. On the other hand, 

travel develops our palate from one generation to the next. Coriander 

has been introduced to us in this way”, explains Jämsen. 

As these individual changes become more common they influence 

the whole food culture, quite rapidly in fact. Poonhiran has first-hand 

experience of this phenomenon. While working in the Naantali Spa 

Hotel's Thai Garden restaurant, he has noticed that Finns who are particularly 

keen on holidaying in Thailand have quickly become lovers of 

fiery food. “When I started here as chef we used half a kilo of chilli a 

week. Now we’re using five kilos.” 

HelsInKI aIrporT Food & Fun, 

November 2010 

Teams of chefs gathered at this hub of air traffic 

between europe and asia to celebrate travel cuisine 

and the felicitous meeting of east and West. 

Their task was to create the travel food of the future 

– three travel-sized amuse-bouches, ‘amusements 

for the mouth’, which high-quality restaurants 

use as a way to greet their customers. They 

prepared three bite-sized morsels, one of fish, one 

of meat, and a dessert. They selected natural ingredients 

from east and West. 

The top chefs swapped ideas during the breaks 

and in the panel discussion on future trends, where 

it was found that air passengers expect quality 

and local sourcing of food, above all. To end it all 

their delicacies were gobbled down at the Fly Inn 

restaurant, which was also celebrating its opening. 

“We are absolutely certain that at least some of 

these dishes will end up on our menu”, says Kalle 

Ruuskanen, Managing director of the restaurant’s 

owner, select service partner Finland. 

The event, which began in 2000 in reykjavik, 

was in Finland for the first time and was organised 

by Finnair and Icelandair. 

www.foodnfun.fi 

Fly Inn GaTe 27 


23

24 V I A HELSINKI

TEXT MEDIAFoCUS PHOTOS jArMo TEINILÄ 

Brand 

for World Survival 

Be aFraId ClIMaTe CHanGe and oTHer 

World proBleMs – Here CoMes THe 

GrIM reaper. For one CounTrY Can 

save THe planeT – You’ve Guessed 

IT – FInland! MarIMeKKo CHIeF, 

MIKa IHaMuoTIla, Tells us WHY THe 

CounTrY Could Be a superHero. 

Brands are everywhere. We eat them, drink them, 

breathe them. But what sort of brand is a country, 

state or nation? And what’s the point of a brand 

you can’t buy or sell? 

A group of Finnish experts from different fields set out in 

late 2008 to answer these and many other questions. Their 

mandate from Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb was to de- 

termine Finland’s trump cards in a climate of ever fiercer in- 

ternational competition – and how to play them. 

Many countries have carried out similar projects to show 

off their advantages. Country branding was widely seen as a 

way to attract tourists, students, experts and companies to a 

country. Now it was Finland’s turn to try. 

Nokia strong man Jorma Ollila headed the Finland Brand 

committee, guaranteeing media attention from the outset. The 

team worked mainly behind closed doors but it leaked onto 

the internet and TV, inspiring Finns to think about the sort of 

country Finland is and what its people are like. The aim had 

nothing to do with nostalgia; it was the future that mattered, 

right up to the year 2030. 


25

FunCTIonalITY Means THaT FInns FInd soluTIons 

To proBleMs and puT THeM InTo eFFeCT. 

Mission Possible! Finally, in November 2010 the Brand del- 

egation’s work bore fruit in a report of more than 300 pages, 

which, instead of advertising jargon, contained a number of 

missions that Finns – citizens, companies and state – should 

carry out if Finland is to achieve its objectives. Which are..? 

Nothing more or less than to be the number one country to 

solve the world’s most pressing problems! 

One member of the team, fashion house Marimekko’s CEO 

Mika Ihamuotila, smiles when he recalls the media’s about 

turn when they saw the report. “For the whole two years we 

heard nothing but doubt and criticism, but they changed their 

tune completely as soon as the report came out.” 

Ihamuotila thinks the change in the attitude of the press 

reflects the fact that the report addressed the core of Finn- 

ishness – Finns are people of action, unafraid to roll up their 

sleeves and get to work. The huge final report came as a call 

for united action – what Finns call ‘talkoot’. 

Yes, action. If you are going to learn even one word of Finnish 

you’d do well to start with talkoot, which says much about 

the national character. ‘Talkoot’ simply means working to- 


gether – building a barn, a church or the welfare state, for 

no reward apart, perhaps, from a turn in the sauna in good 

company when the work is over. 

The Brand team’s noble idea is to turn attention away from 

the conventional targets of branding, the country, its history, 

its tourist destinations, and focus on the nation itself, the 

Finns and their culture in its various manifestations. 

The committee was supported in its ideas by Simon Anholt, 

the man who invented the country branding concept 

almost 20 years ago. He organised five brainstorming sessions 

for the team, and as the leading guru in the field, he was ultimately 

impressed by their attitudes and level of commitment. 

“We think this is the most ambitious brand report ever 

produced. And Anholt thought so too,” chuckles Ihamuotila. 

Plan for action. Jorma Ollila unveiled the report in November, 

calling it a model for the entire world. If people really 

wanted to move from talk to action, what could be a better 

solution than a practical manual? Ihamuotila agrees: “The 

Finland brand project will certainly be one important point

of reference for countries that will do the same thing one day. 

This is one way to grab the bull by the horns.” 

So what aspects of Finland and its people does the Brand 

team highlight? The mighty tome relates to three key words, 

functionality, education, and nature. Of these the last is self- 

explanatory – Finland is a land of thousands of lakes and 

green forests where people put a high premium on their re- 

lationship with nature. 

In education, Finland is buoyant and representative. It is 

the shining star of the PISA studies, which have promoted 

the Finnish educational system far and wide. But what about 

Finnish functionality? The CEO and owner of Marimekko, 

Finland’s most legendary design company, is definitely the 

right man to answer this. 

“In a nutshell, functionality means that Finns find solu- 

tions to problems and put them into effect.” Ihamuotila be- 

lieves there are plenty of nations where creativity and ideas 

abound but things just do not get done. There are also coun- 

tries that do not have a creative bent but do have the ability 

to carry out projects uncompromisingly. 

“Finland, however, is that rarity, a country with much cre- 

ativity and capability to think about things from a new per- 

spective and, at the same time, the skills to make these vi- 

sions a reality.” 

Ihamuotila also mentions decorativeness, a hallmark of 

the design tradition in many countries, and often a value in 

itself. But decorativeness often means gaudy and flamboyant 

above all, whereas in Finland design has always rested on the 

notion that simple and functional are beautiful. “There is ob- 

viously a kind of asceticism behind this – we cannot afford 

to waste the few resources of a small northern country. So 

our designers quickly learned to concentrate on essentials.” 

