finland

In August 2000 Mandy surprised me by booking us a short holiday in the Finnish city of Helsinki.We started our Journey from the port of Stockholm, Sweden, where we joined the ferry “Silja Serenade”. We sailed from Stockholm in the early evening and passed between the many Islands that lye off shore, which looked stunning as the sun went down.
We saw a guy on board who was dressed as the Captain who looked slightly the worse for drink, we were happy to find out that he was in fancy dress and he was a prospective bridegroom enjoying his Stag weekend.

Our Hotel in Helsinki was The Grand Marina which is situated near to the waterfront and a good base for exploring the city. There is a wonderful harbour side market near the Hotel which sells freshly cooked sea food and some lovely Finnish souvenirs.

One of the unusual ways of seeing the City is by taking a trip of an Old London Bus, it’s a bit of a “boneshaker” but the 2 hour tour gives you a good flavour of Helsinki and the accompanying guide was very helpful and informative.
One of the stops is at the Temppeliaukio Church, a very impressive building which has been made out of soild rock with a Copper roof, as we left a wedding was just about to begin, we were told that people come from all over the world to get married there.

In the evening we took a tram to the local river to watch the Chinese Dragon boat Racing, had a drink in a beer garden and walked back to the harbour to watch an Impressive fireworks display.