Finally getting a hang on the names - just in time to leave!

I remember when Riikka stayed with us as an exchange student 24 years ago, she explained that in Finnish every letter is pronounced in every word. And suffixes are used instead of adverbs and adjectives meaning that there are some v-e-r-r-y long names in Finnish. We have struggled with the pronunciations for the almost week we have been here. Today when we turned on Google maps to guide Riikka into the centre of Helsinki, she burst out laughing at the pronunciations that the Google girl was using! She actually chortled!!There is no electricity in the church, and therefore no heating. So while weekly services are still held in the summer months, winter time services are no longer

held in this Church - how soft we have become!! 

And so we turn south for the drive to Helsinki.

We began this morning with the breakfasts to beat all breakfasts. We had slept very well at Riika and Runo's and the boys, supposedly p early on weekends had slept in also. Breakfast was grand - a delicious range of breads and

meats, cheeses, eggs, salad ingredients, juices, tea and coffee and chocolate! Got to have chocolate when the Aussies are visiting!

Today, Runo will stay at home with the boys and Riikka, Donna and I are heading to Helsinki for some girl exploring time. Runo will do some chores around the yard with the help of the boys also want to go fishing in the lake that is literally down a short path from their back garden. I ask whether they ever catch anything

and they say yes, but too small to eat, and they have to throw them back in.

First stop will be the Petäjäveden kirkko, an old timber church that we have been wanting to see. The church itself was built between 1763 and 1765 with the bell tower added in the 1820's. There were no windows in the Church until

1765.
These buildings are the ones that are so hard for us to comprehend in the sense that there is nothing like this anywhere in Australia. The church has been in constant use since the time it was built. The floor boards are, in some places up to 2 feet wide. There is no consistency in anything - joins are mis-matched, the boards are uneven sizes and some are very unstable. The

pews rest on huge logs, planed straight from the surrounding forests. The Church was

actively in use only for about 100 years when it was constructed as a new Church was built nearby.

Entirely constructed of timber, the out rooves and part of the walls are regularly tarred to preserve them. As you walk up through the surrounding farmland, you smell the church as much as see it! In the interior, the builders have left there mark in the way of painted initials high in the otherwise rather plain dome over the apse. The windows are plain, without decoration or ornamentation, but the old glass is very interesting and filled with impurities. The pulpit is one of the more interesting that we have seen - it is carved with a figure holding up the pulpit itself.

There are candle holders set into the timber of the front pews, and another set of timber candle holders in one of the windows - I would be terrified that the building would burn to the ground. The graveyard in the grounds outside and was used until 2009 with more than 9,000 people buried there over the hundreds of years. The more modern gravestones remain, but the oldest ones are lost.

Marveling over, we hit the road again Jack, this time heading for Serlachius Museum Gösta - an art collection housed across two buildings and their grounds.

The manor was completed in 1935 as the mill owner Gösta Serlachius' private residence. The first floor of the building designed by Finnish architect Jarl Eklund has served as a museum since 1945. The entire building was opened as an art museum in 1984. The exhibitions at the Manor showcase the Fine Arts Foundations' own collections and artworks from the Golden Age of Finnish art. There are paintings dating back into the early 18th Century including some well known works - even a Monet.

The contemporary Pavilion was added in 2014 and was the result of a design competition. This part of the complex complements rather than copies the earlier structure and houses contemporary collections and changing exhibitions. It is a very interesting visit that demonstrates that art patronage has been alive and well in Helsinki for a long time. We finish our visit with a light lunch in the gardens.

While we are on the road, Riikka's phone is going crazy with calls coming in. we stop for fuel and she connects with Runo and the boys who have all phoned her. Turns out that our good wishes for the fishing have paid off - not only did we bring the perfect weather, we brought them their big fish! A large fish, species unknown, weighing in between 7-8 kg! Very exciting all round, although Runo is a little daunted at having to deal with it without being able to consult Riikka also. He does OK because by the time Riikka gets to speack with them,it has been cooked and eaten!

On Runo's advice, we are staying at the Albert Hotel which is about 1 km from and on a tram route to the City Centre which is sited around the harbour - think Sydney as the layout is very similar. Riikka is staying with Runo's sister, Taro, who live three blocks from the hotel in inner Helsinki. We ask her advice for somewhere to have dinner and she suggests that we head into the waterfront and have dinner at Kappeli, a Helsinki landmark restaurant.
As we approach it, it warms the view lit up beautifully. There are beautiful artistic stained glass pieces hanging in the windows and we can see chandeliers, LOTS of chandeliers hanging inside. Bling, plenty of bling - right up Donna's alley!