As head of Marimekko, Ihamuotila obviously knows fash- 

ion and the world of design best, but stresses that he means 

design in its broader sense. “Design extends to all areas of 

planning – whether you’re designing an educational system 

or a single school, or an airport, say, which must also func- 

tion in the winter and doesn’t cause congestion,” he says. 

“The question is how beauty and functionality can be com- 

bined in the best possible way.” 

Durable attitudes. Ihamuotila thinks a Finnish design phi- 

losophy is more necessary now than ever. With climate change 

we can no longer afford to produce disposable products. Du- 

rability is just as important as serviceability among custom- 

ers the world over. “Durability has always been fundamen- 

tally important in Finnish design, but this is not so by any 

‘TO DO’ LiST FOR FinnS 

MiSSiOn FOR COMPAniES: 

solve a global problem and make good business out of it. 

MiSSiOn FOR SCHOOLS: 

every year schools should hold a day of reconciliation, 

when pupils practise discussing and resolving conflicts. 

MiSSiOn FOR LOCAL AUTHORiTiES AnD THE STATE: 

Public procurement should favour energy-efficient products 

that can be serviced and repaired. 

MiSSiOn FOR THE MiniSTRy OF FinAnCE: 

Make gross national sustainability measurable. 

MiSSiOn FOR THE MiniSTRy OF THE EnViROnMEnT: 

a water meter, i.e. water as a populariser of international 

environmental policy. 

MiSSiOn FOR SPORTS CELEbRiTiES: 

go to a school once a year to teach. 

MiSSiOn FOR THE MEDiA: 

take the popularisation of science to a whole new level. 

MiSSiOn FOR GRAnDPAREnTS: 

share your manual skills. 

means in the traditions of other countries. Finns make lifts, 

drinking glasses and roads. No one can say these are disposable 

goods.” 

Ihamuotila had long pondered these matters before the 

country Brand team was set up. Three years ago the former 

banker made a great change in his life, abandoning the world 

of finance and taking over the management of Marimekko. 

The grand old lady of Finnish design, Kirsti Paakkanen, 

sold Ihamuotila an iconic firm she had once rescued from 

near death. 

Things were not easy for Ihamuotila either. When he took 

over Marimekko, Finland was gripped by economic crisis and 

the world was sinking into recession. Yet he was clear about 

the direction he would take the company in. “There may have 

been a recession but we wanted to continue with product development 

and open shops abroad,” he says, adding that the 

policy proved right. Marimekko has now built the foundations 

for a successful future, he says. 

Marimekko’s recent global triumphs recall the lines of a 

Leonard Cohen song; “First we take Manhattan, then we take 

Berlin.” Japan now has 20 Marimekko outlets and South Korea 

has just gained its first. Ihamuotila wants to bring to the 

world his sense of joy of life and his attitude through fashion 

and design. This year Marimekko is 60 years old. The company 

wants to cast off the “performance-centred theatre” 

and replace it with well-being. At 60 the firm does not want 

to be merely a ‘heritage’ brand, simply resting on its laurels. 

“Marimekko’s ideology has always been to shy away from 

any kind of pretence. When people have the courage to be 

themselves the world becomes a better place,” Ihamuotila 

believes. 


27

28 


DAN rIDEr PHOTOS ISToCKPHoTo, WIKIMEDIA

Lord 

Kings 

of the 

KInG HenrY vIII’s dYnaMIC 

personalITY doMInaTed 

HIs TIMe and ConTInues To 

FasCInaTe our oWn. 

He Was CroWned 

KInG aT WesT- 

MInsTer aBBeY 

In June 1509… 


29

It was a reign that became a personal quest for fame 


and power as obsessive as that of any 21st century ce- 

lebrity or politician. Rarely within the British mon- 

archy have events – in society, religion, foreign rela- 

tions and politics – so radically affected future generations. 

Above all, the English Reformation and the break with Rome 

would change the face of England forever and Henry would 

banish in a single generation all his traditional medieval 

predecessors as a stroke. The result was a revolutionary im- 

perial monarchy that would lead to Henry VIII becoming 

arguably the most infamous king in history. But, it would 

come at a severe price. 

On 24th June 1509, the teenage Henry was crowned king 

in front of the high altar at Westminster Abbey in London. 

Just seventeen years old, his personality – sunny, romantic 

and gregarious – was the opposite of his father’s and prom- 

ised the new Tudor dynasty a fresh start. Henry though, was 

HenrY’s soap opera: sIx 

MarrIaGes, TWo WIves 

dIvorCed and TWo BeHeaded, 

produCed THree CHIldren 

BY dIFFerenT MoTHers. 

inheriting the crown with a heavy burden. His father, Henry 

VII, had died in his bed and died rich after a reign of almost 

24 years, but his dreams of an English monarchy that 

ruled Scotland, Ireland and France and dominated Europe 

too, had ended in frustration. The old king in his final years 

was regarded by his public as a miser and a tyrant and ruled 

his ‘empire’ like a private landlord, greedy for the ‘rent’. And 

for those who knew their history, including his son, this was 

not how a great ruler was supposed to behave. 

Henry VIII, however, was not brought up to be king. That 

future had been destined for his older brother Arthur, Prince 

of Wales. Thus, as the second heir to the throne, Henry received 

a seemingly modern upbringing and was nurtured at 

Eltham Palace, Greenwich, by his mother Elizabeth and his 

sisters who idolised the strong and confident boy. 

Given the best education in Latin scholarship, Henry was 

highly intellectual, precocious and oozed star quality during 

his preteen years. Then it all changed. In 1502, when Henry 

was 11, his brother Arthur died of tuberculosis, followed 

soon after by his beloved mother. Now heir to the throne 

and growing up fast, a huge source of conflict arose over his 

passionate participation in extreme sports, something his 

fiercely protective father was strongly against. These conflicting 

values would last until 21 April 1509, when his father 

died and Henry was crowned amidst wild scenes of popular 

rejoicing. Thus fired up with the idealism of youth and 

brought up on the legends of King Arthur and the heroic exploits 

of his ancestor Henry V (and his famous victory at the 

Battle of Agincourt), believing that a great king should also 

be a great warrior, Henry determined to make them the role 

models for his reign. 

With a large inheritance and the first peaceful transition 

of power since the end of the War of the Roses in 1485, Henry’s 

court soon took on the feel of a magnificent party, with 

endless rounds of tournaments, jousts and courtly splendours. 

