Helsinki

Yet another beautiful morning and another leisurely start. We all met up at 11 am to transfer to the port for our ferry ride to Suomenlinna Island which is fortress built by Sweden at the entrance to Helsinki Harbour to protect Sweden fron an attack by Russia. St Petersburg is only 300 kilometres from Helsinki and at the time was the capital of Russia. The fort was built in the 18th century. As recently as the 1980s you catch a bus to the island in winter as the sea was frozen solid. Global warming has apparently put paid to that. We had a beautiful lunch at a restaurant on the island and then had a guided walk of the island to try and correct the excesses of lunch.
We caught the ferry back to Helsinki late afternoon and walked around the oldest market in the city before enjoying a drink outside a beautiful old restaurant. It was then back to the hotel where Gaye and I joined Brian and Russell for a beer and chips to finish the dayLeggi altro