..head over heels in fact.

After 2 days in Russia, we arrived in another beatiful city on the Baltic journey we are on. We arrived by passing through a few photo-worthy archipeligos, and it just got better once we hit the ground.

Our tour took us to some incredible city sights, and also a few rural or recreational areas. Just outside the city limits, there is an island that has collected historic houses from around Finalnd, and brought them there as a living museum of architecture. We kept remarking at how much it looks like the cottage country in Ontario - around lake superior. Finland is the land of thousands of lakes, in fact, hundreds of thousands of lakes!

A highlight of the day was visting the iconic, Rock Church. A Lutheran church built into the rock it stands on. See some photos in our gallery, it was a very unique experience. Unlike any church we've ever been in. No gold. Just rock!

For those of you wondering about local delicacies - Finland boasts the biggest coffee drinkers in the world (on avg. 6 cups per day), so we had some of that, along with a fresh-out-of-the-stone-oven cinnamon roll.

After that, we went back into the city, and immediately found the shopping districts. We have a nose for that. Finally able to drop a little bit of cash (to make it respectable!) buying some shoes, boots, clothing, even a few souvenirs and local berries at the farmers market by the harbour.

WE've posted some pictures of our day. It was wonderful. We have included this as a "returnable" stop on our bucket list. Helsinki was a surprise, but you can see by the pictures, we aren't over-selling. It is a truly spectacular place.

Thanks for the comments and notes from home, we hope you are enjoying reading about our travels thus far.

Tomorrow, the home of Ikea and Mats Sundin: Stockholm, Sweden.

Love,

Jude and Chris