Soon all Europe was bedazzled by this vibrant young 

king and the associated glamour and pageantry. His desire 

was obvious – a ‘splendid monarchy’ – and for glory, the impending 

conquest of France. 

Just days after his 18th birthday and 13 days before he was 

crowned, he married his brothers’ widow, the Spanish princess 

Catherine of Aragon, six years his senior. While cementing 

England’s alliance with Spain against France, Henry loved 

the confident, powerful and beautiful Catherine, but as the 

years passed and she failed to produce an heir – though his 

victories in France had restored England’s heroism in battle 

– his personal life became increasingly fraught.

y 1525, Henry was a still youthful 34, but Catherine, who 

he’d long since fallen out of love with, was 40 and had aged 

badly. She was almost continually pregnant during the first 

ten years of marriage but only one child survived, a daughter 

Mary (later to reign as queen from 1553–1558 and earn her- 

self the nickname Bloody Mary for her burning of Catholics). 

Like other kings, Henry had numerous mistresses and 

even a known son by one of them, but as his need for a male 

heir became palpable, into the scene stepped Anne Boleyn, 

sister of one of his former mistresses. Seductive, intelligent 

and highly sexual, Anne refused sexual relations with Hen- 

ry unless he agreed to marry her. Still married to Catherine, 

who refused a divorce, Henry eagerly began looking for le- 

gal grounds to dissolve the marriage, though he was fearful 

that the result might cause war with Spain. 

After two failed divorce trials, by 1529, Henry was furious 

with both Catherine and Pope Clement VII who had failed 

to give him the freedom he so desired. Ordering his friend 

Thomas More to enforce religious changes that would allow 

him to remarry, finally, on 15th May 1531, with the shocked 

but obedient support of his parliament and the required leg- 

islation, Henry proclaimed himself Head of the Church of 

England. This assertion of the new royal Supremacy opened 

the way to a Protestant English Church separate from the 

Roman Catholic Church in Rome, a state which continues 

to the present day. 

It would be a dramatic but ultimately fleeting victory, 

for more troubles had arisen. By Christmas 1532, Anne was 

pregnant and in strict secrecy, in January 1533, he married 

her though Catherine was still legally his wife. With a third 

divorce trial, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas 

Cranmer, swiftly ruled the first marriage void and Henry, 

after seven years of battle, finally had the queen he wanted. 

A new daughter, Elizabeth, soon followed (who as Elizabeth 

I, the ‘Virgin Queen’, reigned from 1558–1603 and during 

that heady Shakespearean era, became perhaps the monar- 

chy’s most iconic queen). 

The fate of Anne was more tragic however, as after only 

three years of marriage, she was sent to the Tower of London 

and executed on lurid (and now thought partly true) charges 

of adultery, incest and sexual perversion, when in reality her 

crime was mostly failing to adjust from the dominant role of 

mistress to submissive wife. She had also failed to produce a 

male heir. A day after Anne’s execution, on 30th May, 1536, 

Henry married the demure and conservative Jane Seymour 

who gave Henry a son, Edward (who became King Edward 

VI upon Henry’s death and reigned between 1547–1553). 

And though Jane died a few days later of puerperal fever, 

Henry’s first two disputed marriages and lack of male heir 

were now solved. 

by 1544, Henry, in the third decade of his reign, ruled England 

more like an emperor than a mere king. Though increasingly 

corpulent and plagued by ill-health – due to his continuing 

heroic consumption of alcohol and fatty red meat, a 

badly healed jousting wound and recent evidence that suggests 

advanced syphilis – he continued to rule with absolute 

power and growing tyranny. Yet, by making himself Supreme 

Head of the Church of England, plundering the monasteries’ 

vast financial resources and becoming extremely rich, he 

took the monarchy to an historical peak that has never been 

surpassed. He died on January 28th, 1547, aged 55. 

He was a true Renaissance man, heroic in war, egotistical, 

charismatic to all and fluent in several languages. But the soap 

opera turmoil – of six marriages (to Anne of Cleves, Catherine 

Howard and Catherine Parr in later years), two wives 

divorced (and two famously beheaded) that produced three 

children by different mothers – created a fractured legacy for 

generations to come. Henry VIII however, has forever been 

immortalised as a complex, towering, lustful and brutally 

controversial cultural icon of the British Monarchy. 

the second-in-line to the british throne, hrh Prince William of wales, will 

marry Miss Catherine Middleton at westminster abbey, london on friday 

april 29th. 

Destination London 

The marriage of Prince 

william to kate Middleton 

will be the 15th royal 

wedding at westminster 

abbey since king henry i 

married Queen Mathilda 

of scotland in november 

1100. the abbey has 

also been the location for all british coronations since 

1066. 

following the april 29th wedding ceremony, the 

carriage procession will then follow a route from westminster 

abbey to Parliament square, whitehall, horse 

guards Parade and the Mall before ending at 

buckingham Palace. large screens will also be erected 

in trafalgar square & hyde Park to view the live event. 

Visit www.viewlondon.co.uk for an exhaustive guide to 

the wedding and much more… 

Finnair, British Airways & easyjet fly from Helsinki 

Airport to London Heathrow / Gatwick daily. 


31

HelsInKI 

aIrporT’s 

neW eleCTronIC 

aIr TraFFIC 

ConTrol sYsTeM 

unIQuelY CoMBInes 

rouTe ClearanCes, 

perMIssIons To 

proCeed and 

sITuaTIonal snapsHoTs, 

THanKs To 

a surveIllanCe 

radar sYsTeM. 


MAArIT SEELING PHOTO FINAVIA

Super Pen 

Replaces Paper 

estriP controls helsinki airPort’s air striPs 

Helsinki Airport’s air traffic control system is 

now one of the most up-to-date in the world, 

following a programme of modernisation this 

winter. An electronic flight strip system called 

(eSTrIP) allows the strips used for tracking 

aircraft to be controlled by touching a screen 

with a pen. The system replaces the old method 

based on paper flight progress strips. 

The electronic system makes air traffic control 

at the airport more effective and flexible. The 

eSTrIPs are an aid in controlling air traffic, taxi 

clearance and vehicle traffic. 

air traffic controller 

Sami Niemi was interviewed 

for this article. 

sami was a member 

of the air traffic 

control modernisation 

team. 

Pilots always need permission from air traffic control 

before they can proceed along a taxiway or runway. 

route clearances can be sent from the eSTrIP system 

digitally straight to the flight deck of an aircraft. So by 

manoeuvring the electronic strips on a monitor screen 

and by writing notes in them, air traffic controllers can 

ensure, for example, that no two aeroplanes are on the 

runway at the same time. 

