Heather
was invited to speak at a seminar in Finland, so we decided to make a vacation
out of it. She went over a few days before me to do work stuff. She also, based
on her pictures, drank a lot of coffee. She also spent some time with our friends
Carina and Dan. The day I was landing in Helsinki it started snowing. It kept
snowing all the next day as well, so we walked around Helsinki and enjoyed
the snow.
After
a quick diversionary trip to Sweden, we were back to explore a warmer, less
snowy Finland. We took the Ferry out to Suomenlinna. Last time we were here,
it was a crazy blizzard, so the rain made for a nice change of pace. They had
a few Christmas events, including a cannon salute at noon to officially kick
off the Christmas season.
The
next day, Carina had to work, so Dan took us to the town of Fiskars, which
is where the scissor company is from. They have a small museum about the history
of the scissors, as well as many small art galleries and cute shops with locally
made stuff. There is also Scandinavia's first Orvis, which is in a beautifully
restored building.
Carina
managed to get a little time off, so we went to explore the town of Porvoo,
which is another cute little artist type community, which is all decorated
for the holidays. Then it was one more wonderful dinner, a quick nap, and
off to the airport for the flight home.
Thanks for Looking
Jim
