We arrived back in Helsinki about 7 Saturday morning. Ruth and I got up early as we (Well, maybe it was me that convinced her?) wanted to see the sunrise while on the water. Well, we THOUGHT we were going to see a sunrise....the clouds managed to beat it there, so we just spent about 2 hours in the chilly morning mainly getting fresh air!
Hmm, we're thinking "we got up for this"?
And then a wall of fog snuck around the corner of the boat and took us by surprise;
That was the end of our early morning on the boat deck.
It took us a LONG time to get thru customs and we were happy to see Vicki S. waiting for us when we finally got out. She took us on a walking/bus/train tour around some of the city spots,
and Kristal met up with us there too to spend some time with us.
One of our first stops was in a city square to see the "Buddy Bears" project. Since my brother-in-law makes and is involved in similar type of projects like this, it made it even more interesting to me.
These are made from Cement.
An artist from each country was chosen to paint these. The middle one in the photo below represents Canada. Can you see what it is?
USA!
Finland!
And Picasso himself...haha! (Yes, this one was "real")
I often found it difficult to tell much which was the sidewalk & which was the street! :)
And the open air market by the waterfront--everything from flowers to furs, with seafood, fresh produce and crafts thrown in too.
And for my daughter Relyssa.......
"Someone" insisted on this picture.... Yes, I was in good company :)
Do you see how the streetlights are?
People, people! and the elite department store "Stockmann"
Street corner musician
And can you believe it.... pigs on the street too! There were a whole group of them, dancing in and around the crowds of people. They were promoting/advertising for something.
And we're off and hurrying to the train station to catch the train to Kyrkslatt, where Sorenson's live; about a half hour trip from Helsinki. We'll spend the rest of the weekend with them.
Love that first sunrise picture. Awesome.
ReplyDeleteCertainly enjoyable to see another culture and how they do things in other country!
ReplyDeleteso what IS the one from Canada?
ReplyDeleteForgot to come back and answer the question....
ReplyDeleteIt's "Pixels"...The Queen's face, her crown. We didn't know what else, but could make those two things out.
thanks for answering the question about what Canada was! I couldn't see it!
ReplyDeleteI was in a mall in Poland this spring when a bunch of people (not in costume this time) started dancing... was a promo for Lipton iced tea! Fun to watch!