It was very nice to set a later alarm and wander down to a good buffet breakfast.
Our plans for the day were to see the main sites of Helsinki in the old city and there are not a wealth of sites so we knew we could take it a little easier than the last few full on days.
It is actually much colder here as we are on the coast so the wind is chilled by the thick sea ice. Although there was incredibly thick snow in Ylläsjärvi, we weren’t that worried about falling as normally it is quite a soft landing. In Helsinki most of the paths in the city centre are cleared but there is a lot of black ice elsewhere which is lethal... no slip ups for either of us today though.
We walked past the Market building which is closed on Sundays and followed the line of the sea. It is amazing to see the sea as solid thick ice, some apparently up to half a meter thick. We saw the harbour icebreaker ships at work keeping the main shipping channels open.
We viewed the outside heated swimming pool next to the sea and also the iced up plunge pool but as we had not brought our bathing kit we decided not to go for a dip! Instead we continued along the coast to the Viking Ferries terminal. We are planning a trip to Tallinn in Estonia tomorrow and we were able to buy tickets for only €31 (for two!) return so all we need to do tomorrow is check in.
We teetered our way our over the ice towards around the city stopping at the Russian Orthodox Church which looks like it should be in Russia and via the street full of Art Nouveau buildings we arrived back at the lido cafe and had to have hot chocolates and a Finnish bun with cream and raspberries to give us some energy for the afternoon. Colin bought me one of the wooden cups similar to what we had been given by Hannu at the reindeer farm. Apparently they have to be given as gifts or it is bad luck.
With a little assistance from the lady at the tourist information we managed to buy tram tickets from a parking ticket machine and then caught the number 4 tram to the Olympic Park. Unfortunately it was closed for renovations but we did see the tower where the flame had been lit back in 1952... I was surprised that it was actually the summer Olympics as I had assumed it was the winter.
At this point we were tiring and getting quite stiff from the snowmobile trek a couple of days earlier. We took a number 10 tram back to close to where the hotel is and blagged a jug of milk so we could make a mug of tea in our room.
Another nice traditional meal in another part of town but about twice as expensive as last night. No slips again for either of us!
