This weekend, my wife and daughters have been with me here in Helsinki, the first time that all four of us have been here together. We were also joined by our eldest daughter's boyfriend, on his first visit to Finland too, so we had lots to celebrate.On Friday evening, we walked out to Kappeli for drinks before dinner at Farouge, where we had their excellent Lebanese meza.
Rotten weather on Saturday meant we had a rather more relaxed day than I had planned. We wandered around the city centre, shopping and then lunched at Norisushi in the kauppahalli. Back home for a rest before heading out for a superb Italian meal at Gastone, stopping only for Mojitos at Kappeli again!.
This morning, we packed the car and headed to Seurasaari to feed the squirrels (and ducks, birds and a few thousand pigeons). The picture shows the younger ones feeding the last squirrel we found, who was burying one peanut at a time for later. I hope he can find them without a GPS! After the encounter with Finnish wildlife, we went for the Reggae brunch at Nolla, before heading to Linnanmaki for an afternoon of amusement park rides, including two goes on the wooden rollercoaster, which I love.
By then, it was time to head to the airport for my visitors to fly home. Now I am back, on the third load of laundry, thinking that even with the washing machine and tumble dryer on, the apartment seems rather quiet again. At least I will see my wife and youngest in three weeks time in Sweden, when we celebrate Ludde's graduation from gymnasiet. And, excitingly, we have booked a kesämökki (summer cottage) in Finland for a week in the summer. I will look forward to reporting on that later in the year!
