A near-perfect day for exploring Helsinki. After checking in for tomorrow morning's flight, we struck off for the Market Square Harbor, about a 20 minute walk. Bought a waterbus ticket for the 15 minute ride across the harbor to Soumenlinna sea fortress, joining a large group of school children. This is a complex of four islands joined by bridges. Along with the fortress ruins, there are a number of restaurants, museums, shops, etc, along with private homes f...

Whew - out from behind the Iron Curtain! We bid our protector, Dalija, a fond farewell today, and immediately realized how much we depended on her. Six Yanks on their own in Russia. Odysseys had arranged for a van to take us to the train station for the trip to Helsinki. The driver dropped us at the wrong entrance, however, so there was a bit of scrambling with the help of the local transit cops who seemed to have seen this before. The very comfortable high ...