Géraldine and I were a little shocked when we found we would be making the early morning flight in a propeller plane. Nothing wrong with propeller planes, but in this age of jets you cannot imagine a plane carrying 100+ people being of this kind. I fell immediately asleep and only woke up when we were getting ready to start our descent, which gave me a chance to look over a landscape full of small lakes and green forest clusters.
What started as a runny nose in Germany has now developed into a full strength cold, with coughing and lethargy to boot. I got some medication at the pharmacy in the Stockholm airport, but it is that "bio" stuff that doesn't have the punch of synthetic drugs.
We rented a car at the airport and headed for downtown Helsinki right away, parked in an underground garage, and went around to look for the City Information office to get some suggestions on what to see and do. We looked from the distance into the magnificent white cathedral of Helsinki, which sits in a hill and can be reached through a colossal staircase of 200 steps. It reminded me of Sacré-Coeur in Paris. The cathedral was closed for renovations, but according to the young lady at the information desk it is nicer to see from the outside than from the inside.
We then headed for the port, and in the way passed several rows of street vendors offering all sorts of delicious food, to go or to eat in their sitting areas. I think this is a weekend tradition among the Finns, because the place was packed. We saw two other plazas taken by a Thai Food Festival and an Italian Food Festival, respectively, where lots of folks were sitting down to the serious task of getting lunch.
Our steps took us to the Central Library, the pride and joy of Helsinki. This modern building is immense and has three stories devoted to providing a space for reading and for the creative arts. The second floor includes computer facilities and all sorts of printers to create posters, design plans, and 3-D prints. It also has recording studios, music practice studios, study rooms, conference rooms, and everything is for free to library members. Not a member? No problem, just move to Helsinki and you can become one. The third room is the book collection, which is spacious and bright, and includes many corners for readers of all ages to curl around a good book. It also has an amazing view of the city, a cafeteria, and an open terrace where you can enjoy the view, the breeze, and the sun. We made the mistake of sitting on a couple of comfortable chairs and it was so lovely and pleasant that I immediately fell asleep!
After my impromptu nap we went back and recovered our car (parking is so expensive here), and went for a drive to locate the ferry terminal we will be using in a couple of days to take the ferry to Tallinn, Estonia. We found out that we will be leaving from the West terminal, which has a good parking garage, but will be coming back to the East terminal, 5 km away. Rats! That means we will have to take a cab to get back to the parking lot we let the car at. Reminds me of Paris, where you may arrive at the Gare du Nord and have to cross the city to transfer to the Gare de Lyon to continue your trip.
By now my cold was reaching alarming proportions, so
Géraldine decided to drive me to the apartment I had booked for the night to
get into bed and try to get better. She has to pick her son Lucas at the
airport at midnight, so she decided to book another room for themselves both to
be close to the airport and to let me suffer in peace. After she left I walked
5 minutes to the local supermarket, walked down the corridors (always a
pleasant adventure) and got some pasta and herring in a mustard sauce for
dinner. Finland uses euros as its currency, and I had some left in my wallet
from the start of my trip, so the transaction went smoothly. Home at last I had
dinner and promptly went into a catatonic sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment