DAY 149 TUESDAY AUGUST 21 HELSINKI

We woke to a beautiful sunrise and the lovely view through our windows of the harbour near Turku.  The ship docked right on time at 7.30am and we emerged into the street, realising that all the signs were in Finnish and we did not know words for rail, train, station etc.  Just kept walking and found a luxury train just around the corner waiting for us.  When it pulled into a station after 5 minutes travel and everyone got out, we were puzzled.  We worked out that this was a half hour stop and most people went into the station to buy something.

First class was called "Ekstra" and was upstairs in a double decker.  There was Wifi, power, tea and coffee machine, newspapers (no English), and that little soundproof booth was for talking on the mobile phone.  A great idea but two people so far have taken calls near us without using it.  Dogs are allowed on the trains in Europe but not in Ekstra as you can see.  Top marks for these trains;  as good as our favourite ones in Austria. Arriving at Helsinki Station we joined the many people who try to follow the WC signs and end up going round in circles.  Had a nice morning tea and picked up a map.  Should have brought a mag. glass.  By stopping on each corner for a couple of minutes we found our way to the office that issued apartment keys.  They told us we could not have the key till 3pm but could leave our bags there and explore the town, making suggestions.  We decided to walk to the Silya wharf where we planned to meet Pam and Ken on Saturday at noon.  The train to St Petersburg leaves at 3pm so we did not want to get lost.  First we went to the Metro station nearby and found it occupied a huge city block and took ages to get down long escalators (like Epping).  Buses and trams look simpler. As we walked down the street they call their Champs Elysee we turned into this park:

Any ideas what plant  flowers like that?  Pigeons never show respect.  The most unusual live statue we saw had bark all over:

At 2pm we found the Silya ship which had arrived at noon and it was called the Symphony.

Waiting to board the ship were some ladies in striking traditional dress:

We have not been able to locate a men's barber for some time now.  There were 3 women's salons in our street so Malcolm paid 40 euroas to have a haircut and beard trim.  Lyn shopped for groceries in the meantime and we picked up our key and unpacked in our unit.  It is not much bigger than a hotel room but very well equipped.  We are sure we will be comfortable here till Saturday.