Day 2 in Helsinki

First to explain the picture of the pink dude I posted earlier. It is at the waterfront in the central city and was part of an art project. Guess ther weren't any restrictions. Appropriately, his name is Bad, Bad Boy. The church is a Greek Ortodox church where when we visited we observed a baptism in progress. 

Last night we were asleep by 10 as we were drained. Of course I woke after 6 hours, then every hour after. I got up at 4:30 to work on trying to upload some pics and finally solved the problem, which required me to download the the blogger ap to the iPad. I couldn't figure out how to add comments; therefore the lack of description. Hopefully today's will be described in some fashion.irs

Helsinki has turned out to be a wonderful stop on our tour. Very clean and beautiful. Great architecture, some Russian. We had a 3 hour tour in the morning. The Olympic stadium from 1952's event is still being used. Today Sweden and Finland had a track meet.

In the afternoon, we were on our own and Nan and I explored a bit on our own before we attended a concert in the crypt of a church. Turned out to be a violinist playing a piece he developed to a slideshow of pics of Helsinki in all seasons. Very we'll done and he handed out a free CD of the music.

For dinner we found a brewpub with craft beer and great food. After dinner we went to a Lutheran church which was near where a midnight foot race was planned.  The racers were gathering and a lot of entertainment was going on. Interesting display.

Tomorrow we fly across the Article Circle to Ivalo, where we spend 2 nights with the Sami population, the only indigenous population. We are to have a dinner with them to include reindeer.

One fact we learned at the open market in the city center was that fresh vegetables were in abundance and cheap because Finland was not selling to Russia.

On the city tour, one of our stops was near an area where guys were in small kayaks playing kayak polo, where they can use their hands and paddle to pass and shoot the ball. Kayaks were vey small and thin, requiring super balance.

Below, a Lutheran church built in the 60's after blasting out rock. Second pic is a view of outdoor marker. Third pic of kayak polo. Fourth is pic of the entrance to race gathering place. Fifth is the supply of banannas for the runners.