After a lovely evening traveling through a Swedish archipelago on our way out of Stockholm, we slept in our cabin on the Gabriella, awoke to a great breakfast, and our arrival in Helsinki. After a tram ride, we dropped our luggage off at our hotel, and Marichka took us for a walk around town. Some iconic spots…
Next to Senate Square (shown above) is the free Helsinki museum. Among other things, it addresses Finlands famous education system (but it wasn’t always so free)…
Fun Fact: see the odd car on the Helsinki Skywheel? Its a sauna! This batch also includes Uspenski Cathedral, the harbor, the Esplanade, and other stuff I thought looked cool. (Best manhole covers in Scandinavia?)
After breakfast the next day, our tour officially ended. Our guide/leader Marichka went back home to Kiev. Steve, the only one who’d been with us since Copenhagen, continued to the Baltics – with Intrepid, but a different tour than I’m taking. Craig is also doing the Baltics on his own, and Sue was off to British/Irish connections.
ML & I did laundry, got her a new suitcase, and in the afternoon, took the ferry to Suomenlinna, a former defensive/military archipelago, now UNESCO World Heritage site. In addition to the former military facilities and residences, it features a variety of museums, cafe/restaurants, and picnic spots…
This last batch shows a deluxe metro potty, the outside of the “Rock Church,” some local art & music, a few repeat shots, and architectural appreciation. Helsinki had been rather foggy and Soviet when we arrived, but proved a wonderful ending to our Scandinavian trip…
I’ll wrap it up with some music clips around Helsinki: a military band in Senate Square, an accordian soloist on the Esplanade, and some young rockin’ buskers near the Church of Silence…?
As I post this, I’m waiting at the Helsinki airport for my flight to Vilnius to pick up “Classic Baltics” Intrepid trip, but I’ll be back to fly outta here in a little over a week. Reckon there oughta be some other posts by then. Thanks for checking ’em out…