This time a trip is to Svalbard and the Baltics.
We fly to Helsinki then on to Svalbard, a Norwegian island between Norway and Greenland in the Arctic where we join a Quark Expedition ship to explore…
….. the area. The main attraction is the wildlife. We hope to see lots of polar bears, walruses, reindeer, whales and seals plus lots of seabirds including of course (our favourite) puffins, and, maybe with a lot of luck some arctic foxes and narwhals.
The flight over went very well including our first flight ever with Finnair - cocoon type seats up front..
…and plenty of food…
…and great visuals approaching Finland from the external cameras
We arrived in Helsinki at the ungodly hour of 5 am - in full daylight of course. We took the train into the city and dropped our bags at Hotel Finn downtown…
..and after coffees and cinnamon rolls (a popular snack food
in Finland) we headed off for a walking tour of the central part of the city. We passed an alpaca store on the way to
the meeting point and were particularly taken by the stylised alpaca on the storefront
We met our guide in Senate Square in front of the Lutheran Cathedral
Another nice square
Our group
Russian style Uspenski cathedral with presidential guard
The Kauppatori waterfront area
Allas outdoor sauna. Apparently sauna is a huge deal in Finland with an estimated 3.5 million of them in the country of 5.5 million people - and that’s more saunas than cars!
Along the waterfront
One of the food stalls along the waterfront. Salmon soup is everywhere and note here the moose dumplings
The Finnish theatre
The esplanade - designed originally to be a firebreak in the city as fires had been a common occurrence
Interestingly Finland has two official languages Finnish and Swedish (about half the population speaks Swedish) so all signs including street signs have to be in both languages - bearing no relation to one another as this example shows. Also historically a lot of people could read so city blocks were identified by images - this area was animals and this block identified by a unicorn. They have kept these for historical interest
The impressive main railway station
A Finnish speciality for light lunch - a Karelian pie. Pastry with a cooked rice/milk filling and egg on top. Sort of a Finnish scrambled egg on toast
After lunch we made a quick visit to the amazing Helsinki library. Fitted out with not only books but musical instruments for use, craft and sewing centres, meeting places, recording rooms, 3D and vinyl printers lounging areas on artificial hills. The whole of the place was packed with people - a library on steroids.
After a few hours rest we headed out for dinner at Zetor (tractor) a traditional Finnish food place
Pyttipana - actually pretty tasty
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