Finland Day 2: Helsinki

 Today was our second full day in Finland. We are still in Helsinki.  Today is my 48th birthday, and Finland is a great place to be spending it.

Today we went to the UNESCO site - Suomenlinna island.  We were able to walk from our hotel to the boat we needed to take to get to the island.  The boat ride was short, but a nice ride to see some of the small islands off the coast of Finland.  We walked the whole island which used to be a Naval base and a place where Helsinki would greet visitors.  There is a toy museum on the island that was on Finley's list and it was a small museum of old fashioned toys.  

We left the island early afternoon and headed back to the hotel.  It poured rain all afternoon so we relaxed because we were still adjusting to the time change.

In the evening Mat, Finley and I went back out and rode a large ferris wheel that was near the water's edge, and then went to a local restaurant for dinner.  Great day  

On the boat to the island

Lots of big cruise ships in port.  We counted 5 on our way out to the island

Underground tunnels

Church on the grounds

Coastline of Suoemlinna

King's Gate

Creepy toy museum

Moomin toys

Look at that sky.  We made it back just in time before the storm

We had lunch in the Old Market.  My first taste of reindeer meat (it was delicious).  I had it on a baked potato with blue cheese crumbles and legionberries.  Yum

We had a Finnish desserts.  It reminded us of crispy funnel cake

After the rain we headed back outand road the ferris wheel.  We got to go around several times - it was fun

WE went to dinner and had some great food.  Finley got Salmon which is everywhere here.  I had more reindeer

Finland Day 1: Helsinki

 Today was our first full day in Finland.  Even thought it is Friday - and we left for Finland on Wednesday the 28th, we didn't get here until the evening of the 29th, and just ate dinner and crashed.  This morning we were feeling more like ourselves and ready to tackle the day.  We are 7 hours ahead of our home in Massachusetts so it will take a few days to right ourselves.

First I want to state that this trip was completely set by Finley.  This is her 16th birthday trip, and even though she is about to turn 17, we wanted to wait out Covid one more year before we traveled.  So this summer she is cashing in that trip.  She picked coming to Finland and all the activities that we are doing.

Today we started our day at an outdoor museum.  It was pretty great.  We had visited one of these in Switzerland, and this was very similar.  They take houses from all over Finnland from different time periods, and move them to this museum where they can be preserved and visited.  It was huge and we spent several hours walking around and exploring.  The weather today was beautiful and quite hot for Finland.

After the museum, we headed back into the city (we took an Uber to the location to make getting there faster, and took one back) of Helsinki.  We went to the National Library of Finland which was really neat to see.  We saw a big beautiful church (but could not enter because there was a wedding taking place), and a town square that reminded us very much of the ones in Germany and Switzerland.

This evening Finley wanted to visit some shops to explore, so we found a very large 4 floor mall.  We also went to a Moomin Shop.  If you are not aware of this very weird show, it is very popular over here in Finland (they actually have a Moomin amusement park and a museum - the museum we are seeing at the end of the weekend).  We had some dinner and came back to the apartment to relax for the rest of the night.

It was a great first day.  There is English everywhere, and everyone speaks it.  Not that I am surprised.  Well - a little surprised about English being on every sign considering that was hard to come by when we lived in Basel.  But here it is very easy to get around.

Houses that were in Seurassari Open Air Museum.  It is on an island.  It costs to go into the buildings (but the cost is minimal).  Or you can just walk the grounds (which a lot of locals do) for free.

This is the church

Church

Tower

The biggest house on the property - it was enormous inside

This is a group of the oldest houses they moved from the late 1600s

Windmill on the property

We thought this one was funny - this is where you would hide from bears

Another Windmill. This one was large.  It can be spun so the blades turn with the wind.

The huge church we saw in Helsinki that was having the wedding

Inside the National Library of Finland.  This library makes the list of "things to do". It was really beautiful inside.  This is the ceiling

This was the section of the oldest books to explore

In the main part of the libary were 5 floors of books

This is the large square that reminded us of where we lived in Europe.  On either side were the government buildings.

The large church and a statue of Alexander II

The Moomin Shop we visited

My ice tea with dinner.  It came with frozen fruit instead of ice cubes.