The last few days have been blissful. Stephanie and Sally took advantage of the school half term holidays to fly over and spend a week in Helsinki. After spending last Sunday together, I flew North to Oulu for three days for a work event, so they got the chance to discover more of Helsinki on their own; mainly the shops, it seems.
I got back on Wednesday evening and since then we have been a family again for a few days. On Friday, I took a day off and we took the HKL ferry to the Suomenlinna fortress, a 15 minute journey to this UNESCO World Heritage site, the second most visited attraction in Helsinki, after the Linnanmäki amusement park. The photo shows the view of Helsinki from the ferry as we steamed across the harbour.
On Saturday, we took a drive out to Porvoo, a charming old town around 50 kilometres by car from my apartment. We had lunch at Cafe Helmi, including Runeberg cakes, named for a former resident who was Finland's national poet and who apparently enjoyed them for breakfast.
Sunday morning was spent packing, then I took Stephanie and Sally for a drive, to see where I work and then for lunch to Cafe Ursula, a favourite for Sundays. We had a walk down the jetty beforehand, just to work up a thirst for a hot coffee. Here are the girls shivering...
After that, it was back to the apartment to pick up the suitcases and then off to the airport. Not too sad, as I shall be seeing them for the next three weekends, between trips to the Bay area and New York.
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