What a little treasure, is Helsinki.

Granted, we can’t speak of much personal experience. The Celebrity Constellation’s time at port, in Finland’s capital, was a total of nine hours, beginning at 8 a.m.

But our brief time ashore yielded a particularly positive impression of Helsinki.

Personally warm. Visually pleasing. Tidy. Sedate. Orderly.
Helsinki is attractive seemingly by being itself. Which is impressive.

I could see living here, except for three factors:

–It appears to be quite expensive. Actually, we later found a statistic that suggested Finland has the third-highest cost of living among the 50 nations of Europe, behind only Denmark and Luxembourg. I can relay this: A crepe with strawberry jam from a tent in Market Square cost 8 euros and a half-liter of bottled water was 2.50 — or about $14. And that seemed to be typical, from our looking at the costs of meals and nicknacks.

–It is extraordinarily cold and gray for about half the year. Even the Finns, who grew up in it, concede they get a little quiet in the winter and quicken in the spring — even the cool and almost wet bit of spring that met us, in the second half of May.

–Those who know better than I do insist that Helsinki is dull. I assume the Helsinki native I know in Abu Dhabi is referring to things to do. Entertainment. Outside activities. She said it is very difficult even to see a movie there.

But for an afternoon and, I suspect, a week or a month, it would be a fine place to spend a summer. Seemingly everyone is friendly; English is widely spoken; just the relentless politeness of the place is compelling.

It is another of those cities of the Baltic that have resisted modernization, as much of the rest of the world sees modernizing. No high-rise buildings. Deep and thorough (albeit expensive) social programs. A commitment to the environment. Producing and consuming their own foods. Deeply proud of their heritage without being obnoxious.

Also, nearly everyone we saw looked healthy and well-scrubbed. As if they regularly exercise at length, and then dress quite neatly, aside from the handful of Goth kids we saw. It almost made me feel as if I should go cross-country skiing for an hour.

(Though I have a recollection that Finns consume quite a lot of alcohol. Perhaps even more than Russians, who have a reputation as heavy drinkers. But we didn’t see anyone drunk or begging.)

We were particularly impressed by the Church of the Rock, above, a Lutheran church that exists inside some excavated rock near the city center. While we were there, a couple of dozen earnest Finns who made up a choir sang hymns for tourists inside the church, the walls of which are bare rock.

Of course, it would be expensive to stay in Helsinki in the summer, to be able to eat outside your home and, apparently, difficult to find a movie. And their idea of summer is about 70 degrees.

But I would be willing to try.

I can’t recall being in a place that seems so livable and friendly, a place that made such a positive first impression.