The wait staff are all dressed in black and white and we are seated in front of one of the front windows. Just perfect. We are handed menus and OMG just how in the heck are we going to choose? There are four set menus, and Riikka selected one of these, but Donna and I want to mix and match. Each is listed separately on the menu, so we have to choose a la carte - oh well - the little joys!

Our selections are:
Starter (all three): SUOVAS REINDEER Lightly salted and smoked reindeer, cranberries and truffle cream
Mains: Riikka - BRAISED PIKE-PERCH IN MUSSEL SAUCE Almond potato purée and roasted cauliflower
Donna - SMOKED ATLANTIC SALMON AND CREAMED WILD MUSHROOMS Summer potatoes and fried early season vegetablesMaria - BEEF FILLET PEPPER STEAK AND ALMOND POTATO CROQUETTE Kappeli’s own creamy pepper sauce and tomato compote
Desserts: Riikka - MILK CHOCOLATE GANACHE AND WHITE CHOCOLATE SORBET Dried raspberry cake and raspberries
Donna - MILK ICE CREAM AND FRESH BERRIES Toasted, crunchy meringue
Maria - RHUBARB FRANGIPANE AND RHUBARB SORBET Rhubarb compote

We accompanied it with a Prosecco to start and a bottle of Spanish white and finished with Coffee. Oh, what a night. It was fabulous!

A tram ride back to the hotel and we call it quits for the day after midnight,so I am knackered.

Christmas is coming . . . except where we are, it has arrived

After a great night's sleep, we woke to an overcast day with the promise of 22 degrees.  The Fins are amazed at the weather we have brought with us so late in summer!

There was a sighting of the Northern Lights earlier in the week, but we had not been able to see them before we went to bed, so we had set the alarm for 2:30 am this morning to get up and check again.  I was up at 1:50 am and checked, and Donna got up when the alarm went off, but this was not our time to be treated specially and we did not get to see the lights.  Bugger, maybe next visit.  😞

There are two main attractions in Rovaniemi - the Arktikum that showcases the Arctic environment and development and changing landscape, and the Santa Claus Village.  Both open at 10 am and we need to be away from here by midday.  Gee what a choice!  What to do?  Which one do you think we chose to visit??! Ha ha - hope you all guessed right!

The added bonus of the Santa Village is that we cross the Arctic Circle here again and instead of passing it on a ship, in the night, we got a chance to have one foot in each of the latitude zones!  Special.

The Santa Village is the permanent home of Santa Claus in Lapland, here in Finland.  It is summer now, although drawing closer to Christmas and the elves are busy preparing and wrapping presents and putting them in huge crates that are marked with the type of toys and where on Santa's sleigh that crate needs to be placed.  We visit Santa and tell him all about our grandchildren and how good they have all been this year.  He asks us to remind them that they must continue to be good with Christmas getting

closer.

We could visit the reindeer in their summer paddock up the back of the Village, but it was quite expensive at €40 per person!  Because we had seen reindeer in the wild as we were travelling to North Cape recently, we decided not to see them penned up here.

There are displays of Christmas from countries from all over the world and we are reminded that there are elves living under the floors who can send naughty and nice reports back to Santa at any time.

We can just imagine this place in the winter months - it would be so

special wrapped in a warm blanket of snow.  A few souvenirs bought, Santa's Post Office visited, the Iitala factory outlet visited (no purchases as we would have trouble getting them home).  Coffee and cakes later, we head for the car and our drive back to Riikka and Runo's home in Jyväskylä - 653 kms to the south and a drive of 6 hours and 35 minutes.  We make one stop for fuel en-route and drive in and out of rain, promising Riikka that we are bringing the sunshine back to them.

We finally arrive (slow weekend traffic and intermittent rain slowing) just before 7:30 pm.
Runo has smoked a salmon for us and Riikka prepared the tiniest new potatoes and salad and an amazing creme fraiche and dill sauce.  It was SOOO delicious - forgot to take photos sorry.  Dessert and coffee followed. The boys are happy we are back - dessert again - twice in the week!!

We semi-plan for the weekend.  Riikka is coming with us to Helsinki - I am so excited to be able to spend some girlie time with her and Donna.  We will first visit the timber Petäjävesi Old Church that we had hoped to see the other day, but didn't so that we could get to Jyväskylä at a reasonable time.

