Helsinki Finland

Hi, it's Stan again.  I've been  having so much fun it's hard to stop and write!

We left Russia yesterday after two days of wonderful sightseeing and woke up today as we entered the Helsinki harbour.  Did you know that St. Petersburg is at the latitude of Anchorage Alaska?  In the summer in this part of the world there is very little dark time at night.  they call it the land of the Midnight Sun.  Sunrise and set times for today are 3:35 and 10:35 but the sky stays light for a long time.  Another fact I learned:  St. Petersburg gets only 34 days of sun in the year...we had two of them while we were there!  The temperature is creeping up finally and tomorrow's high should be 21 C. in Sweden. 

We are now also gaining time.  In Russia we were 9  hours ahead of home, Finland 8 hours and as a Sweden will be 7.   

Right now we are at sea on the way to Sweden.  There was a beautiful sunset tonight (it's midnight but still a little light) and several ships were to be seen around us.  We have suddenly sailed into thick fog and I can hear all the ships blowing their foghorns.  It's kind of spooky.  We went our separate ways today and I stayed with Pat and Sig.  We walked off the ship looking for a tourist bus, didn't find one and started walking with a couple from Manchester England, Ann and Bob.  They had been there before and had an idea of what they wanted to see.  The men led off with the maps and we followed.  The market was  very good...mostly high quality goods made by craftsmen.  they had reindeer pelts which were very thick and soft.  Sig talked Pat into buying herself earrings and necklace in sterling silver with green stones.  We saw beautiful linens, knits and fur hats.  Today was a celebration of Helsinki being the capital of Finland for 200 years.  There were many children at city hall and they had lots of singing and games and even dancing.  We saw three churches today.  One had 43 very steep steps all across the front and it was quite a climb but the best was the Rock Church built by blasting a big hole in a rocky hill.  The inside is all bedrock walls with glass around the top.  We heard a piano recital there.   Next we walked to the Sibelius Park named for the famous Finnish composer.  There is a huge monument built to honour him.  It is made up of many stainless steel tubes which somewhat resemble organ pipes and apparently they hum when the wind blows across them. 

Our route back to the ship took us through the very vibrant and beautiful downtown.  We were back in time for afternoon tea tired but happy.  Sig says we walked at least 10 km. today.  Did I tell you that Pat is buying a little flag in every port?  We now have 7 with 3 left to get..  Well, I must go to bed and get some rest for Sweden!

Regards,

Stanley Lambchop

PS:  It is now Wed.  AM.  We arose at 4 AM to watch the long channel approach to Stockholm.  The fog was still very thick so back to bed and now at 7 AM we can't see anything yet.  We expect to arrive in Stockholm at 9 AM so we are off to breakfast.