Finland Day 3

 Today we rented a car and went outside of Helsinki for part of the day.  On Finley's wish list was the Moomin Museum.  If you are not familiar with Moomin - it is quite popular in Finland.  It was a book series from the 1940s that became a cartoon and then a TV show.  Finley's friends from Switzerland had introducted it to her and she has read a few of the books and watched the show.  When she found out there was a museum she had to go.  It actually was a really cute museum and we had a nice time checking it out.  It is far out of Helsinki, though - took us 2 hours to get to it.

After the museum, we stopped at a Handicraft market, and had lunch before heading back to Helsinki.  We went straight to the airport after that because we were catching a flight to Svalbard (Norway) in the evening.

Models in the museum

Area where we had lunch.  Took a picture becase the sign was Finlay

The little handicraft bizaare we stopped to admire

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