Helsinki

Today we docked on Helsinki, but after the previous few days we didn't rush to get up and out. We took the shuttle bus into the centre in time to meet our friend Mark who lives there. It was raining again so we quickly jumped on a tram.

We headed to the ferry port and hopped on a boat over to the island of Suomenlinna which was an old sea fortress for Helsinki. This was really lovely-a bit like a Finnush Portmeirion.

We went to the museum which taught us all about Finland's history, which was really interesting. To be fair, Mark himself knew a lot about the history and was able to give us more info. We saw a Finnish U-boat and took a walk around the battlements, which was very windy. We even had a pizza in a restaurant built into the ramparts.

We headed back to the main city and had a wander to Senate Square and the famous Stockmans department store-a big Fenwicks! Helsinki is really clean and very vibrant and us now on our list of places to return to.

We said goodbye to Mark and headed back to the ship. Victoria missed the departure though as she was catching up on some sleep!

Good job she did because the wind is currently force 8 and we're rolling around a lot. May not get much sleep later! Dinner may be interesting!

-- Post From My iPhone