Airport vehicles are equipped with radio transmitters 

and Global Positioning Systems which provide air traffic 

control with real-time updates on their movements. Air- 

field surveillance (surface movement) radar also allows 

the eSTrIP system to be integrated with airfield light- 

ing control. In future it will be possible to control light- 

ing via the eSTrIP system automatically. 

The innovations are an attempt to re- 

spond to future growth in air traffic and 

to improve traffic safety. Several elec- 

tronic air traffic control development 

projects are underway around the world, 

though for the time being such highly 

automated systems as this are still rare. 


33

Eliel Saarinen was among the most famous 

European architects of his time, whose status 

in the foundation of American Art Deco 

and modernism is indisputable. Finnish- 

American Eero is generally regarded as one 

of American modernism’s leading figures. 


TEXT MINNA KALAjoKI PHOTOS WIKIMEDIA 

Their architectural saga began in the Katajanokka 

district of Helsinki, with the Tallberg building, 

which Eliel Saarinen and his fellow students de- 

signed, while still only about twenty years old, in 

1898. It is still in superb condition. Many other Art Nouveau 

buildings in the neighbourhood are also the work of the Saarin- 

en, Gesellius & Lindgren firm of architects. Lucky indeed are 

the residents of such places. 

To end the story we could turn our eyes upwards to the top 

of the 38 storey CBS Building in Manhattan, New York, which 

remains as the last work designed by Eero Saarinen, the great 

name in American modernism. 

Between these two buildings on two continents unfolds the 

story of the Saarinen design family. Eliel was among the most 

famous European architects of his time, whose status in the 

foundation of American Art Deco and modernism is indis- 

putable. Finnish-American Eero is generally regarded as one 

of American modernism’s leading figures. 

How did the Saarinens end up in the United States? Hel- 

sinki at the turn of the 20th century was fascinating enough.

Dynasty 

of 

Design 

THe 630-FooT HIGH sTeel sT. louIs 

GaTeWaY arCH and THe poWerFullY 

naTIonal roManTIC naTIonal 

MuseuM In HelsInKI sHare a CoMMon 

anCesTrY. lITerallY. THeY are BoTH 

THe oFFsprInG oF THe exCepTIonallY 

CreaTIve and GIFTed saarInen FaMIlY. 


35

anYone WHo Has leFT neW YorK’s JFK aIrporT Has surelY 

noTICed THe TWa TerMInal, lIKe a BIrd TaKInG FlIGHT. 

IT Was desIGned BY eero saarInen. 

Nationalism was thriving, independence was at the door, 

and in Finland alone there were plenty of opportunities for 

designers. Key to their triumph in America was a Chicago- 

based newspaper, but we’ll come back to that. 

Eliel was the well-mannered son of a vicar and always 

dressed impeccably. He worked long hours at the firm of ar- 

chitects established by himself and two fellow students, who 

had just won a commission to design Finland’s pavilion at 

the 1900 World Fair in Paris. 

And what a pavilion it was! They were bursting to show 

their worth and this talented trio of young men worked on 

the national romantic structure day and night. The castle- 

like edifice, decorated with splendid works of art, was wide- 

ly hailed in the European press. 

After Paris, contracts for work and success in architectural 

competitions poured in, with several residential buildings in 

Helsinki, the National Museum of Finland, the Helsinki rail- 

way station... and as if there wasn’t enough to do, the young 

architects decided to build a studio for themselves outside 

Helsinki at a place called Hvitträsk. 

Office for a new age. This became a collective work of art 

in tune with the spirit of the times. Many fittings and items 

of furniture were built in, and every ornament was specially 

designed for the premises. This thinking characterised the 

Saarinens’ working methods later too; they saw architecture 

as a collective whole comprising the landscape, the buildings, 

the furniture, fittings and ornaments. 

That newspaper which proved such a milestone in the 

Saarinen story was the Chicago Tribune, 7,000 kilometres 

away from Helsinki railway station. The biggest newspaper 

in the Midwest, it celebrated its 75th anniversary in 1922, and 

to honour it the paper organised a design competition for a 

Eliel Saarinen, 1873 rantasalmi, finland – 1950 bloomfield 

hills, Michigan, usa. one of the most famous finnish 

architects and designers; his styles included art nouveau, 

art deco and the first generation of modernism. 

Eero Saarinen, 1910 kirkkonummi, finland – 1961 ann 

arbor, Michigan, usa. finnish-american architect and 

designer; among the most famous exponents of the second 

generation of modernism in the united states. 


new-age office building. Naturally, this had to be a skyscraper. 

The judges had already selected the winners when Saari- 

nen’s proposal arrived at the eleventh hour, and it evidently 

stunned them. They are said to have written: “If the proposal 

that arrived at the last moment from Europe had not been so 

exceptionally beautiful and had not demonstrated such bril- 

liant understanding of the requirements of an American office 

building, the outcome of the competition would have been 

consistent with the vote already made”. They took another 

vote and Saarinen’s proposal swept second prize. 

Even today, one wonders how an architect from a small, 

distant land succeeded in establishing the essence and tech- 

nical requirements of an American skyscraper. The design as 

such was not implemented but the much publicised competi- 

tion opened doors for Saarinen to the wider world. 

Project for the whole family. The talented Finnish archi- 

tect grabbed the attention of the renowned art patron George 

G. Booth, who encouraged Saarinen to move with his family 

to the United States in 1923. His assignment was to design 

Booth’s dream, Cranbrook Academy of Arts in Michigan. 

His son, Eero, at that time a teenager, had literally grown up 

under the drawing tables of the Hvitträsk studio. We shall 

hear more from him later. 

Over the years, the Saarinen family of designers, as they 

had become known, devised a complex of dozens of build- 

ings. Eliel handled the buildings, Eero charted the details of 

their furniture and fittings, Eliel’s daughter Pipsan added 

decorative paintings to their ceilings and his wife Loja over- 

saw the textile design. The interiors, of which there are many, 

are still fine examples of Art Deco. 

Saarinen also worked as a director of education and at- 

tracted renowned European designers and artists to Cran- 

brook. The influence can still be seen in the Academy of Art 

to this day. 

Eero Saarinen graduated as an architect from Yale and 

started work in his father’s office in 1938 after a few years 

spent in Europe. As a result of seamless collaboration, the 

Kleinhans Music Hall (Buffalo, N.Y.) and the First Chris- 

tian Church (Columbus, Indiana), among other buildings, 

came into being.

Great arc of modernism. Eero’s personal breakthrough 

was victory in 1948 in the design contest for a memorial to 

President Jefferson and westward expansion. This was the 

first time father and son competed with their own proposals. 

