Day 62: Helsinki, Finland

The weather today was pretty cloudy and spritzing rain at times, but after a slow start, we set out to see more of Helsinki, wearing multiple layers due to the balmy 50+ degree June weather. Our first stop was a lunch spot called Tori, recommended by our Helsinki source - a friend of my dear friend Cyndy's. Once again she proved herself to be an excellent guide. The place had a very local feel and had very good food. We had been told to try their specialty - Finnish meatballs - and we weren't disappointed.

Here is Frank enjoying a random Finnish beer in the restaurant:




After lunch we went to KIASMA, which is a modern art museum that is very MOMA-esque and that had a lot of works by Finnish artists.

This is the ramp leading up the first floor:




Here are some of the pieces:






We spent a few hours in the museum and then decided just to wander around the city a bit.

This is the outside of the central train station which apparently was used as inspiration for some of the Gotham sets in Batman movies.




We stopped at a cafe along the Esplanade for a break and to warm up. This is a part of the large Esplanade which has a central section with grass and trees.




We are both having jet lag issues after changing time zones so quickly on our trip from Beijing to Helsinki so we then had to go back to the hotel to rest.

We ventured out again later for dinner at Kosmos which has traditional Finnish cuisine and was rated #10 in the list of Finland's 50 best restaurants, which we found online. (Lunch place Tori is #11)

Here is the interesting window decoration at the restaurant (yes, it's a cow made of beer cans):




This is the inside of the restaurant and my very jet lagged eating companion:






We are enjoying our short, random stay in Helsinki. It is making me want to travel more in Scandinavia - maybe get my family to do our next big family trip to Sweden to rediscover one of our many roots!

Oh, and I should note that there are lilac trees everywhere here (which my mom would love!) - stunning and the best smell in the world.

Tomorrow we're off to Spain!! Frank keeps pretending he's not excited because he knows how much I love it there. I'm on to him though...

ILM