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Another new
country in our adventures. We decided to go on a cruise ship excursion out into
the countryside. Visiting Helsinki on a Sunday seemed less likely of a day lots
of things happening in the city.
Our tour guide
was a native, and gave us an enthusiastic narration about the country, the
city, and other fun facts about Finland. We took a quick drive through downtown
Helsinki and saw some of the obligatory churches, city buildings, parks, and
businesses. We learned that Finland has two official languages in most of the country, Finnish and Swedish. The latter is due to the long period of time that Sweden controlled Finland. The street signs were in both languages.
We then headed
out into the countryside to get a glimpse of the rest of Finland. We drove
about an hour and were struck with how much the countryside looked like the
Midwest of the US. We heard a funny story about why so many Finns ended up in
Minnesota, upon the iron Range. Our guide said that at Ellis Island immigrants
were asked where are you going? The Finns then discussed among themselves what
shall we tell the guy? As it turns out, that phrase in the Finnish, sounded
very much like “Minnesota” to the immigration bureaucrat so they sent them all
to northern Minnesota. True or not, it’s a great story.
We pulled into
what is called a Country Manor. This is a grand farm currently owned by a man
perhaps in his 50’s and his mother. The farm had been in the family for more
than 200 years. It currently is able to make it financially by manufacturing
jams and jellies. They also two or three times a week have tour groups that
come out and visit. We had a delightful visit learning more about the country,
the farm, and our host’s opinions about the world.
The mom had baked
us homemade rhubarb crisp with coffee and tea. We also had a welcome toast with
homegrown strawberry rhubarb juice-all organic. Delicious!
Then we had time
to wander around the home inside as well as outside. Dick immediately headed
down to a beautiful area overlooking a pond of river. He enjoyed taking photos
and soaking in the green.
Patti preferred
to look her around inside and to chat with the woman of the house. We brought
home a sampling of their homemade jams. Lots of berry flavors we’ve heard of,
and then something called Cloud Berry. We will enjoy tasting them.
After a nice
visit, it was time to go back on the bus. We drove a short way into the town of
poor Porvoo, with a delightful old town. There we took a quick tour around the
old Square and saw some of the beautiful old stores and houses. And we had a
little free time to do some looking and shopping.
One of our goals
was to look for some more cold medicine. We saw the grocery store, closed. We
found another grocery store, and we wandered around looking for all kinds of
interesting things, but no over-the-counter medications. Dick when I’ve been
asked to cashier if they had cough drops. The cashier looked puzzled and
replied no. (We later found that in many countries there are very strict laws about
who can sell medicine, even what we would consider over-the-counter.) So, we
left defeated, then we saw a green cross with a sign that looked like it could
be a pharmacy. Success. The cashier greeted us and immediately handed us over
to very well spoken in English pharmacist. She helped set us up with some cough
drops and some other medication. The kindness of people is so appreciated.
Free time was
ended and we were back on the bus headed into the city of Helsinki. Another
quick drive around including an aborted attempt to stop at one of the tourist
attractions: the main cathedral. Traffic by this point was so heavy we could
only pull up for moment and not get out. When we were offered to stay for a
couple more hours in the downtown area and make our way back, no one on the bus
said yes. We all wanted to go back to the ship.
Touring well with
the cold is exhausting! We had a nice dinner and skipped evening events. And we both went to bed early.
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