The reinforced concrete Gateway Arch in St. Louis (Miss.), 

is ingenious in its simplicity, and many regard it to be Eero’s 

most impressive work. 

The General Motors Technical Center (Warren, Michigan) 

became the Saarinen office’s main assignment, for which Ee- 

ro prepared the final blueprints. The vast business campus, 

incorporating materials borrowed from the car industry and 

a host of new ideas was inaugurated in 1956, after six years 

of building. This outstanding work of modern architecture 

was soon dubbed “the Versailles of Industry”. 

The Technical Center elevated Eero to become one of the 

highest-profile architects in the United States in the 1950s. 

Both press and public loved experimental and open-mind- 

ed modernism. This work, which was in tune with the times 

or even ahead of them, symbolised just what the Americans 

hungered for: progress, optimism, and industrial and com- 

mercial supremacy. 

There were indeed critics who sneered at the architect for 

his constant changes of style, but they did not discourage Ee- 

ro as he surveyed the long queues of clients at the door of Ee- 

ro Saarinen and Associates. After the attention from the GM 

coup, every self-respecting company wanted him in partic- 

ular to design their head office. The master himself adorned 

magazine covers – including Time – with a fat cigar in the 

corner of his mouth. 

Art and commercialism also shook hands in that Coca- 

Cola advert where Father Christmas sits in a Womb chair de- 

signed by Eero Saarinen. Many of the pieces created by the 

younger Saarinen have become coveted furniture classics, 

his Tulip Chair being selected for the permanent collection 

of The Museum on Modern Art (MoMA). 

The now deceased Eliel Saarinen had declared: “home is 

where the work is” and Eero continued the sentiment. Work 

and virtually no free time took on an unprecedented inten- 

sity. It is said that Eero was always drawing wherever he was, 

even on the edges of paper napkins in restaurants. He drew 

with both right and left hands with ease. 

Yet the prolific Eero was clearly not as naturally gifted as 

his father. While Eliel could sketch huge entities and design 

them to completion in one go – such as the Chicago Tribune 

Tower – Eero drafted hundreds of alternatives, and even then 

he might make changes during building. 

Shaping the future. Eero’s most impressive buildings are 

well known to air passengers. Anyone who has left New York’s 

JFK Airport has surely noted the TWA terminal resembling 

a bird taking flight. This now protected building still seems 

surprisingly modern. Dulles International Airport (Wash- 

ington D.C.) was also designed by Saarinen. 

The idea for the shape of the TWA terminal reputedly 

emerged when the architect examined the remains of his 

grapefruit at the breakfast table. Later he explained his design 

had tried to attain “the spirit of flight”. Typical of Saarinen, 

the terminal’s winged concrete arches and sculpted exteri- 

or emphasised the optimism of his time and the glamour of 

flying in those days. 

Tragic indeed that Eero was not around to see his most fa- 

mous works completed. He died when he was only 51 years 

old in 1961. The TWA terminal was completed the following 

year, the Gateway Arch in 1965. In fact all the works uncom- 

pleted at his death were eventually finished. 

Eero Saarinen is buried in Ann Arbor, Michigan, while 

Eliel’s ashes were scattered as he wished beneath the monu- 

mental pine trees at Hvitträsk. Could it be that these same 

soaring pines had inspired him to design the Chicago Trib- 

une Tower? 

among the references used for this account are timo tuomi’s book Eliel 

ja Eero Saarinen (ajatus kirjat, 2007). 

elIel saarInen FooTprInTs In HelsInKI 

KARTTA 

1. Tallberg building 1898 

2. The Pohjola Insurance Company building 1901 

3. Hvitträsk studio 1902 

4. olofsborg 1902 

5. Eol 1903 

6. National Museum of Finland 1905–1910 

7. Helsinki Central railway Station 1905–1914 


37

M I L E S T o N E 

The Glamour of 

Football 

The UEFA Champions League qual- 

ifying round in 1998 pitted HJK 

against Yerevan with just two weeks’ 

notice, and in many ways that trip 

to Armenia has stayed in my memory. There were no direct 

scheduled flights, and the tight calendar meant that in the end 

we had to organise a privately chartered plane from Tallinn, 

then used by Estonia’s President, Lennart Meri. 

You might have thought the aircraft would have met states- 

manlike standards but it turned out to be such a shabby pro- 

peller plane that Finnish airports refused it permission to 

land. So we began our journey to Yerevan by ferry across the 

Gulf of Finland to Estonia. 

The game was very important, but we didn’t really know 

what to expect, so we even took along our own food and 

drink. Although we travel almost a hundred days a year, this 

cramped, windowless aircraft was perhaps the scariest expe- 

rience we had ever had, and one of our players with a fear of 

flying had to be given a sleeping drug. 

At the end of the millennium Armenia might have been 

poor but they loved their football. FC Yerevan fans were pas- 

sionate and home team supporters soon laid siege to our ho- 

tel, yelling long into the night and hurling stones at the win- 

dows. I was still quite a young lad, unused to the threats of 

football fans. 

Even the local stadium was in danger of collapsing but 

the game went well for us. We won 0–3. This vital victory in 

difficult circumstances meant that HJK was the first Finn- 

ish team to qualify for the 1998–1999 Champions League. 

The return trip was as eventful as the journey out. Fanci- 

ful documentation charges delayed our departure, with our 

aircraft captain and an airport official finally striking a deal. 


MAArIT SEELING PHOTO SUSA jUNNoLA 

But we had to wait for four hours in an aeroplane with no 

air-conditioning. As the temperature rose our shirts were the 

first to come off. By the time it had got to about 50 Celsius 

in the cabin we were all in our underpants. Our delay also 

obviously meant that we missed our onward connections to 

Finland, and we had to spend part of the night at the airport. 

The Champions League rounds had gone well, which 

boosted our status as players. When I got home after that 

gruelling journey I was surprised to find messages on my 

answerphone from professional teams in Norway and Scot- 

land. In the end I opted for Norway’s Oslo team, Våleren- 

ga. Mikael Forssell was snapped up by Chelsea. Following 

Helsinki’s success in the Champions League, six HJK play- 

ers went on to play abroad. 

The arduous trip welded us together as a team. After- 

wards I played with many who had been in the Finnish na- 

tional team. Our biggest strengths were definitely our keen 

spirit and close friendship. I learnt then that, whatever the 

conditions, on the pitch you must focus only on the game. 

