Last Day in Helsinki

When we opened the blinds in the morning, we were still gliding along a smooth blue sea, but with an empty horizon – where have all the islands gone?  There were soon some low rocky outcrops but we were more interested in checking out the breakfast buffet.  As always, this was very plentiful, with lots of choices from cereals to salads and heaps of bread choices.  

An old Fort at the harbour entrance

As we were drawing into the terminal, we zinked down to our bikes and eventually got a crew member to open the store room and loaded up.  We led the motor bikes out into the sunshine – in Helsinki!  Yes at last, the sun does shine in Helsinki.

We rode into the centre and found the old food hall, so screeched to a halt for a look in there.  Once we got past the fishy bits, it was full of very tasty looking food – but we were on our way home and you can’t bring food into Australia.  We bought some fruit tho’ to eat for lunch. 

Farewell MS Serenade

Vanha Kauppahalli - Old market hall

Yummy stuff in the food hall

The market was next – stalls along the harbour selling the usual market foods, but also local crafts of very tasteful souvenirs.  Dang it – I have already bought all the souvenirs I need, but maybe I could just find something else…..  

Contrasts in Helsinki

The Uspenski Cathedral (Russian Orthodox) loomed above the markets, its gold onion-domes glistening and contrasting beautifully with the deep blue sky.  We found a street around the back, instead of bumping bikes up a series of stairs, which took us to the back door.  We joined the crowds of other tourists to go into this rather extravagant cathedral.  Inside the hushed interior, gold was the flavour – gold icons, gold paint outlining geometric patterns all over the walls and ceiling, extensive gold painted alter pieces as well as the massive brass chandeliers adding to the golden flavour.  But it was also very commercial – priests were standing behind a counter selling trinkets and charms as well as candles.  But a fascinating place to visit.  

Uspenski cathedral

All gold and glitter

Massive chandeliers

Gold Icons

Getting Gary back on course

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

slurp!

The Coffee Shop

Karina set Gary Garmin running again, so that we could track back to the bike shop. But on our way down the hill and along the waterfront, we caught a whiff of real coffee, so we screeched to a halt and went in.  It all looked proper, smelt good and while we were waiting, I sat down and read the Visitors Book and apparently other people thought so too.  And when the order arrived it was all true!!!  The best coffee since we left Australia!!  Mmm mmmm…..

But back onto the cobblestones again.  We rode along a bike path, but that disappeared so we continued along the footpath.  A cranky old woman (again) told us something in firm Finnish – I think she was telling us to get off the footpath, but there’s no way we were going to get down on the cobblestones with cars and trams, so on we went.  

Helsinki Lutheran Cathedral

I love a seagull on top of a serious statue!

Gary took us right up to the bike shop – www.mountainbikeshop.fi – and we went in to see if there were boxes for us.  After a uneasy moment or two, the guy eventually found two that would be just right, so we made a time to come back to collect them in a couple of hours.  In the meantime, we went for a bit of pedal around, bought some tape to seal the boxes and found an amusement park, but didn’t go in.  

 

School Holidays!

Serious stuff now....

Can bag handlers read?

Facebooking again!

We decided to pack up in the park just up from the bike shop, so Karina went down to collect the boxes while I started unpacking panniers.  It took us a good 2 hours to get them all broken down and into the boxes, paying close attention to wiping all dirt off our bikes and shoes. The bike shop boys called a taxi for us and soon we were zooming out to the airport with plenty of time to spare. 

We were ‘assisted’ with our check-in and advised that our bike boxes are classed as ‘sports equipment’ and thus would cost us $100 each.   Well, what can you do, but pay up… 

We then had a few hours to wait, so we plugged in and did some blogging.

Farewell Scandinavia – it’s been a wonderful trip, lots of beautiful scenery, plenty of fun times on our bikes and great catching up with family.

