The motoring into Helsinki was really pretty. We arrived early in the morning and it was gray and dingy. We had decided prior to our arrival, to do a bike tour of the city so we could see the outskirts and all the green areas. Our route consisted of basically going all around the outskirts of the city, down into the harbor and back to the boat (only about 10 miles). The rain held off until the very end…thank goodness! After the bike riding we went into town again and walked around. They were having a market down near the port, they had lots of fish, reindeer hides and food stuffs. We bought some cherries and wandered around aimlessly. It was a nice visit but I don’t think it was as exciting as St. Petersburg and we were a little burnt out. From what we could see of the outskirts it was much nicer probably much better to hike and see the country from that aspect. It was sparkingly clean, expensive and looked like lots of other newish cities. It shares a border with Russia but has never been an East Bloc country, which was quite evident. It is also mainly Lutheran so even the churches were on the boring side.
