We are in the thick of it now! We are currently in the middle of touring 4 countries via 5 cities in 5 days. Today was the second stop on our Baltic Sea cruise. We arrived in Helsinki, Finland sometime in the night and ventured out, on our own, at about 8am. We were one of the few that didn’t book a tour. Instead we planned ahead with some destinations that we wanted to see, and even signed up to use the city bikes that could be found all around the city centre. DawnO even found a sauna that was going to be open on a Sunday that she really wanted to go to in the afternoon.
We found our bikes at a nearby station, and with a bit of guesswork (the electronics were in Finnish), we were off.
Our first stops took us to the Kauppatori (Market Square), the nearby church, and then a local coffee shop for a special cinnamon bun with cardamom flavour called a ‘pulla’ for DawnO. If you are familiar with the Redcliff bakery cinnamon buns, they pale in comparison to a pulla according to DawnO. Shots fired.
Next up was the cathedral around the corner from the coffee shop. Since it was Sunday, they were holding a service so they weren’t allowing annoying tourists inside. Fair enough.
Then it was back on the bikes to our sauna appointment, with a few stops to take in some more sites along the way.
When we arrived at our sauna we realized that it opened an hour later than they originally told us. Unfortunately that timing made it tight to make our return to the cruise boat so we had to abandon the dream.
We decided to slowly make our way back to the cruise boat and we came upon another market. There was a food stall making some delicious looking pancake-type things that cheered DawnO right up!
We found a spot where we could take in the views of Helsinki, including a Ferris wheel. If you look closely, you can see the compartment that is actually a sauna.
All-in-all we enjoyed our short stay in the Finnish capital. We will definitely return one day and find our way to a sauna. Next up, Estonia!
