Great conversations over breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper, coffee . . .

Thursday, we were greeted by Harri in the morning who had created another traditional Finnish breakfast for us to try.  We are getting very spoiled.  Harri had warmed up Karelia and had three options for toppings; cheese, egg salad or margarine.  Pia returned from a walk with their adorable little dog and they both gave us a lesson on the various types of rye flour and different shaped rolling pins used to roll out different types of dough.

This morning, Harri is going to demonstrate how to make Karelia .  It doesn't get much better than this! We're feeling so fortunate.

Back to Thursday..

Harri drove us, Pia and Otto to the train station and we were on our way into Helsinki City central.  Upon arriving at the gorgeous train station, we walked to the Helsinki Cathedral.  Along the way, Pia suggested we take a quick look inside the university library.  It was beautiful!  So beautiful in fact, that Pia stated it inspired her to take classes, simply to be able to study there.

The Cathedral itself was incredible.  It sits on top of a hill with ominous looking stairs leading up to it.  Inside though it's quite beautiful in its simplicity.

Organ Pipes

View from the Cathedral

Alexander II, Finland's favorite Czar (the bronze guy behind Sarah)

Pia then took us to meet Otto at the bookstore, where he choose a book on WWII Soviet Tanks and where we learned that the Moomin characters were originally chapter books.  Of course we purchased several (in English).

We met the rest of the family and Taina for lunch at the "Sea Horse", where we sat at a long table and had a lovely meal and conversation.  Taina teaches music and just completed her dissertation on music composition, connected with new curriculum for the comprehensive schools. This was one of our favorite parts of the day.  Being able to sit, enjoy, and laugh together was so nice.

We hopped in the car with Harri, Pia, Otto, Eetu & Aaro and went to the history museum.  There was a special exhibit as Finland is celebrating 100 years of Independence.

The Kalevala 

Mom and a Swedish Clock

Uno Cygnaeus (1810-1888) Father of the infamous Finnish Comprehensive School System

Sarah and I continued on our adventure in the city center, visiting the department store, Stockmann, and of course Fazer Chocolate cafe.  Pia made sure we had directions to return home and we were very fortunate to find bus "75" as we were walking to the train station.  Whew!  That bus took us right to the stop a couple blocks from their home.  If we had taken the train, we would have had a couple of changes to make (not sure how that would have worked - given our poor sense of direction -- remember we've gotten lost in hotels).

Christmas Pulla for dinner? Why of course!