Wednesday July 1, 2015 - Helsinki, Finland

We got up at 7 am.  The days are very long as there is lots of light and not much darkness.  At 11 pm the sun sets but it is twilight most of the night.  By 3 am it is getting really light again so we are making use of our black out curtains in the cabin, but I can still see the light around the edge.

We had a light breakfast and then went to meet our walking tour at 8:20.  We loaded on a bus with our guide Maria.  She passed out headsets and ear plugs for the commentary.  She gave an excellent tour. 

We went to government squares, by churches, by the theatre, shopping district, art museum, new concert hall, parks, markets, and the waterfront.  Half way through we stopped at a local restaurant for coffee and a blueberry cake with cream.  It was good, and the coffee strong.

Central Square in Helsinki, Finland

Central Square

Central Square

Central Square

The Central Park

Central Park near the marketplace

Train Station

Interesting architecture in the Opera House

Old Church in Helsinki, Finland

Church "in the Rock" - built into a rock with a glass ceiling

We walked about 5 miles or 8 km through Helsinki at a pretty fast pace.  We ended up at a monument to a famous Finnish composer, Sebelius, who wrote the musical piece Finlandia.  Maria played it for us and it was beautiful.  It was an enjoyable walk.  Rather than stay in town, we took the bus back to the ship and had lunch up on the deck, but it was quite chilly.  It is partly sunny today and about 63 degrees F, but the sun keeps going in and out and the winds pick up from time to time.  But so far we are having great luck with the weather.

Art dedicated to Sebelius, the composer of Finlandia

Sebelius

View of the pipes from beneath the sculpture

The Sebelius monument

Beautiful structure - the most visited site in Helsinki, Finland

 

 

We relaxed in the room and at 3 pm Tim went to run a 5K with Heather (but she didn’t show up).  I finished my book and started another.

At 5 pm we met with Lynn, the future tour arranger to look at possible tours in the future.  Her prices were more than Nancy’s!!!!  We’ll stick with Nancy unless my analysis changes that.

We went to Horizons for a glass of wine.  We went back to the cabin and arranged our Indian dinner in the cabin tonight with Rupesh, our butler, at 7:30.  Morris had listened to every dish that Tim had mentioned and he had it all.  What a great experience to have them do that for us.

At 6 pm we went to the returning guests’ reception in the theatre.  Tim had lots of caviar and champagne.  We returned to our cabin and awaited our Indian dinner.  Rupesh arrived right after 7:30 and he had goan fish curry, mutton rogan josh, palek paneer, and naan bread.  Rupesh brought us a bottle of pinot noir.  It was perfect.  It was so nice of Jose (aka Morris) to arrange that for us.  Just what we wanted.

We went to the show with the dancers – Le Cirque d’Amour – the same show that we had seen last time but still enjoyable with the new dancers.  We went to Observations and had a drink with Sandy and Gavin.  The sun set at 11 pm but it was still light out when we headed to bed about midnight.