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Monday, August 26, 2013

Cousin Jen Day 6 Helsinki, Finland


Hello all,

I got a little backed up with the blog because we've been on back to back excursions, but will try to catch-up.

Saturday we were in Helsinki. This day has been our best so far. The weather was 70, sunny and beautiful. We had a great tour guide, Violet was her name. She was really on the ball and a genuinely warm person.

We started the excursion with a tour of Porvoo, the 2nd oldest town in Finland. Very quaint and charming, sort of like Cold Spring Harbor with a European flair and more shops.

Next stop was at a manor home in the countryside for lunch. It was not what you would expect from a traditional manor home, this was more like a farm home to me. The venue we ate at looked like a barn on the outside and a wine cellar on the inside. I have photos to share when I'm back.

Then we went into the city center of Helsinki and visited the markets and Rock Church.

I was pleasantly surprised by Helsinki. You never really hear all that much about Helsinki and it doesn't attract as much attention as the other Scandinavian capitals so my expectations were low, but this one surprised me. Beautiful scenery, nice people and a mix of all types of architecture.

We got back to the ship and went to the Now & Forever show the ship was presenting. It was short vignettes of Broadway shows. It was well done and who doesn't love Mamma Mia and the Abba music!
 
Then we went to the Colony Club to play extreme trivia and drink White Russians. It consisted of four rounds - general trivia, Catch Phrase, Name that Tune and World Explorer (identify photos of monuments around the world). We didn't win, but we held our own.  I was no help to Ellen with Catch Phrase but I made up for it in the World Explorer round.

Overall a great day....more tomorrow on our adventure to Moscow.

Jen

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