Helsinki Finland

Another good day weather-wise and no excursion until the afternoon thank God as we are both so very tired with this virus.

Room Service – wonderful.

It was only a short trip around town the overwhelming memory, like so many of these Scandinavian countries, is bicycles everywhere. Young and old, short and tall, thin and fat – everybody rides a bike. Well, not everyone, there are cars of course but not too many.

And the occasional moose.

 

The public transport is excellent and on time and there are two types of tram; the green one is the normal one but the red one is a – BAR. I kid you not, you can get a drink whilst on your way home from work.

A  mixture of building types, brick built churches, golden turrets and green copper roofs. I was expecting wooden buildings but all apparently burnt to the ground a couple of hundred years ago.

A food market was by the harbour – magnificent fruit and veg everywhere. Strawberries piled high and wonderful cherries at 5 euros a litre. Delicious.

In the harbour we saw two large icebreakers which keep the harbour ice free all year. The ice can be thick enough in winter to drive a car on if you felt so inclined.

We stopped in Cathedral square – a fabulous building but neither of us had the energy to negotiate all the steps.

 

 

Next a drive into the countryside, again water everywhere and people just relaxing and enjoying the outdoor life while they can.

 

Next stop – the Rock church – sorry – i did not get that at all – hideous building on the outside – literally just hewn roughly out of the rock. I stayed on the bus.

Then on to the Monument celebrating Berlioz the famous composer. It looks like the pipes of a church organ, no one knows the connection with Berlioz so they have put a statue of him there so people do know!

Now, I will tell you a little story, I had terrible tummy trouble here and had to sit on a seat by the water’s edge and pray. Mike said there was a toilet on the bus so I inched my way back to the driver but he said no. However, right next to the bus was one of these modern loos, all steel and stuff and the driver kindly put in 50cents to open it. I guess he knew I was desperate.  The sound of water rushing underneath and down the sides was quite off putting but I was O So thankful. There is a God without a doubt.

Back on the bus  a drive past the Olympic Stadium of 1952 and a final drive around the very neat town found us heading back to the ship.

Another nice day was had by all.