Riikka and Runo are visiting Australia next March and loose plans are made for us all to catch up in Sydney.

Its a long way to Rovaniemi

Last night Runo offered to be our chauffeur today for the drive to Rovaniemi.  

Is just a little drive for those of us from Australia - a mere 543.2km!  This way, we get to relax a little during the drive and Donna gets a break from being main photographer and Runo can give us snippets of his knowledge and wisdom en-route.  It is a lovely gesture and greatly appreciated.  

We meet him at their home just before 9 am and drive almost half the length of Finland, stopping for a quick lunch and fuel at a roadstop before arriving at the air-base at Rovaniemi about 4:45 pm - just in time for Runo to get his military flight back to a base near Jyväskylä at 5:30 pm.  He will then get a bus ride home that will take him about an hour!

The drive is on really good roads and we are constantly being teased by the promise of moose sightings - these signs are placed about every 500 m along the road.  Bit of false advertising really, we saw none.  Not one! 

As we travel further north, the crops change as do the forests.  The same crops are harvested, but the yield is smaller, the crops do not grow as high.  The forests also thin with the trees not having the girth or the height of those growing further south.

Runo explains that the only way that these farmers are able to continue farming is with the government subsidies provided to ensure that farming land is still worked.  When you see the size of some of these smallholdings, it is easy to see that none of them can be financially viable.  After a long, dry summer last year where many crops failed, this year has been more productive and the wrapped hay is testament to this.  

This part of Finland has a large timber growing and processing industry with much of it going to paper production and China. We pass quite a number of timber trucks, seeing that the timber logs are significantly smaller than what we are used to seeing at home.  In fact, the way the logs are loaded on the trucks reminds us of the layout of the timber frames you find in Ikea and similar Scandinavian house stores back home!

Finland is the land of the lakes and from time to time, we come lakeside with many of them.  Lots have boats resting on the shoreline, exhausted after a summer of fun-giving.  We also see lots of signs to camping spots along their shores.  Runo's parents have a cabin in Eastern Finland that the family uses from time to time.  Lucky them, although I am told that the mosquitoes can be horrendous!

At last we arrive and drop Runo off at one of the back gates at the airbase, complete with requisite mounted plane, before contacting our hosts for the night and collecting the key to their inner city apartment.  Kikki is very welcoming and friendly and has provided a good selection of tourist information in their modern and tastefully decorated apartment.

We head in to town for a bite to eat only to find that the University here is also having the O week celebrations this week.  I watched two groups for a couple of minutes - one group would sing/chant and then the other group would reply in like.  Boisterous yes, but all good clean fun from what I observed. 

As the crow flies, we are only 50 kms from the Swedish border, but we don't do things the easy way - first we are driving back to Riikka and Runo's and then on to Helsinki for the weekend.

We are off to Santa Claus Village back across the Arctic Circle tomorrow.

But before we go to bed, we are going to have a look skyward - the Northern Lights were seen here two days ago - wouldn't THAT be a bonus!

Finland - the other Green and Gold

If I had to use one word to describe Finland, it would be 'neat'.  Everything is just so, in it's place!

We left our accommodation just before 9 am as the car space is only free until then.  Made good use of the facilities - we each had a separate bedroom, separate bathroom, washed my hair and Donna did clothes washing.  Our hosts had generously left a few boxes of goodies for us, but we limited ourselves to one box of chocolate shortbread biccies (and if truth be known, we probably don't need them either!)  Still, a lovely gesture for visitors to the City.  Autumn is on its way to this part of the world - I had to clear yellowing leaves from the car this morning.  It has been parked in a very shaded street right next to a major park.

There are two places we really want to visit in Turku - the Cathedral and the Castle.  
The Cathedral is closer and has opened at 9 am, so we start there. Turku Cathedral is as old as the ages - that would be the medieval ages.  The cathedral was originally built out of wood in the late 13th century, and was consecrated as the main cathedral of Finland in 1300, the seat of the Catholic Bishop of Turku. It was considerably expanded in the 14th and 15th centuries, mainly using stone as the construction material. The cathedral was badly damaged during the Great Fire of Turku in 1827.

I downloaded a virtual tour of the Cathedral so we could tell what we are looking at - link here.  It is fascinating!  Like many of the Cathedrals and churches of this time, not only is this a place of worship.  It is also somewhere to learn of the social history and customs and in this particular example, some of the military history of Turku.