AKi RiiHiLAHTi 

aki riihilahti (b.1974) is a finnish midfielder who 

has carved an international career in football. he 

started with hJk (helsinki football club), and went 

on to play for Vålerenga, crystal Palace, kaisers- 

lautern and djurgården. the highlight of his career 

in england was when crystal Palace climbed to 

the Premier league for the 2004–2005 season. 

riihilahti has been a regular with the finnish 

national team and played in several world cup 

and european championship qualifiers. he has 

played a total of 69 caps, scoring 11 goals.

M o M E N T S 

aT THe end oF THe MIllennIuM, arMenIa MIGHT Have Been poor 

BuT THeY loved THeIr FooTBall. THe loCal sTadIuM Was 

In danGer oF CollapsInG. 


39

Semi- 

hidden! 

The iittala Piilo storage box keeps your 

knickknacks safe even when they are 

too beautiful to be hidden away completely. 

Illustrated is the turquoise-blue 

glass / oak 60 mm box (EUR 22.50), 

though these boxes are available in 

a wide range of sizes and colours. 

Stockmann 

GATES 26 AND 33 

CAPi AnD CAPi ELECTROniCS 

Capi has everything to make your holiday 

memorable: memory cards, camera accessories 

and, of course, cameras. Capi outlets also 

stock all the leading mobile phone brands and 

their accessories, mp3 players, video cameras, 

Suunto and Polar wrist-top computers and 

GPS devices. A big, new shop opened at gates 

27–28 in February. 

GaTes 12, 27–28 and lonG-Haul 

FlIGHTs 

l Fashion, Accessories and 

Bags 

ARG AiRPORT FASHiOn 

The place to go for international brands for 

men and women. ARG stocks such world 

renowned names as Boss, Day, Gant, Guess and 

Eton. A big new shop has opened in the longhaul 

flights area. 

GaTes 13–14 and lonG-Haul FlIGHTs 

LUHTA SHOP AiRPORT 

Luhta embraces the sporty everyday look 

known as “street sport”. The Finnish brand is 

owned by L-Fashion Group Oy, a leading Nordic 

clothing company in business since 1907. 

The shop will be closed at the end of February. 

A big, new Luhta Store will be open during the 

spring at Gate 30 with more casual and outdoor 

products and brands, e.g. Rukka, Icepeak, 

Ril`s and Your Face. 

GaTe 30 

LUxbAG 

Luxurious Loewe, Marc Jacobs and Celine bags, 

apparel and accessories for the discriminating 

taste. 

GaTe 34–35 

MARiMEKKO 

Looking for a Finnish classic? Get the Olkalaukku 

bag designed by Ristomatti Ratia in 

1971. Jackie Kennedy, fashion icon and wife of 

President John F. Kennedy, made Marimekko 

dresses famous in the 60s. 

GaTes 26–27 

Mauri Kunnas’s The 

Canine Kalevala (EUR 

22.40) is a canine adaptation 

of the Finnish 

national epic, and it 

is also a classic in Finnish 

children’s literature. 

Stockmann 

AIRPORT MAP 

GATE 26 

Gates 35–38 

VIA SPA 

Gates 30–34 

Finavia offers a wireless internet connection free of charge at Helsinki Airport. 

Airport Website: 

www.helsinkiairport.fi 

www.helsinki-vantaa.fi 

Security Control 

Passport Control 

Flights to/from Europe 

Flights to/from Asia, 

USA, UK and Russia 

Via Helsinki Website: 

www.viahelsinki.com 

T2 

Transfer Desk 

Smoking area 

Shopping area 

Restaurants, Bars & Cafés 

Airport Lounges 

Currency exchange / 

Tax Free Refund 

Children’s Playrooms 

TO 

HELSINKI 

CHECK-IN AREA 

Gates 24–29 

CHECK-IN AREA 

TO 

HELSINKI 

TO 

HELSINKI 


Gates 11–23 

T1 

41 

VIP 

CENTRE 

CONGRESS 

CENTRE 

Airport Information 24 h 

tel. +358 200 14636 (0,57 €/min + lnc)

In the old days they believed there 

was a gnome living in every household… 

This ceramic 

gnome (from EUR 12) is the 

work of Finn Päivi Wilander. 

Santa’s Gift and Toy store 

LoNG-HAUL FLIGHTS 

M-bOxi 

Match your wallet, your handbag and your 

mood! Orange will give you energy while coral 

green will soothe you. At M-Boxi you can always 

find elegant Longchamp and Tumi products. 

GaTes 26–27 and 33 

MOOMin SHOP 

Moomin and his friends look good on anything 

and anyone: the extensive product range is not 

just for the kids. A new and bigger shop opened 

this February. 

GaTes 26–27 

MULbERRy 

Leather handbags, wallets and belts for men and 

women. We also stock the Bayswater, Mulberry’s 

all time favourite hand bag style! 

GaTe 33 

STOCKMAnn SHOP 

Stockmann is the best known department store 

in Finland, and the company’s Helsinki Airport 

Stockmann shop carries a full range of the 

world’s top fashion labels – Boss, Furla, Burberry 

and more! 

GaTe 33 

The Suunto M5 watch (EUR 

139) is a dream for active people. 

The watch recommends exercise 

programmes and tells you 

if your training is correct and 

how long you will take to recover. 

There are different designs 

for men and women. 

Capi and Capi Electronics 

GATES 12, 27–28 AND LoNG-HAUL FLIGHTS 

TiE RACK 

Tie Rack can provide you with everything you 

might have left at home: socks, belts, boxer 

shorts. The selection also includes ties, bags, 

sweaters and scarves – for yourself or for loved 

ones. 

GaTe 27 

l Gifts & Toys 

SAnTA’S GiFT AnD TOy STORE 

Santa’s Gift and Toy store has opened in the 

long-haul flights area. Gifts and toys from 

Santa’s own shop. 

lonG-Haul FlIGHTs 

l Gourmet and Sweets 

AiRPORT SHOP 

Perfumes, confectionery, cosmetics, gifts and 

Finnish gourmet products. The shop at gates 

26–27 will close in March (week 10). A new shop 

will open after the summer in a new location. 

GaTes 20 and 26–27 


43

A good book is above all entertaining, 

thinks Ines, and she picks 

up Cecilia Ahern’s novel The Book 

of Tomorrow (EUR 11.50), which 

tells of the young Tamara’s path 

from riches to rags and new insights 

on life. 

reader’s 

GATE 14 AND LoNG-HAUL 

FLIGHTS 

When Ines decides to buy something, 

she believes in first impressions. She 

knows she has found what she’s looking 

for when she sees this Mulberry 

tweed, leather bag (from EUR 800). 

The bag is unusual in that it has a shoulder 

strap embroidered on one side. 

Mulberry Shop 

GATE 33 

What’s in Your Bag, 

INES DE LIGHT? 

