On this page of my scrapbook, you find me in late summer of 2004. I joined Grand Princess in the last month the Baltic Season. This was the second time I has worked on Grand Princess. As such, I was still familiar with the ship from the first time I was onboard. However, the itineraries could not have been different from the Caribbean a year and a half earlier. This ship has also gone through massive refurbishments and reconfigurations in the last 17 years, including the removal of the originally suspended Skywalker’s Nightclub.

As ships the size of Grand Princess dock away from the City Center, we would take a shuttle into town that would deposit us at The Esplanadi near Mannerheimintie, one of the main roads through the center of the city.

The top half of this page documents the two cathedrals viewable from The Esplanadi and near-by Senate Square.

One perk of being a crew is we could apply to “Escort” passenger tours…this basically meant that we would need to carry a First Aid Kit and count heads if the guide asked…otherwise, we could enjoy the sights of the tours like anyone else.

It was on one such tour that I visited the magnificent Sibelius Monument documents on the bottom half of this page.  

Quick Fact: Helsinki Cathedral  This church was originally built from 1830–1852 as a tribute to the Grand Duke of Finland, Tsar Nicholas I of Russia. It has also been known as St Nicholas' Church in the past. It is a major landmark of the city, and possibly the most famous structure in Finland.	Quick Fact: Uspenski Cathedral Consecrated in 1868, it is the main cathedral of the Orthodox Church of Finland, dedicated to the Dormition (the passing from earthly life) of the Theotokos (the Virgin Mary). Its name comes from the Old Church Slavonic word uspenie, which denotes the Dormition.	Quick Fact: The Sibelius Monument  Created in 1967 by Finnish artist Eila Hiltunen, it is dedicated to the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) and is located within Sibelius Park, also dedicated to the said composer. It consists of series of more than 600 hollow steel pipes welded together in a wave-like pattern, which are said to whistle when the wind blows through them…although I didn’t hear it on the occasion I was there.