17/8 Helsinki Finland

 

Friday 17^th Helsinki Finland           

We did Gaby’s weird morning quiz all by ourselves then took to Helsinki. It was quite a walk to town but it was cool and flat and very pleasant.

We walked along the seas edge and through parks until we reached the old city area.  The main features were the market area, Senate Square and we walked along to the rail station where a group of people were dining way up in the air suspended by a crane.  Hmmm. 

Lovely large statue

Can you read it?  Automatic ticket machine - for parking.

Inside the old market building

Selling produce off tbe back of the boats

High dining?

Senate square complete with busload and busload of tourists

The side entrance, much quieter

The Amanda fountain

We hooked up with the Big M where we were able to skype with Steph and Amanda to sort out some bills and see 2 of the grandchildren. We walked briskly back to the ship.  We really didn’t have a long enough stop in this city to enjoy it to its full but it was good to be out there absorbing the ambience.

We turned up for a quick game of shuffleboard and put up our best show yet before the “fun film trivia”. Luckily, we opted to join an American family because the questions were quite devilish and we had no idea. The 20ish daughters were very good and we ended up with 15 – we took the prize signatures but felt as inadequate as when we sat and watched Hannah scoop the “finish the lyrics” contest singlehanded.

The ‘win a cruise” bingo was next and we decided to stay on for that. One of my cards was 2 numbers short of a win but the 7 day Caribbean cruise went to 2 young girls across the room.

Dinner was good –  we drooled through the first 2 courses in anticipation of the Chocolate Extravaganza buffet afterwards. It was sort of ok but they produced a lot of chocolatey stuff when what we were lusting for was CHOCOLATE.

They wheeled Cripton the magician out again for another series of disappearing tricks. We had seen huge packing cases of his equipment in the gym but it must be collapsed because each illusion involved very large apparatus. We were sitting right round to one side upstairs, which gave us the advantage of not being dazzled by the lights. From there we could spot a couple of the secrets and J was so entranced that she went back for the second show while I was pounding away in the gym.