Helsinki

Ah, Helsinki in winter. I love it. Actually, I love it at any time of year, but in winter it really is spectacular. The trees are ablaze with (mostly) white light and the blazing torches and candles outside restaurants are particularly brilliant. The snow lies on the tree branches on Pohjois Esplanadi and Café Kappeli looks incredibly fin de siècle, casting long shadows on the snow outside.

Café Kappeli

We did, of course, indulge in hot chocolate, coffee and Sacher Torte (I know we're not in Vienna!) at Café Aalto in the Akateeminen Kirjakauppa; it was perhaps not an accident that the bookshop section beside the café is 'Health and diet' and that the most obvious title today was 'Type 2 Diabetes'. We still ate our cake...

Back at the hotel, having taken the local bus and got off at the right stop (no mean feat since it's 25 years since I lived in Helsinki and things have changed on many levels, my day was made complete by salmon soup followed by vanilla ice cream with licorice sauce. Nothing like black ice cream to remind me of cultural differences - but why can't  I get licorice ice cream at home?

Tomorrow, we head north. Will reindeer eat my camera - or will we eat the reindeer first?


And yes, it's cold, as the picture demonstrates...

Icicles outside Hotelli Cumulus, Helsinki-Vantaa