I arrived in Helsinki late in the evening yesterday (Wednesday) and was warmly advised by information at the airport that I needed bus 615 and then tram 4 to Tove Jansson Park station in order to get me to my hotel apartment. Bus.. check, tram …check .. this all was going too smoothly.  Unfortunately what was not mentioned at the information desk was that the tram number 4 goes in two directions and as sod’s law would have it I went the wrong way.  I got to the end of the line, literally, and spoke with the driver (who happily spoke English) and she said I needed to stay on the tram and we will go all the way back the other way.  All the signs are in Finnish, so I did not feel too embarrassed.

What was more embarrassing was I was not able to get into my hotel apartment.  At gone 8 at night there is no reception because this is a apartment, not a normal hotel.  After fretting and worrying, and trying all sorts of ways with the door entry code to work my way in I eventually did, and then got instructions to get me to my own apartment B212.   Hallelujah.

Today (Thursday) I had a travelers worst nightmare – I deleted my photographs before I had downloaded them.  Having taken a photo early afternoon I wasn’t quite happy with it, and I went to delete it, and accidentally pressed “delete all”. Fortunately I know from past experience (not myself gladly) .. that this can be rectified, and if you purchase some software you can get them all recovered.  Given that I had traversed Helsinki all day the thought of losing all those photos did not go down well.  So $25 lighter and ArtPlus had gladly restored my Helsinki photos, and all was well with the world again.

I started with the impressive Helsinki Cathedral..

 

And then headed for the Olympic Stadium, known as Helsingin Olympiastadion in Finland.  The Olympics were here in Helsinki in 1952, the Summer Olympics were originally planned to be in Helsinki in 1940, but they were cancelled due to the little matter of World War II. Helsinki is the northern most city in which the Olympics have been held, and next to the Olympic Stadium there is a tower at 238.5 feet, and for the price of 3 euros I headed up there to get these shots of Helsinki…

Having spent the last 5 days in walking boots navigating snow and ice it was great to be able to put on some shoes today. Helsinki is on the back end of their latest snow, and exploring the city was do-able with caution in shoes today.  My feet thanked me for it.  Helsinki is a grower, after a non-auspicious start I have certainly warmed to the place and like it a great deal.

Uspenski Cathedral and a Helsinki setting sun finish off the photos for the day .. lovingly restored to my collection thanks to those folks at Art Plus, thank goodness.

I am off tomorrow at 11.30am (Friday) to Estonia and heading over to Tallinn via VIking Cruise Line on a trip that takes two and a half hours, and departs from just down the road from my hotel ~ that is jolly decent of them to have the ferry terminal so close.