Sat, 09 Aug 2003

author Tim	location Helsinki, Finland
posted 22:56 EEST 10/8/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Finland ( all photos )

First wander around town ( 8 photos )
The look around town went quite well - more detail in tomorrow's update, but suffice to say we got ourselves oriented, took some interesting photos of the sunset over the old city buildings and generally learnt how things worked.
Of interest specifically were the "onion-bulb building", the Uspensky Cathedral, so nick-named due to the 13 bulbs which adorn the roof representing Christ and the disciples. We just thought it looked cool, especially reflecting the sunset.
After a wander along the docks (and an ice cream, just as the wind picked up), we headed generally for somewhere to spend a couple of hours before returning home. We found this to the north of the city at Storyville - a jazz venue with expensive beer but nice surroundings. The band only started as we were about to leave, so we didn't stay around.
On our way there we walked past perhaps fifty people carrying trombones. I thought that perhaps one of the most horrible-sounding orchestras ever was in town, but it turns out that it was the Finnish Trombone and Tuba convention. Very strange.
Nothing much else to do for budget-conscious people such as ourselves, so we headed back for the night.

author Tim	location Helsinki, Finland
posted 19:21 EEST	section Europe2002/Europe/Finland ( all photos )

South to Helsinki ( 8 photos )
We awoke to make the most of the showers which seem to be included in the rather hefty caravan park fees in Finland (no free-camping allowed here), have some breakfast than see if we could convince Rosie to get moving.
She seems to dislike some of the fuel we are putting in her - works quite a bit better on the more expensive 98 octane stuff than the usual 95. Also a few other small problems developing, but nothing bad enough to slow us down. We intend to stop for a few days perhaps in Hamburg while we put her through a full service, quite a bit overdue.
So, Liz took the driver's seat first as we pushed directly for Helsinki, stopping only for fuel just before running out (phew), coffee and things like that.
We eventually made it to Helsinki ring-road where we followed our noses towards the only caravan park here, Rastila Camping. It's quite large and fairly soul-less, but serves it purpose and the metro/train station is 50m out the door.
An interesting side note is that even though we have driven so far south now (similar distance as one corner of Great Britain to the other since North Cape), we are only back at the same latitude as the Orkney Islands, above the top of Scotland!
We intend to go into town tonight for a look around, and over the next couple of days explore both the city and also nearby Tallinn, capital of Estonia an 80km ferry ride south.

(customised)