Easter in Helsinki ...

So, we had a blissful few days over the Easter weekend. Good Friday and Easter Monday are both public holidays in Finland, as they are in the UK, so my wife and daughters flew over on the Friday and arrived in time to get settled in the apartment before venturing out for dinner at Ateljé Finne. Stephanie tried the Licorice Creme Brulée.

After dinner, we walked through the very cold wind to Esplanadi and stopped for a reviving drink at Kappeli, a favourite spot. Following that, we walked home and saw the illuminated cathedral, as mentioned in the last post.

Saturday, as the only day that the shops would be open, meant some serious retail therapy for my girls. For dinner we visited Sundmans Krog, right on the South Harbour close to the market hall. The food was excellent and we walked home happily full, just missing the end of the Easter performance in Senatoori square in front of the cathedral.

On Sunday, we walked to the tram stop, in just enough snow to cause trouble for those of us with little experience of wintry conditions. We caught the 3T tram to Kapteeninkatu to take lunch at Sea Horse, a well known restaurant offering traditional Finnish fare. Their Salmon Soup was excellent, followed by a selection of traditional entrées. Somehow, Ellie's vegetarian cabbage rolls were filled with meat and Stephanie's Pike-Perch fillets had a few too many bones, but Sally's meatballs and my Scandinavian hash were excellent.

Returning to the apartment, we had our traditional Easter egg hunt with a twist - having no garden meant that we did this indoors, but Easter would not have been the same for any of us without it. We then tried a few Finnish traditions, eating mämmi, an oven roasted, malted barley porridge. It tasted a little like liquidized malt bread and is an acquired taste. We also tried pasha, a dessert of Russian origin. But rather than me try to write it all up, I recommend the article from the Helsinki Times which goes into much more detail. We did also try the Mignon eggs from Fazer, possibly the most palatable treat of the day!

On Monday we had a walk, a coffee and then I cooked Salmon for lunch, before we finished watching series 6 of Scrubs (probably our favourite TV show) and then drove to the airport for the flight home.

It was a lovely weekend. We reflected that back in the UK, we would not have spent so much time just being together as a family. So much has changed for us all in the last twelve months that it was good to take the chance to think about what we have to be thankful for and enjoy each other's company.