It was more than a year ago that I started searching for business class award seats from Europe to the U.S. Because I flew to London with my family one week earlier, Bill and I made separate airline reservations going to Europe, but traveled together from London, Gloucester, Helsinki, and Tallinn. I had erroneously transferred… Read More Gourmet dining at 38,000 feet
Today was supposed to be focused on the Soviet years in Estonia. We did visit Rummu Quarry and Prison, an abandoned Soviet-era labor camp which closed in 2012. Our tour manager asked if anyone felt uncomfortable to stay behind on the bus, but really, this was not a Dachau or Auschwitz— people were not tortured… Read More Beautiful Keila
Today we started the day by walking through the forests of the Lahemaa National Park in northern Estonia. At first we saw birch trees which gradually changed to pine trees. We walked along the Viru Bog Nature Trail, where a wooden boardwalk led through a unique bog ecosystem surrounded by pine forests and mossy wetlands. … Read More A walk in the woods
It was travel day, meaning that our bags had to be packed and set outside our hotel rooms by 7:30 a.m. so that the hotel porters could pick them up. Today the ferry we rode to Tallinn was more like a cruise ship, with multiple decks and restaurants. Operated by Tallink Silja, the ship had… Read More A day of contrasts
It’s Day 5 of Gate 1’s “9-Day Taste of Finland and Estonia” tour and we took the option of traveling west of Helsinki to historic Turku, Finland’s oldest city and former capital. Each day we are assigned new seats on the bus, and today I sat next to a Taiwanese woman from Torrance, California who… Read More Turku and Naantali
Today we visited Porvoo, located on the Gulf of Finland. According to our itinerary, we were going to “admire the views of the coastline and the archipelago along the way, strolling through the Old Town with its cobblestone streets, colorful wooden houses, and artisan boutiques.” With every step, I winced as I walked over the… Read More Killer cobblestones
We thought that when we got to Finland, where euros are the currency, that we would go to an ATM to get some cash. However we have been in Finland now for five days and have yet to see an ATM. Believe me, we have been looking. According to wise.com: In recent years, cash has… Read More Plastic, not paper
Our concert tonight was in the Musiikkitalo, also known as the Helsinki Music Centre and it was a program for choir and organ. My attention was drawn to the unusual sculpture of pipes outside of the case, and when Bill Potter asked me whether those were working pipes, I thought yes, they were. Here’s what… Read More The Helsinki Music Centre (Musiikkitalo) organ
It’s only a coincidence that we arrived in Finland for the Helsinki Organ Summer, a broad music festival featuring nearly 100 organ concerts hosted across central Helsinki churches, the Kallio district, and Suomenlinna throughout the summer season. We were trying to find someplace cool in Europe to visit after the Three Choirs Festival and chose… Read More Helsinki Organ Summer
Talk to anyone about visiting Finland, and undoubtedly someone will say that the Temppeliaukio Church (part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland) is not to be missed. It is one of Finland’s most distinctive landmarks. Completed in 1969 and designed by Finnish architects Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen, the church is carved directly into solid… Read More Helsinki’s underground rock church