Absolute highlights included the fact that over 4,500 bodies were entombed under the floor of the Cathedral.  This practice was discontinued in 1784 for reasons of hygiene! There are burial chapels for the wealthy and powerful residents of early Turku dating back to the early 16th century. and a number relate to military leaders of the Thirty Year War in the 1600s.  It also includes the final resting place of Karin Månsdotter, Queen of Sweden who died in 1612.  Her coffin in black marble with a gold crown resting on a gold pillow atop it.

The ironwork grilles are the oldest remaining examples of this artwork in Finland, and quite a bit of the original wall and ceiling frescoes remain.  Now, the Cathedral is Lutheran, and the body of the church is quite austere.

The car needs to be moved by 10:15 am, so after an hour looking through this amazing piece of history, we go back out into the sunshine and walk across the square.  It is a 10 minute trip through Turku to get to our next destination - Turku Castle.  Enroute, we travel alongside the Aura river and see all the former ships that are now restaurants, the many gardens and parks and heaps of old and new sculptures and statues.  Like many cities in this part of the world, the pedestrian and cyclist have right of way and we are forever on the lookout for those who choose to just come out of nowhere!

Turku Castle is amazing - truly an O.M.G. experience.  Set at the end of the land near the Turku Port, and protected on all sides by islands at the mouth of the Aura River, the castle is an imposing edifice that towers above us.  The latest additions are all white-washed and gleam in the early morning sun.  The castle flag flies above the main entrance and in a stiff breeze, we were lucky to get photos of it a full extension.  The downside?  Cobblestones, blasted cobblestones. And no two are the same shape or orientation or even.  Thank goodness I had Donna's are to steady myself.  
Then come the steps up into the castle itself (of course).

We wander into the inner courtyard that bears testament to the medieval time of the castle.  Footings of the earlier buildings can still be clearly seen.  I was particularly taken with the following information - Before becoming a museum in the 19th century, Turku Castle served as a fortification and a stronghold for more than 600 years. The Castle was designed to be as inaccessible as possible.  Even the steps and the passageway into the entry hall of the castle are shallow and very steep - the first step (no guardrail) is almost knee high.  You all know me - I don't do bad steps, so I opt to wait here while Donna explores the inner workings.  She comes back with stories and photos of what is on display.  AND confirms my worst nightmare - narrow, steep, spiral staircases in much of the inside of the castle.

Along with the Cathedral, the castle is one of the oldest buildings still in use and the largest surviving medieval building in Finland. Work on its construction was started in 1280!  A number of mishaps befell the castle over the years - a major fire in 1614 destroyed the original timber part of the castle and in 1941, a Russian incendiary bomb hit the main castle.
Major renovations on the castle commence in 1950 and continue to this day (with the major features completed in 1987).

While Donna explores inside, I observe outside.  Employees arrive in their civilian clothes, disappear into a small timber door opposite the entrance stairway and re-emerge in castle period costumes; a kitchen hand arrives hauling cold boxes, obviously empty, up the stairs and places them in  cart near where I am sitting.  She tells me that the main kitchen is in the castle proper even though the cafe is in the first courtyard - so they have to transport lunches each day!  And just before Donna re-emerged, two plasterers arrived and began working on the crumbling plaster at these stairs - I imagine that they could be guaranteed a lifetime of work in a building such as this!

So, castle done, we set out for Jyväskylä and Riikka and Runo and their family.  This drive of 3.5 hours takes us across half of the breadth of Finland, skirting regional towns and through rural landscapes that include countless lakes.  Today's blog takes its name from the green of the fir and beech forests and the gold of the barley and rye crops that gleam in the sunshine as they are being harvested.  Now that summer is at an end, there is a flurry of activity to bring in the crops.  Couldn't even hazard a guess at the number of harvesters we saw working today.  We got caught on the roads behind three in our travel. 

As we near Jyväskylä we can see an impressive building off to our right and take a detour to find Korpilahden Kirkko. There are two stunning features - the painted clock that will forever say 3 o'clock and its exterior bell tower.  This is not a particularly old church with the date 1827 above its door.  Nothing is open, so we cannot see inside.