Thanks for following along with us on our tour through Finland and Sweden.  We have had a fabulous time and have enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Day 25: Catching the ferry to Helsinki

follow the pink line

We had to get everything else back into our panniers and to load our bikes onto the back of the Suzi.  No worries there, we have done that several times now! The weather wasn’t very good riding weather – cool and wet again – so we were thankful to be sitting inside the Suzuki, zipping along the E18.  It’s around to 200km to Stockholm and we did take one detour into a service station to top up our sugar levels.

Soon we were unloaded in the car park near the ferry terminal.  This is where Matias and I launched our adventures to the Baltic Sea in 2010, so it was quite familiar.  We hugged Agnete & Anders goodbye and waved them off on their way back to normality.

waiting for the ferry in Stockholm

Karina and I then lined up with the bikies waiting to be loaded onto the Silja line ferry – ie cruise ship – MS Serenade.  Soon we were riding into the bowels of the ferry and this time we were allowed to store our bikes in a locked store room.  So we only took up to our cabin the things we needed overnight.

waiting to board

Our cabin was very comfortable – twin beds, tiny en suite – and a large square window, not the usual port hole. 

Tenth Level - Cabin 1012

 We went up to the upper deck and strolled around nursing a plastic cup of cider.  We stayed up there as the ferry left the terminal at 5pm, gliding thru the still waters of the Stockholm Archipelago. There is hardly any feeling of motion, except things slide past quickly.  There's no feeling of being on the water. The very large black-backed gulls flew past at eye level, tempting me to take their photos, but its always the same – so hard to focus on such a contrasting moving target!

black backed sea gull cruising by!

After we got fully chilled we went down into the duty free shops to have a look at what was on offer – yep!  Toblerone and lots of booze.  I bought Michael a set of Swedish snaps – flavoured aquavit that has to be skåll-ed at midsummer, xmas or whenever there are hardy guests. 

So back to our cabins to catch some shut eye so that we are bright-eyed for our arrival in Helsinki at 9am.  I managed to take some photos of the sun going down into the sea  at 9:43pm, but we still continued to glide past outlying islands.

Lighthouse

Viking ferry ahead

Skol!

sunset soon

9:43pm

Day 24: Tidying up

Örebro Slott with Cycle de Vie

Today was our last full day in Örebro, so Karina and I went for a pedal out to Karlslund.  We rode into the centre to take some photos of Karina in front of the Slott (castle) in her Cycle de Vie t-shirt for the shop in Townsville.  

Svartan

 We then followed Svartan (The Black river) out of town – riding against the flow so to speak – and also following the signposts, so we couldn’t go wrong.

Karlslund Manor

Karlslund is a lovely manor house on the outskirts of Örebro with extensive gardens, especially an kitchen garden, plus a range of artist’s studios.  But we were there too early for anything to be open.   The manor house is a restaurant and conference centre and a popular venue for weddings.  There is also a horse riding school and stables, so there is very much a horsey, British feel about the place.  I didn't get a very good photo there so check out - http://www.orebro.se/5997.html - if you would like to know more. 

One of the small cottages within the grounds

On our way home, we diverted into the bakery I couldn’t find before.  This bakery specialises in sourdough breads of all different flavours, plus a wide range of yummy pastries, so we spent some money there!

Karina with Zingo

We went out to say goodbye to Ciri & Kalle and were treated again – this time with the yummiest gingerbread-spiced cake! 

Ciri's Gingerbread-spiced cake

Karina is planning on baking cup cakes with this recipe – wish I was in Townsville.  Marianne & Elin brought little Zingo over to say goodbye also.  Yes, there’s no getting away from it, our holiday is drawing to an end.

Flying banner

The Queen looking for the cook's boy!

 Agnete dropped us off at the Slott at 2pm so that we could go on the English tour of the castle.  This tour was decidedly shorter than the Swedish tour I did last time, but was enlivened by a couple of drama students, one acting as the queen and the other one as the Chancellor.  The queen was pretty believable – ditzy and concerned with how much food to get for the banquet!!  The Slott is the home of the region’s governor and is not open for general roaming around.  However it is used by the locals as a conference venue and also for weddings – they were preparing things for the one that day.  The guide did give a good account of some of the history, but I was a bit was disappointed about the brevity of it.  