When Ines arrives at the airport, she 

feasts on Vietnamese spring rolls (EUR 

3.50 each, EUR 11 for 3), which are available 

in three flavours: tofu-mushroom, 

salmon-avocado and goose-omelette. 

My City Helsinki 

GATE 35 

Wine & View 

GATE 28 

Ines enjoys shopping, and her holiday culminates 

in buying gifts. Her first purchase 

is always perfume – you can never 

have too much. This time she chooses 

Yves Saint Laurent’s luxurious new 

fragrance, Belle D’Opium (EdP EUR 

62.80 / 50 ml, EUR 80.40 / 90 ml). 

Helsinki Airport Duty Free 

GATES 13, 22-26 AND LoNG-HAUL FLIGHTS 

Ines takes a shine to 

the Chopard Happy 

Sport watch (EUR 16,010): 

Some of its 41 diamonds 

adorn the red-gold edge of 

the dial and some move under 

the glass. The watch-strap is 

made of leather. 

Aseman Kello 

GATES 26–27 AND LoNG-HAUL 

FLIGHTS 

The reading experience 

is topped off by 

Kultasuklaa’s handmade 

Finnish chocolates 

(EUR 19.90 / 250 g). 

Stockmann 

GATE 26 


45

Restaurants and 

Cafés 

bAR DELiGHT 

Beverages from beer to champagne, not 

forgetting the classics and a choice of special 

coffees. Tapas and snacks. Soft drinks and small 

savouries to take away. Sockets for charging 

laptops and phones. 

GaTe 14 

CAFé ALVAR A 

Alvar Aalto (1898–1976) was a Finnish functionalist 

architect and designer. His most famous 

building is the Finlandia Hall in Helsinki. Café 

Alvar A at Helsinki Airport is named after Aalto 

and represents the best of Finland, in philosophy, 

design and food. Much of the cafe’s food 

is produced locally by small and independent 

Finnish farmers. 

GaTe 24 

CAFé PiCniC 

Newly renovated Picnic is known for its 

baguettes, baked potatoes and special coffees. 

Salads, soft drinks and pastries are also 

available. 

Open 24/7 

TerMInal 2 

CAFé TUULi 

Café Tuuli is temporarily located at gate 27 in 

one of the busiest areas at Helsinki Airport. 

When time is tight, get it to go from Tuuli. But 

if you have time to kill, sit down and enjoy the 

café’s range of sweet and savoury delicacies 

and selection of refreshing drinks. 

GaTe 27 

CESAR’S PizzA & FOOD COURT 

Helsinki Airport staff know this breakfast, lunch 

and dinner spot well, it’s just downstairs from 

Departures Hall 2. Buffet with a wide range to 

choose from. Pizza and filled baguettes also 

available. 

TerMInal 2 

GO!CAFé 

The history of GO!Café is a bit like the Eiffel 

Tower’s. Both were intended as temporary 

structures but plans changed. And as the 

popularity of the GO!Café has increased, so 

have its selection and service. There are now 

two of these cafes at Helsinki Airport. 

Terminal 2 Go!Café offers a superb selection of 

take away food and you can also recharge your 

laptop computer. Newsagent goods are also 

available, including newspapers and magazines, 

paperbacks, playing cards and hygiene products. 

There is an Innocent Smoothie Bar at the 

café serving easy flight snacks such as smoothies, 

coffee and pastries. The eService Bar operates 

in the GoCafé premises at Terminal 2. 

The GO!Café in Terminal 1 serves an excellent 

soup and salad lunch with beverage. New terrace 

open, Go!Café in terminal 1. 

GaTe 19 and TerMInal 1 

COFFEE SPOOn 

The clock on the Stockmann building in central 

Helsinki is one of the city’s most popular meeting 

spots. At Helsinki Airport, Spoon plays 

a similar role. Sweet and savoury pastries, 

sandwiches and baguettes, fresh salads, special 

coffees, smoothies and ice-cream – also to take 

away. P.S. The soup special for the day costs 

Gucci Guilty (EdT EUR 58.40 / 50 ml) is an 

opulent fragrance for audacious women – for 

those who like to party and have no fear. 

Helsinki Airport Duty Free 

GATES 13, 22–26 AND LoNG-HAUL FLIGHTS 

only €4.70 and the salad special €5.70. New 

terrace open. 

Open 24/7 

CHeCK-In area oF TerMInal 2 

MObiLE COFFEE UniT 

Fancy a coffee but no time to sit down? Grab 

a cup to go from one of the two mobile coffee 

units operating in both terminals during rush 

hours. Chewing gum, sweets and pastry of the 

day are also available. 

GaTe area, TerMInals 1 and 2 

My CiTy HELSinKi 

Feeling peckish and a little thirsty? Relief is at 

hand in this comprehensive, 400 seat restaurant. 

It has its own bar offering a wide range of cocktails. 

The soundscape for the bar was designed 

by DJ Slow. 

GaTe 35 

nEW CAFé 

A brand new café has opened at gate 28 next to 

the Wine & View wine bar. Sit down and enjoy 

the café’s range of sweet and savoury pastries 

and selection of refreshing vitamin waters. 

GaTe 28 

PiCniC TAKE AWAy 

Leaving the airport on an empty stomach? The 

Picnic Take Away will make sure you leave satisfied! 

Sandwiches, salads, foodstuff and fresh 

bread to go. 

TerMInal 2/arrIvals 2a 

FLy inn RESTAURAnT & DELi 

A new restaurant with a panoramic view and an 

interior of natural materials. Enjoy a refreshing 

breakfast at the Deli or try the famous reindeer 

burger from the restaurant’s á la carte menu. 

GaTe 27 


47

FinnAiR LOUnGE* 

The new lounge in the long-haul flight area 

has space for 250 passengers to work or relax. 

There’s a buffet for the peckish and a wine 

bar with a high quality selection. You can also 

freshen up in a private shower room. 

GaTes 36–37 

* Lounges are open to business class passengers, 

Priority Pass or Airport Angel card 

holders as well as entitlement card holders flying 

with the following airlines: Aeroflot Russian 

Airlines, Air China, Air France, British Airways, 

Bulgaria Air, Czech Airlines CSA, Finnair, 

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Malev and Ukraine 

International Airlines. LOT Polish Airlines and 

Turkish Airlines business class will be given an 

invitation at check-in which will also entitle 

them to lounge service. 

l Spa 

FinnAiR SPA & SAUnAS 

An oasis in the middle of an airport, with 

almost 600 square metres to relax in. Plunge 

into the spa’s mineral water pool or let the 

rocks in the clear water of the wading pool 

massage your feet. Refresh yourself in one 

of four different saunas and pamper yourself 

with one of the treatments specially designed 

for air passengers. Ask for a combined Finnair 

Lounge and Spa ticket! 

