Sibelius Monument

Our ship left Stockholm and traveled through the night to Helsinki. We had noticed that the swells seemed pretty big, and then this morning the cruise people informed us that during the night we had encountered 15-18 foot waves, and 58 mph winds, which caused us to have to slow down. As a result, we ended up getting into Helsinki a little late. Some of the earlier tours were delayed slightly, but our tour wasn't scheduled until 10:45, so we weren't affected by the delay. We began our day with a bus tour of the city of Helsinki. Our bus had a local tour guide named Kirta, who was very informative and also very entertaining. As we drove around the city, Kirta pointed out places of interest, and we stopped and got off the bus at a few of the more interesting sights. The first stop was the Sibelius Monument. This is a monument that consists of over 600 pipe-organ pipes welded together. It is meant to honor, and is named for, the national composer of Finland - Jean Sibelius. When the woman originally created the sculpture and put it in the city park, it immediately caused an uproar. It was not obvious what the sculpture was meant to be; some people thought it was cigars, others thought it might be a depiction of the northern lights, while still others thought it was perhaps an oil rig. They were outraged that this hideous thing had been placed in a beautiful green park. When they were informed what it was, they insisted that the sculptor create a bust of Sibelius' face and place it next to the pipe-organ display to clarify it. She complied, and the monument has been in place over 50 years. The people of Helsinki now love it and in fact are very proud of it.