We arrive in Jyväskylä about 5:15 pm and book into the Greenstar Hotel for the night.  Modern, slick and clean.  They have arranged an easy-access room and give us preferential treatment to easy parking and access from the carpark!  Then it is a short ten minute drive to Riikka and Runo's home which is just two houses back from Lake Päijänne, one of the largest lakes in Finland at over 200 kms long.

It is almost indescribable how great it is to see them all again.  I can't believe how the boys have grown now 14, 11 and 9 years old.  Riikka's hug was wonderful and Runo greeted us very warmly, saying how he is sorry that Michael has not come this trip.
Riikka has cooked a lovely dinner - chicken with pesto, tomato and bocconcini cheese with rice and veges - how nice it is to have a home-cooked meal!  Dessert was fresh berries and blueberry cream.  The blueberries are tiny but so intensely flavoured - Riikka explains that they are wild from the forest.  Sorry, no photos, we were too busy catching up!

All too soon, the night grows late and time for bed nears - Riikka has work tomorrow and the boys school.  We leave at 8:45 pm after accepting Runo's generous offer of being chauffeur tomorrow on the 6.5 hour drive to Rovaniemi.  We collect him just after 9 am, so these little black ducks had better get to bed!


We will be back to stay a night with Riikka and Runo on Friday night before we all do some exploring and visit Helsinki together on the weekend.

Up, up and away . . . away . . . vroom vroom

It was a day of travel.
We left Kirkenes this morning just as it began to rain.
The Taxi Cab office was in the same building as the hotel and we had been told to just knock on the door when we needed to go to the Airport. There were about 6 drivers all in out of the weather in a smoke filled room. They decided that the youngest driver was the one to take us and told him so.
So we loaded our bags into a fairly new Mercedes station-wagon - we only travel in style. The driver made small talk, found an English music station on the radio (Tina Tina a la 70s) and was rewarded when we left the balance of our NOK with him. He had quoted us 350 NOK, the meter said 305 NOK and he said just to pay 300 NOK. Smile on the dial when he

realised that we gave him 550 NOK and told him that we were leaving Norway. Sometimes it pays to be at the bottom of the ladder!

We arrived at the airport about 9 am so we could be well ahead of the Hurtigruten bus of people.
Doesn't really matter as we have allocated seats. Plane was full and we got on near to last so that people did n't need to be pushing past. Getting out to the plane was interesting in the rain. Like at Hervey Bay, you need to walk out to the plane and climb the stairs. People bunched up and hurried in small groups so that you did not have to wait to long in the (light) rain. It was however quite cool at about 8 degrees. We left a few minutes late and landed at Oslo late. Oslo is a balmy 26 degrees.

At Oslo we thankfully disembarked via the flybridge, and with about 30 minutes only to our next flight, had to hurry from one terminal to the other at the far end - as always!
Our flight from Oslo to Helsinki is leaving from one of the outer parks on the tarmac. We are cram into a bus and are taken to the planeside. Smaller plane, and they are not allowing bigger hand luggage to be carried on - instead, they are stowed under the plane - a few disgruntled people, but honestly, some of them take 'hand luggage' to the extreme. They do not police it half as rigorously as they do at home.

The steps up into this plane are very steep and we wait until the last to get on so that Donna can give me a 'bottom' nudge to help!
This plane is a 2+2 combination so we can sit together without feeling pressured to let others off in a hurry. There are a number of people hanging back to get off so I take the opportunity to go. Trouble was, those stairs were worse going down with the rails not starting until the very edge of the first step.

Helsinki airport is spread out. Again, it is warm when we land 24 degrees (at 5 pm). It takes a bit to find the hire car desks, but when we do Giulia is very helpful and efficient and we are on our way over to find our car about 15 minutes later.
We are driving an Opel Astra stationwagon with 3842 kms only on the clock. Nice to drive and very roomy.

And so we head northeast for Turku. It is 168.3 km and the speed varies from 50 kph in the city to 120 kph on the open motorway. We drove in to the street where our accommodation is right on 8 pm. Can't find the apartment anywhere and although we have phoned the owner who is meeting us with the key, we need to phone again and talk through instructions on where the unit is. Turns out that the street number relates to the block, not the building. Funny how a Lidl supermarket can be a placemarker :)

The apartment is a 3 bedroom, with tiny lounge and reasonable kitchenette (not that we intend using it!) and not one but two bathrooms. It also has a washing machine so we make use of that. There is no parking at the apartment, but street parking is free between 6 pm and 9 am and we found a spot about 100 metres away.

