July 2: Helsinki

After our experience in St. Petersburg, we are the first off the boat and take a shuttle bus to the Helsinki city center. The harbor is fairly small and opens to a broad avenue. We walk along taking in the sights and stop at McDonalds to use the restroom (our only stop at a Mickey Ds on the whole trip!) The Finnish greeting is "hi-hi." We enjoy the mix of old and new architecture and watch a flock of Barnacle Geese with their chicks. We have a different day planned as we meet Mateo our Italian guide who is going to take us kayaking through a small part of the Helsinki archipelago. We enjoy a great time kayaking stopping for lunch, toasting our efforts with a small glass of Sea Buckthorn (the next wonder berry with super antioxidants but tastes horrible) and then returning to town by van. He drops us off at the Rock Church, a very interesting chapel carved out of rock with an interesting copper roof. We do a bit of shopping, getting a Russian nesting doll (the ones in Russia were very expensive), a juniper trivet for hot dishes, and Kurt gets his currency of course. We take the #14 city bus back to the port. For dinner and our last night on board we eat at the Polo Grill and enjoy a delightful conversation with a couple from Australia. Back in our room we pack up, leave our bags outside our door and regrettably spend our last night on board.