Notes from Helsinki

8pm so that means it's almost bedtime for me, Annie, so it'll be a real relief to many of you if I keep this post a lot shorter! Some random thoughts and memories:

• Steven and I had to wear eye masks when sleeping in Reykjavik b/c we were so close to the Arctic Circle and even after 11pm it was still really light out.  Great for the young bar crowd but not so much for us old folks.  I felt like I was an ageing actress in a B movie and Steven looked light Batman - didn't tell him that though!
• Thought of Natalie's Adam who, at 6'7", would have loved our exit row seats on the flight to R. and then on to Helsinki b/c of the huge amount of legroom.  There had been another couple in the latter flight but they spoke none of the 6 languages needed to sit in the exit row so we volunteered to switch, much to the relief of the flight attendant.
• Got an email y'day from our airbnb host in Tallinn, our next stop, who said he'd already rec'd 2 of our credit cards - way to go Chase!  What great service - phew.  Thinking of you now, Rene!
• Cesare, our airbnb host here in Helsinki, left y'day morning to fly back to Italy to see his family, including I think his wife, for a bit so we have his very small place to ourselves which is a bonus.  He couldn't have been more welcoming and gracious having bought an array of fresh fruit, bread, cheese, yogurt etc just for us.  A sea change compared to our host in R. who rents out a huge number of apartments around the city so it's far more of a business for her than a B &B.  Will be interesting to see how our next and thus last 2 airbnb hosts operate theirs. Glad we gave this a try - thanks Alexander!  Prefer it to a hotel as we have full cooking privileges so have been making lots of Lipton's tea and cooking breakfast and dinners (if grilled cheese constitutes dinner for anyone else but us!).
• Played tourist y'day seeing some of the sights I had found from reading scads of tour books and then literally cut and pasted (the old fashioned way) what I hoped would be the most relevant info including maps from each book on 8x11 sheets of paper and then put in sheet protectors for each city.  Nina, our oldest, was none too impressed with me doing all that when she saw me frantically trying to get that all done when she was home just before we left Denver.  All I can say is that 2 cities in this "system" is working for us, so far at least.
• Got a one day pass good for all the buses and trams and the single metro, aka subway, line - we should have gotten a three day pass which would have been cheaper, my goof!  After doing an abbreviated walking tour, we hopped on a ferry to one of the outlying islands to see Suomenlinna Fortress, also known as Finland's Castle.  It's an UNESCO World Heritage Site.  We kept thinking of our youngest, Zachary, as he would have LOVED clambering all over the Russian made cannons and guns.  He had asked us before we left to take lots of pictures of military "stuff" and we said that would not be a good idea in Russia or China as we didn't want to land up in a Russian gulag or the Chinese equivalent.  Hope these pictures will suffice for you instead, Z!
• Whenever we travel to new cities, albeit in the US, we always make a point of going to the market areas including farmers' markets.  Helsinki has some great ones so we have been in hog heaven here.  Very hard picking and choosing souvenirs to bring home b/c we're so aware of having to carry every add'l ounce from here all the way home at the end of October.  It has got to be very special to pass the weight test, believe me.
• Took a one way almost 4 hour cruise on a 101 year old boat through the Helsinki archipelago to the second oldest Finnish town of Porvoo today.  Met a lovely couple on the boat from Australia formerly from Malaysia so that made the cruise even more enjoyable.   Fun walking around the cobblestone streets and popping in the little stores in Porvoo.  I am so blessed Steven likes window shopping - wonder whether he'll have had his fill come the end of the trip in Battambang and Siem Reap, Cambodia - will keep you posted on that one.  That reminds me of our going out for dinner just before we left at Tom and Nancyanna's and Tom wondered if  Steven and I would still be holding hands come the end of October or ...  Sure hope so, Tom!
• Need to do a load of laundry in Cesare's washer now - I'm sure you're asking why I'm including that useless piece of info? Well, we did a load at Maria's second airbnb in R. the night before we left and it had no dryer, so there we were lugging very damp laundry in a 66 Degrees North (an Icelandic store tote bag (I do love tote bags!) all the way to Cesare's apt.  Sure hope tonight's load will dry before we leave for Tallinn.  Wish I had more of the Chico's fast drying clothes, Suellen.  
• I was asked whether we're using internet cafes - haven't needed to as our netbook computer is working fine here - not at all in Iceland so we were very lucky being able to use Grayline's which was just minutes away from our apt there.

Love to all and thanks for your emails - please keep them or posts coming when you can.

The fortress y'day

Upenski (i.e Orthodox) Cathedral

Lutheran Cathedral

Porvoo