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Monday 21 April 2014

...Helsinki ...










Day 5 - Helsinki 

We arrived after 32 hours or so of travelling (consensus - not nearly as bad as we thought it would be)
Driving from the airport I felt like we were part of a Kurt Wallander novel (wrong country I know...but all those sleepless travel hours...)

Brilliant blue skies, bare branched trees, little sign (yet) of spring.
Easter Monday is never a good time to arrive anywhere (ref - David and I arriving in Bologna on the same day 17 years ago and just sitting in the sunshine in the square for hours because everything was shut) but Helsinki is way more open than Hobart.

We found the best cinnamon scrolls, good coffee and headed onwards.
Wandering around the boulevards, promenades and cobbled streets, round the harbour area, avoiding the reindeer meatballs but loving the salmon.  
We hopped on a bus tour as little legs started failing and marvelled at the crazy Russian woman who took 4000 or so phone photos from a moving bus and almost lost her head from the branches every time she stood up, the rock church (see Jack's previous post for a detailed description of this church carved from the rock face) and the Sibelius monument - which was not as musical as we'd hoped.

Our apartment is fabulous - all clean Scandi lines and minimal white furnishings - and loads of hot water and free wifi.  Today we're heading out in search of food, open shops and some playgrounds.
We'll see what happens.

(Alison)




2 comments:

  1. Sounds amazing - hard to believe it's less than a week since we saw you!

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  2. Love the photos! Looks like it not as cold as you thought it would be. Love the photo of kids on the turtles......looks a bit familiar.......

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