We are going through the bags in the morning and deciding what to donate via Riikka, and what to send home via post - we seriously need to shed some weight and get rid of all the useless winter clothes - hardly needed anything really.

Went for a quick drive to find somewhere to have dinner after a foot reconnaissance didn't come up with anything in the immediate area. End up at the Pinella Bar and Restaurant on the River Aura. Set menu of three courses:
Entree - Gravlax Tartar (1960) with whole grain mustard and dill oil
Main - Parilla Grilled Beef Steak (1940) beef fillet, Cafe de Paris butter and garlic potatoes
Dessert - Ice Cream Cake (1950) sponge cake, Frozen berry

coulis, chocolate icecream topped with torched marshmallow and minute flowers.

The city is filled with new University students tonight, out celebrating 'O' week.  Noisy, boisterous and all having fun.  Lots of groups ranging from 10 - 20 people. And we watch some people trying to manoeuvre a speedboat into a berth on the river without any lights. 

Back at the apartment now tired as! Time for bed.

We visited the Russian today

Last night we spent quite a bit of time finalising transport route for the next week.
We have succumbed to the tyranny of the Norwegian Krone and given up on our plans to drive from here down through Finland. It was going to cost us in excess of $3,000 AUD (20,000 NOK) to hire a car one way between Kirkenes and Helsinki over 5 days. Instead,we will nowfly to Helsinki (ironically, via Olso) and then collect a car there for 6 days for the princely sum of $461 with full insurance - what a difference. Even with the $800 for the two fares added, it still comes in at less than half the cost! 
We arrive in Hesinki about 5:30 pm tomorrow and will drive to Turku (1.5 hours) spend some time looking at their 13th century castle and cathedral before driving 3.5 hours to Jyväskylä to visit Riikka and Runo before heading back across the Arctic Circle into Lapland and the permanent home of Santa Claus on Thursday. Back then to Jyväskylä and off to Helsinki with the family for a day or two. Later plans are yet to be made, but we don't think we will get to Tallinn, our time is starting to run short!

Quieter day today. When we were at North Cape a couple of days ago, I stumbled on some loose rock and did a little jig to stay upright. Last night the ankle was starting to swell and stiffen a bit, so we decided that a quieter day today would be smart.

This morning Donna walked across to the local Joker supermarket and came back with the makings for a couple of simple meals. We are so full from the big meals of the last couple of days, it is nice to just have some snacky stuff. Choc chip croissants and cinnamon scrolls for breakfast, two juices, two sparkling water with apple, two UHT Mocha drinks, two cokes, a pack of 8 biscuits, a pack of rye crackers and cheese slices and a couple of chocolate bars. What do you think that set her back?

477 NOK or $79.50 AUD. Its a wonder anyone can afford to live here!!

We are definitely learning that Kirkenes exists for the fishing industry and perhaps to service the needs of the visiting Hurtigruten ships. One arrives here daily and then leaves for the southbound journey. Passengers come off here and also embark here.
There are two 'international' style hotels - Scandic and Thon and both appear to accommodate guests from / for the ships. The taxi company does a roaring trade to the airport and the bus company does daily tours for Hurtigruten excursions.

Our room is stiflingly hot. It appears that the heater that heats the water for the entire building runs straight through our room. Donna turned it down as far as she could get it, but her temp app on her phone was still registering 32 degrees in the room. Thankfully this afternoon, we got access to a fan and that has cooled it significantly - will make sleeping tonight a little easier.

Around 2 pm we headed out for a walk.Donna still wore her jacket, but I was pleased to just go out in a summer top into the crisp air at around 10 degrees.  Cool and crisp with a light breeze, but not cold.

Found the memorial to the Russians who liberated the town from the Germans in 1944.  The incoming soldiers were welcomed as heroes, never mind that they had bombed the town to oblivion with only 13 original homes left standing, nor that they then burned the ruins.  Most of the townsfolk sheltered in a bomb shelter tunnel Andersgrotto - with 10 babies born there. We found the tunnel, but had missed the 12:30 pm guided tour.

I came back to the hotel while Donna continued down the hill to the waterfront where she saw one of the trawlers unloading some of their catch. A seabird of indeterminate make was waiting for the next trawler, still coming in to arrive.

Tomorrow will be a travel day - we will leave here about 8:30 am to get to the airport before the next shipload is disgorged on to land - we know that about half of them fly back to Helsinki once the ship docks. 

Night all. More tomorrow.