A trip to Finland

A trip to Finland, 16-19 November 2018

What do you do when your daughter and sister is in Finland for 4 months….? You visit her. And so we did!

Last Friday we took off for our trip to Emma. What a wonderful weekend it was. First and foremost to be together again for a few days and enjoy each others company. But of course it also was a great opportunity to visit Finland, especially Turku and Helsinki.

We booked a really nice and comfortable apartment at “Kaapeli”, The Cable Factory, built between 1939 and 1954, which once was the largest building in Finland and the most impressive industrial space in Helsinki, nowadays a culture centre. Located near the seaside and just 3 minutes away from the city centre, if you take the underground railway. So a perfect spot.

We rented a car at the airport. Luckely for the boys they only had a huge Skoda Superb Combi for rent, with pre-warming, enormous space inside, great sound system, parking system, driving smooth and very silently.

On Friday we celebrated our reunion with presents from friends and grand parents, Dutch cheese, cummin cheese, ‘pepernoten’ plain and with chocolate. Emma was thrilled with happiness about all these delicious surprises.

On Saturday we visited Turku - which is about 1:45 hours drive from Helsinki – to visit Emma’s flat, and to do some sightseeing. We also went to a nice small lake near Turku. Luckely the weather was great, cold but with a lot of sunshine. So it was great for a walk along the lake side.

We visited the lovely small marketplace “Kauppahalli Saluhallen”, where we drank a delicious cup of coffee and hot chocolate and tasted some marvellous sweet Finnish cakes… After strolling around the city for a while – Turku city centre is nice and cosy but not that big – we went back to our apartment in Helsinki, where we had a typical Dutch meal with potatoes, broccoli and steak. We used the relaxing sauna in the apartment – typical Finnish -, played some cards, had a view drinks and went to bed.

Sunday we planned to visit Helsinki. Arriving at the city center we were guided to The Espresso House, for a truly fine cup of coffee, of course accompanied by some tasty sweet cake. Emma guided us through the city and showed us some of the highlights, such as the Helsinki Cathedral, the market hall – which unfortunately were both closed – and the wonderful Suomenlinna Island, very recommandable to visit!

Oh, and we also ran into a Christmas Market! It just started this weekend. Of course we had to try the reindeer sausage, not bad at all!

Again the weather was fantastic this day, cold but all wonderful deep blue skies. With the sun shining so bright but staying rather low, the shadows and light effects in the streets were amazing!

Monday, time flies, was our last day in Helsinki. We had to pack our bags. Luckely our flight was at 6 pm, so we had still some time left together. Emma explicitely wished to let us taste another one of her favorite Finnish delights, the cinnamon bun, at the market hall near the seashore. So of course we couldn’t deny this. And finally we went to The Karl Fazer Cafe, world famous for its sweet confectionary products.

Here is where our Finnish story ends for now. At the train station we hugged and said goodbye. We had a great time together. Now we’re counting 38 days until we can pick her up at the airport again. Meanwile we wish Emma, and of course Aniek too, to enjoy an amazing time in Finland!

With love, Guus, Bennie and Anneke