Sunday promenade: Arabiaranta-Herttoniemi-Kalasatama

The winter is hesitating. Short frost time, small snow falls, rain, warm temperature, not good succession. Today is Sunday, there is blizzard outside but I cannot resist to go for a promenade with my bike in the dim light to see the winter biting piece by piece the city. Departure from Vallila, then Arabiaranta, sight of the sea and of the winter pattern, then Vihki and Herttoniemi, beautiful path in the forest, fun slopes to climb and go down. Crossing the Kuulosaari bridge, the blizzard is indeed very aggressive there, but I push further to see what is going on in the Kalasatama area. The place looks desolated, the strong wind have blow half of the signs to the ground and same for the graffiti panels. Abandoned, remote and beautiful look. On my way home, I decide to visit some very fancy sea side flats in the newly build neighbourhood. I go back home through Verkkosaari to see some more graffiti and maybe some extraordinary wind damage?
15.12.2013

An approximative map of the Sunday promenade.

Helsinki by ski II

Going out from work, I waxed my skis, met a friend and went on the frozen sea. The day was ending, the sky packed with a dense layer of cloud, there was an indoor atmosphere with the light of day fading. We left the bright, glassy buildings of Technopolis to go south of Lautasaari. The landscape became lonely and almost untouched by humans. Some mökki (summer cottage) well integrated in the forests of the island, a vast plain of ice with a perfect snow for skating. Exactly what I like about this capital, half an hour of skiing and there is absolutely nobody around you. Approching the centre of Helsinki, the islands around became more urbanized and suddenly one of the ferries to Tallinn popped up from behind an island. Covered in bright light it was like a fantastic kind of a phantom ship. 01.03.2011.

The GPS track.