July 24 Flying home

This is what I ate on the plane (Tuck had the blueberry):

We boarded most of our flights via stairs this whole trip. 

Greenland!!

July 21 Helsinki

Rock church. Day in Soumenlinna Sea Fortress. 

In the Rock Church. 

Even the curling was a beautiful copper disk. 

We got pretty good at the tram and bus system. Everything was announced in Finnish, Swedish and English. 

Soumenlinna is a 5 island historic Sea Fortress just a few km off Helsinki Harbour. Built in 1709's by the Swedes and taken by the Russians in the 1800's and basically given to the Finns when they declared independence in 1917. The fortress was always on the losing side, hasn't actually seen much action. In fact more men died building it than defending it. Used as a war camp in 1940's after Finnish civil war. UNESCO heritage and still used for their naval academy. (Which has a second rate football team, according to our guide. He was on the superior Army football team.)

Artillery museum on Soumenlinna Island. 

K and I declined the chance to fill our brains with artillery facts and had a coffe and pastry instead! Apple strudel with warm custard, yum!

At Kings Gate. The special entrance for the King of Swedrn when he visited but kept in good order for the Pecosolidos!

July 20 back to Helsinki

Handicraft museum in morning. Just barely checked out in time from omena hotel! Train ride back to Helsinki. Got lost finding Hostel Aura. Playground. Pizza and curry. 

July 19

Boat ride to Vepsa Island. 

July 13 fly to Helsinki

July 18 Turku

Grocery store breakfast. Got to the tourist info booth when it opened and I wish Helsinki has an easy to find one. This lady was so helpful in planning our two days. We headed over to the big Cathedral which was built 1280 and consecrated Catholic in 1300. After the reformation it changed to Lutheran. It had a small museum upstairs. The kids lit candles for a little boy who had died back home. Since I always light candles for my grandmothers in churches I visit, I chose to light one for my grandfather who was Luthern. Seemed appropriate! St Katherine lays in rest here. She was briefly a Swedish queen and she's the only royalty buried in all of Finland!  She has a beautiful sarcophagus and stained glass window. There was an original bible from 1492. Plus full sized coats of armor. Quick picnic lunch on the lawn by the cathedral.

Next museum was a combo modern art and a recently dug archeological find. They uncovered rows of medieval streets and all that remained was the basement level of many, many houses. Very well preserved and curated, with an excellent free guided tour!

Final stop of the day was Turku Castle, originally built in the late 1200's. Exceptionally cool parts included a dining room with 50' long table (pass the salt please!), an exhibit on the dungeon, and an amazing courtyard surrounded by a bailey (outer defensive wall).

Dinner was street-vendor hamburgers (for the kids) and curry (for the "adults") followed by a trip to a local playground we found (because they just hadn't done enough that day! 😀).

What a fun day!

Alter of the cathedral 

Paintings on the wall

This is the actual medieval well. They had some doll houses representing the they things would have looked in 1500

Here's the model on the town and behind it the actual cobbled street that would have been between the rows of houses. 

Even a chapel was found which was very mysterious. There was no record of this chapel and it was fairly low in the ground, almost hidden. 

July 17 Helsinki to Turku

(Dictated to Beth by family)

Slept late. Checked out of citikoti by 10. Walked to central station. Kids took Dad on tram to see city. Mom bought tickets for Turku. We all walked down to Matkey Square for lunch of meatballs and potatoes. Mom and Caleb tried fried smelt samples (small whole fish, bones were no problem!) Walked past cathedral on the and Senate Square on the way back. Senate Sqaure commemorates the Finnish independence in 1917. Train to Turku. We sat on the top deck. We all vegged out with screens. Checked into OmenaHotel. It has no staff, everything is automatic. Walked about a mile over Aura River to look for dinner and found a nice Spanish sit down restaurant. Our waiter was like Uncle John. He took time to teach Caleb the difference between real and synthetic wine corks!  Olives, herbed bread sticks and stteak tartar with horseradish appetizers. Katie and Adam got adventurous and order chicken dishes off the adult menu. Adam's has cherry sauce and Katie's was with garlic. Dessert was ice cream treats walking back. We noticed these are very popular all over Finland. The cheap pre-packaged ice cream that would be second fiddle here in the USA. The 3rd pic is us in the train splitting the most enormous raspberry meringue I have ever seen. We got it from market Sqaure. 

