Helsinki

We had great flights over and arrived soon after noon yesterday but boy, were we tired! We got checked into the hotel, had a group meeting,went across the street to a grocery store and food court and got us something to eat. Then we crashed! When I say we crashed, we were both so soundly asleep that when we woke up at 9:30 and it was daylight, we both thought we had overslept and it was 9:30 AM...nope. It was 9:30 PM and we forgot how long the days are this far north! To our joy, we had hours yet to sleep, which we did!

We felt like new people this morning after the good rest and we headed off to the city tour this morning.  Helsinki is a clean, nice city.  We are in the best location and get to one huge huge shopping complex in the basement of our hotel.  There are 36 of us on the pre-trip and it is a very congenial group.  We did the city tour and they dropped us off down at the harbor area, if we wanted to stay.  So we got off and went to a big market where we got a cheese and ham pastry and went and got on the ferry over to the UNESCO World Heritage site on a nearby island-a fortress-Suomenlinna.  I used my little google translation of "I'm allergic to garlic and onion" at the market to be sure that the pastry was ok for me to eat. The lady smiled and shook her head that it was fine. We enjoyed the ferry ride and just had a great time wandering around the site. The air is so clean here and it was cool, not cold.  We were bundled up but by the time we had walked awhile, I was taking off layers.  It was just pleasant being out and seeing the daffodils and little blue flowers that were blooming around. We also saw tulips, though some are about a week away from opening, some are open. The bushed and all are putting on their leaves.  There are still some piles of snow around in shady spots but spring is obviously coming.

We wandered around and enjoyed the island and took the ferry back to the mainland.  We got the T3 tram back to the hotel-easy easy.  We could have easily walked it as it was not far.  We then went down the elevator of the hotel and went to the big shopping mall that could be accessed that way.  We wandered around some but mainly went to the grocery store and got some snacks and came back to our room. 
I will post photos after our dinner tonight.  We have a group meal with salmon being the main course and if you know me, you know I am looking forward to that!