The Penultimate Adventure

September 14th 2017 continued

We arrived into Helsinki Railway Station which was only a 5 minute walk from our hotel. It was too early to check in but we left our luggage and headed out to find the hop-on hop-off sightseeing bus.

We were still hungry after our croissant breakfast on the train and dare I say it, McDonalds was right across from the hotel. We were tired and hungry so that's my excuse! A chicken nugget meal later and I was ready for our penultimate adventure.

We walked up the hill from our hotel and found Senate Square and the start of the bus tour. We decided on a combination ticket which also included a boat tour to cruise the Helsinki archipelago. The highlights of the bus tour were the Flea Market and the Temppeliaukio Church (or Rock Church). The church is built directly into solid rock where natural light enters through the skylight surrounding the centre copper dome.



We decided to walk from the church to Market Square in order to get the last cruise of the day. The flea market is also here so we bought some fruit from one of the market stalls; apparently the berries are super sweet because of the long hours of sunlight during the summer months. A mixed punnet was 6 euros (I miss Russian prices already!) but the fruit was delicious!



After scoffing it down, we got on the cruise boat to sail around the islands for an hour and a half. We managed about 10 minutes up top before it started raining. It was also freezing so we went inside and had a coffee to warm up. Unfortunately, the weather was terrible but I can imagine it is beautiful in summer. We passed through the Degerö canal, around the island with Korkeasaari zoo on it and also passed the impressive fleet of icebreakers in one of the harbours. There were hundreds of islands with houses, hotels, boats and even seaplanes moored beside them.



After the cruise, we decided to go back to the hotel to check in. We were given a room on the 7th floor so we thought we would have a decent view. As we walked towards the room, we passed all the superior double rooms and were a bit disappointed; turns out we were given a key to a junior suite. I was convinced they had made a mistake and even called them to check; the receptionist had a little chuckle down the phone and told me she had upgraded us!

Happy Days!





We settled into our room before deciding that we needed dinner. Our hotel actually has a really good restaurant attached to it, and as it was raining, we took the easy option. The restaurant is called Frans & Amélie. I had the house speciality which was breaded perch with new potatoes, baby carrots and hollandaise sauce; it was really good. Finland kind of reminds me of Iceland; food is expensive but the quality is fantastic.



We did consider going for a few drinks but the weather is pretty bad; we ended up going to a supermarket for some wine instead and when you've got a very comfortable suite to make the most of for one night, why not!


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