We arrived in Helsinki yesterday lunchtime feeling very hungry, having got up at 5.30 a.m. to catch the plane only to find they had no food during the flight, even for money. So we went straight to the Kauppatori market and had reindeer sausages. Then I had to give the first talk of my visit.

Today we had a morning free and went to the Temple Church, which is a modern church carved into a rock right in the city centre. Very impressive, excellent acoustics but really hard to photograph.

After that we went to the Natural History Museum, which was fabulous. Not quite as much material as NHM in London, but very well displayed and easy to explore. M is quite the expert on evolution, especially human evolution, now so thought there was a lack of detail. I like the five eyed creatures from the Burgess Shale (Cambrian) best.

The building was originally an upper level school (Gymnasium) built about 100 years ago, but is much better suited to its current purpose, as the shape of these stairs makes clear.