If you have a tourist Helsinki Card, you can get a free tour on the Panorama bus. You'll save 31 Euros, which is the usual cost of the tour. In this post I will show you the route and the places we visited during the tour.

Intersection of the Fabianinkatu street and the 

Esplanadi Park

was a departure point. There is the famous restaurant "Kappeli" nearby. It has been open since 1867. Concerts are held during the summer on the outdoor stage in front of the restaurant. There were sculptures on both sides of the stage - "Boys-fishermen" and "Naiad". I suppose this is the most expensive restaurant in 

Helsinki

.

There were headphones by every seat in the bus. You can select a language. Audio Guides conducted the tour and talked about the sights seen along the route. I managed to take pictures of a few places. This is the statue of Mannerheim and the 

Museum of Contemporary Art in Kiasma

. By the way, we got in the museum for free.

This was our route in red. During our tour, a hop-on-hop-off bus was driving ahead us. The difference is that there, you can exit the bus and get on at any stop. There were 15 of them. It cost 27 Euros, or 12 Euros with a Helsinki Card.

This is Eira - the city's elite district. There are old mansions in the recesses, as well as new houses with panoramic views of the sea.  

We stopped and visited the famous church in the rock - it was a pleasant surprise! It's officially called Temppeliaukio Church, it is a Lutheran church, built in 1969. It was carved into the rock, and its dome was made of copper and glass. The hall has excellent acoustics and the church itself is unique. It's a must-see.

We returned to the bus and went further along the route. This is a sculpture called 'Maternal Love' in the Varsapuistikko square. Its name is translated as Coltish.

This is the monument to Snellman, in front of the Bank of Finland. He was an ideologist of the Finnish national movement.

Here's the "Havis Amanda" fountain. The sculpture was cast in Paris and installed on site in 1908. The mermaid is the epitome of Helsinki because the second name of the Finnish capital is "Daughter of the Baltic" or "Itämeren tytär".

In 1920, a student put a graduation cap on the sculpture. Since then, the act has become a tradition and on the night of May 1, during Vappu holiday, Havis Amanda wears the cap officially.

There were seals around it.

This is the end of the tour. It lasted an hour and a half. Then we went for a walk. You can see Assumption Cathedral, I wrote about it in the article called Different Churches of Helsinki.