July 7
Today, we explored Brussels, mainly on foot. We walked the 4 km from our hotel to Autoworld, detouring through parks along the way. Autoworld has an extensive collection of vintage cars displayed in a beautiful old building that has been used for auto shows since 1902. After looking around at the collection, we decided not to make the trek back to the hotel by foot and figured out how to take the metro.
We rested for the remainder of the day, and Bayne took the opportunity to watch another F1 race and work on edits to his book. We also discovered a grocery store around the corner has a great little salad bar, which hit the spot for dinner as our diet had been a little short of vegetables since we left home!
July 8
Today, we had a flight to Helsinki, but as our flight was not until the evening, we spent most of the day in Brussels. We stowed our bags in the hotel lockers and took the metro to the Atomium. If you haven't seen a picture of the Atonium, do a quick Google search for it – it's basically a giant Iron atom made from aluminum. It's an incredible structure built for the World Fair in 1958. It was never supposed to be a permanent structure after the Fair, but the residents demanded it stay. It has some displays about the World Fair, a photography exhibit and a light show. After that, we decided to do the most uber-touristy thing in Brussels – Mini Europe (really, we were just trying to kill time before going to the airport).
As we had lots of time, we also took the metro and train to the airport. We are getting to be quite the experts on navigating public transit. Google Maps is really helpful! Our flight to Helsinki went smoothly, and we walked to the airport hotel where we would stay for the next 3 nights. It's a Hilton, so the room is substantially larger and nicer than in Brussels.
July 9
After a good night's sleep, we set out to explore a new city and a new public transit system. We went via the train to the city centre, where we decided to do a loop on one of the hop–on–hop–off bus tours. It gave us a brief introduction to Helsinki and its history. Then we stopped for lunch, an ice cream and a bit of shopping. We found a store that offered items made by local craftspeople, and Philippa picked out a beautiful cake server.
July 10
Today we headed to the city centre where we met a guide to visit Nuuksio National Park. Unlike most tours where they arrange for a private bus or van to take the group, we went by public bus. We walked about 7 km in the park along a trail that passed many lakes, where we saw birds and learned about the local flora. The topography was very much like the Canadian Shield in northern Ontario, and many of the plants and trees seemed familiar to northern Canada. On the hike, we learned that Finland has flying squirrels, but as they are nocturnal, they are difficult to spot. However, after the hike, we did more research and learned that Canada also has flying squirrels in most of the country – who knew?
We returned to the hotel to check in with Quark Expeditions (our cruise company). They gave us more information about tomorrow's plans and itinerary. Then we searched for a laundromat as we desperately needed to wash some of our clothes. It also had something we had never seen before – a rug washing machine to clean area rugs and even hang them in special lockers for 24 hours to dry.
After coming back with a bag full of clean clothes, we went to the hotel restaurant for dinner where Philippa tried Salmon Soup, a traditional Finnish dish which is delicious.
Tomorrow, we fly to Svalbard and embark on the next part of our adventure!
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