July 16 Helsinki day 4

Attempting breakfast but closed. So we were going to walk around until it opened but we found an outdoor flea market and a covered market with stalls, some cafes were open. Katie and Caleb could have stayed all day looking and picking though tables of used stuff. Katie found a beautiful wooden letter opener and a brain on a keychain for her friend, Marlise. Caleb found a messenger style army bag from Athens Finnish arm and I talked her down from 10€ to 7.30€, which was the last of our cash! Coffee and kulla (hearty cinnamon rolls) and danishes for breakfast. There wasn't a direct team route to the Natural History Museum so we walked and (as the kids are getting used to) we got lost. Still, 30 minute walk instead of 10. I used to have such a great sense of direction!  The museum was great except for its limited English. This was a highlight for Adam. We took the tram to Market Square for a late lunch. This is a different market than the morning. We got fast Finnish food. Moose meatballs, potatoes,lingonberry sauce and beer for Mom. 

July 14 Helsinki day 2

Sunny day

Washing mashine annoyance

Tuck at conference all day

Walked awesome bike/walk path to city center

Coffee and pastries

Day passes, frustrating line

Team ride

Lunch at random Greek/Italian. No English, nice person

Fun candy, keep kids going. 

Back on tram paid for WC again at City Central back on team to playground. 

July 15 Helsinki day 3

Rainy day.  Laundry in Europe is no fun. We thought our machine was a washer/dryer combo. Nope. Wet clothes hanging everywhere!

We had to get new tram passes and the wait was longer.  But we found a mega candy store. If it's in gummy form, it's here!

We went to an aquarium called Sea Life using the tram which we are getting pretty good at. 

 We got claustrophobic waiting to watch the shark feeding in an under water tunnel. The tunnel was very cool but small. We had better luck at the electric eel feeding. Better view. The eel tried to shock it's food before eating and the electricity was displaying above the tank and with speakers. The sound was loud!  We all jumped.  After Sea Life we explored a small amusement park and they tried to win toys throwing basketballs and darts. Nobody won and some of us were a little sad. Gift shop souvenirs helped. Adam got a blank journal to record things like Charles Darwin, Katie got a water filled squishy toy and Caled got a sting ray stuffy. The last picture is Adam pointing out mud skippers, very "Darwin".

July 12 second day in London

Our second day in London was fantastic!  We started by seeking out the famous "full breakfast" and it was great!  Ok, only Tuck ate it but we all found yummy stuff. Tuck Including bacon roll for me and "jacket potato" for Katie. (Baked potato w ham and cheese) off to Wesminster on the underground where we popped out at the foot of Big Ben. I was properly awed! We wondered around Parliment Squre, Trafalger Sqaure and Charing Cross. Crossed over and back on the Footbridge ove the Themes. Of course it wouldn't be a trip here without getting rained on! We did what the locals do and ducked into a cafe for sweets and cappachino. Twice. It was a soggy day!  We went through two great museums, Churchill's Bunker and Horse Gurads Museum. 

The Bunker was where Churchill and his war cabinet holed up for a few years during the blitz. Tiny rooms, chamber pots, lots of top secret phone lines. The most secret phone (to the USA) was in a room labeled PM's lavatory!  The best souvenir was Katie's pen in the form of a big, fat cigar. I can imagine her pulling it out in middle school!

The Horse Guards have many names, Life Guards, Blue and Royals and I'm not sure which is correct. But they are the Queens personal regimen for some protection but mostly ceremony. They do a fancy ending at 4 every day and the crowds were very small. We has great views of the 20 minute ceremony. Then we visited the museum for  a bit. Caleb and Katie loved dressing like soldiers!  There was a plexiglass divider to watch the workings of the actual stable and see the horses that just worked all day get a rub down.   

We missed the chance to get into Westminster Abby for a religious service. After a thorough look at St Pauls, we skipped the tour here.  Also, the kids were a little thrown by the fact that those old churches use their floor for burial grounds! But we checked out the outside marveling at the gargoyles and stained glass. We did spend a bit of time in St Margarets right next to it. It was a small chapel( still bigger than our church!) that was built around the same time. 

Cab back to Chinatown for dumplings (for Katie and Caleb) and a fantastic local pub for fish and chips, scotch egg and cheese plate plus the best ale I've ever had, London Pale Ale. Sweets from a Chinese bakery (?) and walked back to the hostel. 

I'll add pics later. 

First day of vacation!!

Today we woke up on the plane after a tuff night and had sandwiches for breakfast . Next we got of the plane and took a train,subway, and walked to get to our hostel. Then we had a late luch and went to the Brittish museum were we saw mummies and lots of statues. After that an early dinner and dungeons and dragons until bedtime at 9. 

                                     -Katie