Friday, July 25, 2008

Space invaders ...

I'm having a great few days on holiday in Helsinki. My wife, youngest daughter and her friend are with me and we have been enjoying some of the city's leisure time attractions.

Yesterday we visited Linnanmäki amusement park. Unusually, the park is not owned by a commercial enterprise but by the Children's Day Foundation, which collects funds for child welfare work. The park was good value for money - we got onto all the rides we wanted with less than 10 minutes queueing for any of them. A highlight was the wooden roller coaster, originally completed in 1951. It was the first time I had ridden a wooden coaster and the smell of wood preservative added to the experience. The ride features a driver on each car, who appears to be responsible for engaging the cable which pulls the cars to the top of each slope and then braking them again if needed.

Today has been a shopping day; rather inevitable with three girls. Stephanie managed to buy two pairs of shoes in the first shop, so was happy.

Tomorrow we are off to Tallin, capital city of Estonia and 100 minutes away by high speed ferry, so I expect to have more to report in a couple of days.

Just one thing is concerning me. My shower is usually home to one bar of soap and one bottle of shampoo. At the moment, it has 9 visiting lotions and potions and two objects which resemble ping pong balls wrapped in net curtains. I am not asking what these alien items all are, just making sure I don't tread on any of them as I perform my ablutions. A small price to pay for such enjoyable company!

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