Saturday, August 25, 2018: Helsinki

It has been a full day in Helsinki.

We grab a bus and pass the Design Museum ...
on the way to the Church in the Rock
which turns out to be very popular.
Notice the people climbing on the rocks above the sign that says, in several languages, "no climbing".
Nevertheless, our guide has pre-purchased tickets which allows to go directly inside.  Inside is not anything like I had imagined.
 It has an intricate copper ceiling.
I catch our three professionals, David Scott Silverberg, our National Geographic geographer; Elizabeth, our tour leader; and Olga, our Finnish guide.  Olga is Russian and speaks wonderful English as well as several other languages.
We are then treated to a visit to Market Hall
where we visit Scandanavia Cafe and are treated to a glass of wine at 11am and a tasting of various Finnish specialties including Reindeer and salmon.  (Somewhere I have photos of the food! I will search for them.)


Market Hall has many interesting items for sale.


Bev finds a friend and shops.
This is the now infamous building where buddies Donald Trump and President Putin had their bromance a few weeks ago.
We visit the market right outside Market Hall
where we sample cloudberries.
Since Finland is physically located very near Russia, there is a great deal of Russian influence as evidenced by this street sign in three languages, Finnish, Swedish and Russian.
Lunch is at Restaurant Savotta which had wonderful food.  Bev had the salmon and I had the chicken Kiev.  The only problem was that lunch took at least two hours.  Restaurant service in Nordic countries is very leisurely since it is the custom not to tip.  It can easily take an hour between courses.

An appetizer tray
and lamb.
We take a ferry to the island fortress of Suomenlinna.  This is a UNESCO world heritage site which has, at various times, protected the Danish, Finnish and Russian governments.  However, this fortress has not yet seen a battle.



The fortress has a church which doubles as a lighthouse.
Beverly visits the library, the smallest library in Helsinki.

We visit the dry dock which is still in use today.
We stumble upon a wedding and I decide to become a wedding photographer.
Dinner tonight on our own is at Restaurant Saari, recommended by a friend and actually located on the island of Sirpalesaari.  We take a small boat from the restaurant's dock

out to the restaurant.


The restaurant's specialty is crayfish and Beverly is game.  I am impressed.

I have chicken with corn sauce
and Bev has fish soup, a real meal.
After dinner we are treated to a wonderful sunset.  This photo has not been altered or enhanced in any way.  This is way it looked straight out of the camera.
After the short boat ride back, we stroll the harbor about two miles back to our hotel.

As I indicated earlier.  It has a good but a very long day.  Sorry that it took so long to get this blog entry up.  Goodnight.

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