Hi All,
We entered into the narrow port entrance passing the Soumenlinna Fortress before getting a super view of the old town and in particular the Uspensky Orthodox Cathedral. There was a dusting of snow on most buildings and it felt like we had finally entered another country having spent so long in europe.
It took a bit of an effort to lug our gear from the ship to the train station with the patches of ice and snow. We stored our packs in lockers (4 Euro each) at the train station before heading out.
We only had about 3hrs in Helsinki after walking from the ship and needed to get some food and find Vanessa a new beanie before heading to Rovaniemi and certainy before sightseeing. The first took about an hour or so and it turned out that it was too risky to catch the sight seeing tram (3T or 3B) for a view of the city beofore the train left just leaving enough time for me to purchase a coule of beanies for Vanessa (one for myself) and another set of gloves for each of us. Pretty expensive but I worry about the effect of the cold on us and the availability of supplies in Russia.
The train trip was relatively uneventful with little snow to note before darkness closed in on us at about 3pm.
We arrived late at Rovaniemi train station after 9.5hrs of travel.
Bye,
David and Vanessa
