47.  Thursday

I took K to Helsinki Airport at 0540 hours – middle of the night… went back to bed for a couple of hours. Refreshed, I headed for the Metro and into town – tram out of town to the Helsinki Olympic Stadium: home of the 1952 Olympics. Could not get into the Stadium proper; they were setting up for a LiveAid concert but I toured the Museum.  Lots of good stuff about Paave Nurmo and Lasse Viren and other famous Finnish athletes … very interesting. Now then!  There was a 72 metre high slender concrete viewing tower….. I could not check the design certificates or the as built drawings – but up I went all 220 feet of it!  The tower was moving in the wind! I was always OK up on top of the Severn Bridges towers, 450 feet, but not here….  I gingerly approached the edge of the parapet with K,s camera and quickly squeezed off a burst of pics !  They seem not too bad…

Missing Lady K…

Interior of the main train station – a bit of Art Deco

48. Friday

Mystery tour by tram…..mistake, but I saw new parts of the city…   Downtown at last, I found the City Museum: free entry and all about the birth and development of the city of Helsinki as seen through the eyes of various residents and an English language film to help explain it even better.

Lunch time and the bar next to the Museum called me inside for a pint of best Finnish dark beer – only Euro 8 ! Essential Opex, I will explain to my FD – will she believe me ! Not…..

The lady will return tomorrow, if I can persuade the SatNav to find the right Airport…..

49.  Saturday

Nothing to report.