At last - a day off!

Well, sort of a day off, in the sense that I did do a bit of work on the train from Tampere to Helsinki this morning, but to be honest, I didn't do that much. So an afternoon off, really. Much needed.

A lot of walking though. First thing, to the office to drop off the bag that stays in Finland. Then to the station. And then, once in Helsinki, across to the market square, having dropped our bags in the left luggage lockers, with a view to getting a ferry to Suomenlinna. I hadn't checked the times in advance, and we managed to just miss one, which meant there was time for salmon soup in Story in the Market Hall before we got the ferry, which was packed with visitors.

Once on the island, we made our way on the less travelled routes, and found a quiet spot on rocks looking back towards the Eira shoreline and basked in the sunshine for an hour or so. Back in the city, we had a couple of errands to run, before winding up in Bryggeri for a couple of beers before we met PM for dinner at a relatively new Italian place on the Esplanade. Excellent pizza.

The final "move" was back to the station to retrieve the bags and get the train to the airport, where we were staying in the airport hotel. By that stage, I'd done 26,000 steps, and my knees were starting to hurt. Well, my right knee.

I took my blip of the Helsinki skyline as we waited for the ferry back. The best of the sunshine had gone by then, but the cloudage was excellent. I've added a few extras - reflections, rocks, that sort of thing. It was an outing that was good for the soul. I love all the highlights on the Helsinki skyline - the Protestant cathedral overlooking Senate Square. A couple of the big ferries in the harbour. Kallio church on the hill over towards the right hand side.