trip report 11-14 September

First I need to acknowledge that I stole the itinery of our Sunday from JohntheFinn -thanks John.

We used Helsinki as our base for attending Sibelius festival concerts in Lahti. We used the festival bus from Helsinki which was brilliant, the concerts were wonderful and concluded on Saturday evening with a hair raising encore of the Finlandia. The concert hall and setting were beautiful, but Lahti itself didn%26#39;t look too great so we were pleazed to stay in Helsinki despite the 90 minute transfers.

We explored the backstreets and market ferry area one morning finishing with a very high cholestoral and reasonably priced (by Helsinki standards) lunch in the market area. Stalls full of berries and mushrooms together with souvenir stands etc. The architecture was really interesting.

On the Sunday we walked to the Church in the Rock, then caught the 24 bus (only every 30 minutes) to the outdoor museum. This was set on a lovely little island full of red squirrels only too happy to eat from your hand.We didn%26#39;t explore the museum but strolled the island and had lunch on the terrace of the most beautiful restaurant/cafe. We were too full to eat the good looking restaurant buffet and chose insted from the cafe.

We caught the bus back to the Sibelius monument. Then bus and tram to the ferry terminal, fortuitously stopping at Senate Square to admire it and the exterior of the cathedral. A short ferry trip took us to Suomelina and we walked the island. Bad timing meant we missed the pub at the end of our exploration and instead we bought beer and peanuts from the local shop which we enjoyed in the sun before the ferry trip back. En route home we stopped to look inside the railway station.Then into the supermarket to buy food for a picnic supper in our hotel room where we collapsed. We had a tiring but lovely day. We used a one day tourist ticket.

Bad news about Helsinki - it%26#39;s high cost, compounded for us Brits by the current pound/euro exchange rate.

Good news - its people are helpful and indulgent over our minimal finnish.

We had three days of glorious sunshine, and spent little time indoors in consequence.

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Thanks for the feedback, and I%26#39;m glad you had a good time here.