Töölö, where Helsinki gets quiet

German visitors keep writing that Helsinki "feels like a deep breath". What they mean is Töölö. Residential, leafy, seven minutes from the centre, and built around a lake where people jog in t-shirts at ten in the evening in summer. You can walk this loop and not hear a car for most of it.

The walk

1. 1

   Temppeliaukio rock church

   Lutherinkatu 3

   A church carved directly into granite bedrock. Consecrated in 1969, still in use. Acoustics are famous and there are real concerts, not just tourism. 8 euro entrance. Worth it once.

   Check the schedule, Sunday evening concerts are often free and not full.

2. 2

   Sibelius monument

   Sibeliuksenpuisto

   A 24-ton steel pipe organ sculpture in Sibelius Park. The composer's face glares at you from a separate block because the abstract pipes were considered too radical in 1967. Bus groups stop here for ten minutes. Stay longer.

3. 3

   Café Regatta

   Merikannontie 8

   A red wooden shed on the seafront with a bonfire burning most evenings. Cinnamon buns from a tin. This is the single most photographed café in Helsinki for a reason.

   Pay cash if you can, queues move twice as fast. Free sausage to grill on the fire in winter.

4. 4

   Töölönlahti loop

   Töölönlahti bay

   A 2.2 km paved loop around the inner bay. Runners, families, dogs, nobody in a rush. You pass Finlandia Hall (Aalto), Oodi library and the Finnish National Opera on the way.

5. 5

   Hietaniemi cemetery

   Hietaniemenkatu 20

   Sibelius and half of the founding-era Finnish state are buried here. It is not morbid, it is a large park with maples and beech trees that happens to have graves in it. Locals walk their dogs on the outer paths.

6. 6

   Hietaniemi beach

   Hiekkarannantie 9

   The city beach, locally called Hietsu. Sand, beach volleyball, a sauna, and public ice swimming in winter. In July it looks like the Baltic version of any beach anywhere.