GaTes 36–37 

l VIP Services 

ViP CEnTRE/HELSinKi AiRPORT COn- 

GRESS 

More than a dozen meeting rooms for business 

travellers – and for more romantic occasions. 

Every few months, a happy couple exchanges 

marriage vows in the airport’s VIP facilities. Let 

the honeymoon begin! 

Contacts: Tel. +358 020 708 3117, 

http://www.helsinki-vantaa.fi/vip 

TerMInal 2 

l ATMs 

You can get cash from the ten ATM machines 

in the terminal. 

l Car Hire 

Renting a car at the airport is a convenient 

way to travel: put your cases in the car and 

drive away! Advance booking over the Internet 

makes travelling even faster. Rental car parking 

is available in car park P3. The service desks 

for car rentals are in the corridor between 

terminals 1 and 2. 

AViS 

tel. +358 9 822 833 

bUDGET 

tel. +358 207 466 610 

EUROPCAR 

tel. +358 40 306 2800 

HERTz 

tel. +358 20 555 2100 

SixT 

tel. +358 200 111 222 

l Conference Services 

Are you planning an international event in a 

quality environment? The facilities at Helsinki 

Airport can be adapted to meet the needs of 

large conferences and small meetings alike. 

HELSinKi AiRPORT COnGRESS has nine 

flexible meeting rooms, the largest accommodating 

up to 140 people. The meeting rooms 

provide modern audiovisual equipment and 

BrAND PICK: oMEGA 

First Watch on the Moon 

The final letter of the Greek alphabet, omega Ω, symbolises the end point in 

western culture. We say “from alpha to omega”. But in the world of watches, 

it is more like the start of things. The swiss company omega has been leading 

development since 1848 and was approved by nasa for its first manned flight to 

the Moon and for five others subsequently. 

aboard apollo 11 when it set off for the Moon on 16 July 1969 were flight 

commander Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins pilot of the Columbia flight module, 

and Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin who piloted the eagle lunar module – and on his wrist 

was The omega speedmaster Chronograph. The whereabouts of this watch is 

unknown because it was stolen from its owner. 

omega has had plenty of highlights. The world’s celebrities have relied upon 

it, including john F. Kennedy, Prince William, George Clooney and Nicole Kidman, 

and at the vancouver Winter olympics last year it was the official timekeeper. 

The firm’s reputation as a provider of timepieces that stand up to adventure 

has grown ever stronger since the conquest of the Moon. The first choice of 

watch for divers was omega, and the omega seamaster has accompanied 007’s 

assignments since 1995, when Pierce brosnan became James Bond. 

omega’s renown as a pioneer is, of course, only figurative, but no other 

watchmaker has held as many records for accuracy. The company has come a 

long way since the 23-year-old Louis brandt began to assemble pocket watches 

in la-Chaux-de-Fonds from parts produced by local craftsmen. 

references: www.omegawatches.com, 

www.wikipedia.org 

Omega Seamaster 

Professional , 

(EUR 2,610) is 

waterproof to 

a depth of 300 

metres. 

ASEMAN KELLo 

GATES 26–27 AND 

LoNG-HAUL FLIGHTS 

communications. A professional conference assistant 

will help you with all the practicalities. 

tel. +358 207 629 732 

sales@sspfinland.fi 

TerMInal 2 

Three smaller rooms for meetings with 2–8 

participants. 

tel. +358 9 8277 3117 

vip.helsinki-vantaa@finavia.fI 

TerMInal 2 

HiLTOn HELSinKi-VAnTAA AiRPORT 

tel. +358 9 73 220 

helsinkivantaa.airport@hilton.com 

nexT To TerMInal 2 

ViP PRESiDEnT TERMinAL is ideal for large 

groups and state visits. Weddings and other 

private events can also be organised here. The 

facilities readily accommodate 10–100 guests. 

Visitors have access to two conference rooms 

and a lounge as well as a festive lobby plus a 

separate press room. 

tel. +358 9 8277 3117 

vip.helsinki-vantaa@finavia.fI 

LiiKELEnTOTiE 10 


49

BOSS 

ORANGE 

BOSS ORANGE 

For Him 

EAU DE TOILETTE 

60 ml 

43,20 € 

BUY 3 

PAY 2 

PANDA 

LICORICE BIG BAGS: 

Licorice Mix Original 450 g, 

Licorice Mix Choco 350 g, 

Duello 375 g, Soft&Fresh 

Licorice 500 g and Soft&Fresh 

Licorice Filled 450 g 

International passengers can make purchases in the gate area after 

security control. When travelling to a destination outside the EU, to Canary 

Islands or to Åland Islands you can buy alcoholic beverages and cigarettes 

duty-free. 

Domestic passengers can also make purchases at the shops located in the 

gate area except for the tax free and duty free shops that sell alcohol or 

tobacco. For domestic passengers there are special shops that sell 

cosmetic and sweets at gates 26 and 20. 

Prices valid until 31.4.2011. 

Enjoy your shopping! 

ESCADA 

TAJ SUNSET 

ESCADA TAJ SUNSET 

For Her 

EAU DE TOILETTE 

50 ml 

42,30 € 

BUY 3 

PAY 2 

FAZER 

CHOCOLATES: 

250 G: 

Milk chocolate, 

Dark chocolate, 

Hazelnut, Liquorice dragées, 

Creamy toffee pieces, 

Roasted Salted Cashew Nuts 

EVERYONE IS WELCOME TO SHOP 

Arriving passengers can make purchases at the shops located in the gate 

area except for the tax free and duty free shops that sell alcohol or 

tobacco. The shops located in the baggage claim areas at the International 

Terminal can also be used by arriving passengers. 

All passengers and people meeting and seeing them off can use the shops 

and service desks located in the areas before security control.

Already 11 routes 

from and to Helsinki! 

Oslo 

from 

38€ 

one way 

All prices include taxes. 

Oulu 

36€ 

from one way 

Rovaniemi 

36€ 

from one way 

Stockholm 

37€ 

from one way 

Copenhagen 

37€ 

from one way 

London 

37€ 

from one way 

Nice 

70€ 

from one way 

Split 

70€ 

from one way 

Rome 

from 

70€ 

one way 

Barcelona 

70€ 

from one way 

Alicante 

70€ 

from one way 

Malaga 

from 

70€ 

one way 

Hania 

70€ 

from one way

vi a servi ce - Finavia

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?