This castle is quite different the the fortress at Savonlinna, Finland.  Although originally built in a strategic position to keep those Danes out of Sweden, it was more a castle for royalty to stay when visiting this region, whilst in Savonlinna one could almost hear swords clashing and see Russian or Swedish bodies being tossed from the parapets (whilst the Finns watched on in the neighbouring villages!)

within the courtyard of the Slott

thick walls

boosting your Vitamin D

Karina and I then strolled back through Stadsparken, Wådköping and back past the gorilla to the apartment. 

Reflections in Svartan

Towards Stadsparken

sculpture

Daisy Daisy give me your answer do!

There's a gorilla in there!

Later we loaded the bikes onto Suzi and drove over to the garage to give them a thorough clean, so there would be no hold up going through Australian customs.  After blasting them with a high pressure hose, soaping and scrubbing and rinsing and drying with the air compressor they looked like totally new bikes ready for another adventure.

So back to the apartment to pack and cram our extra things into postal boxes to send back the easy way.   Anna and Curtis came over for a quick goodbye also.  It’s always a bit sad and depressing at this end of a holiday…

Day 23: Stockholm

Anders had to go back to work today, so he was able to drop us off at the bus depot in time to catch the 8am bus to Stockholm.  It was a packed affair, but we got good seats and it was an uneventful trip into the capital.

Town Hall, Stockholm

The weather was so kind to us – the sun was shining warmly but not too hot so our jackets were quickly rolled up and stuffed to the bottom of our bags.  We got our bearings and headed off to the market square and looked for the famous Food Hall.  There wasn’t any clear signs where it might be, so we asked a couple of people, but they thought we were looking for the market. 

Eventually we found a young girl who knew the way – yeah, just on the other side of the square, so we went downstairs and had a bit of a look around.

The Square, Stockholm

It was smaller than I had been lead to believe, but none-the-less there was some pretty good looking tucker there – if one was preparing a Swedish gourmet meal – heaps of different fish and meats as well as vegies, breads and a wide variety of other foods and sweets.  There was an espresso machine there, so we lined up for coffee and chatted to the guy there, but there was nowhere to sit, so we bought a couple of pastries and headed outside to the sunshine.  We were disappointed with our coffee, pretty weak affairs.

Aaah - what to buy??!!

The farmer's market out in the square was full of yummy fresh fruits and heaps of kantarella, supposedly from Sweden.  Tho' this info was met with scepticism by Anders, who believed they probably came from the eastern states of Europe.

Kantarella as well as berries and stone fruits

Just missed getting close to seeing the palace guards marching over for their turn of duty

Options for transport in Stockholm

So next on the list was the Nordisk Museet where there was a weaving exhibition.  I promised Karina I wouldn’t spend the rest of the day there – but we did spend plenty of time to look at the pieces celebrating the history of weaving in Sweden.  Contemporary weavers had woven pieces that were inspired by items from the expansive collection of woven textiles within the museum.  It was great to see another piece of Elisabet Jansson’s work – a rya rug from her earlier research.

Weaving Exhibition

By then it was lunch time and the museum café didn’t appeal, so we checked out the eateries by the bridge, but they didn’t have anything vego, so we went to the kiosk and I had chips and Karina had fish ‘n chips – top notch tucker!!

They're a bit like bikes, shall we go for a paddle? 

The Cafe

Note the big bowls of hot chocolate - mmmmmmmmmm!!!

We then strolled back over the river and went to Gamla Stan – which is the old part of Stockholm.  It consists of a warren of narrow streets lined with old buildings not much more than 3 or 4 floors high.  The Palace is there, so we cruised past the guards catching one in a photographic pose.  We found some nice empty streets but also got caught up in the stream of tourists in the souvenir section where we also spent some money.  And I found the best hot chocolate place again, so we had cake as well!

On duty outside a Palace gate

Strolling through the narrow streets in Gamla Stan

Soon the day had gone and we found our way back to a rather crowded bus heading back to Örebro – loaded with exhausted shoppers, grandparents and sugared up kids.