May 15 -part 2: The adventure begins in Helsinki

The flight with Austrian to Helsinki was fine. With the help of points I was in Business Class so had a reasonable lunch  and plenty of space for the 2 hours plus journey. On arrival there was a rather long wait for the baggage - I had checked a bag due to carrying some liquid with me- and then a call from Tim and Wendy to say they were driving around outside looking for me. Almost as soon as I went outside the grey Land Cruiser with all the safari stickers hove into view and we had very quick  drive-by pick-up.  It seemed that a couple of the other cars on the trip has failed to get on the ferry from Tullin and so we would be with just one other car for the  next day.
It was  off then to the first sight/site, the architetcs' house at Hvittrask.
This was a location in the countryside about 30 Km out of the city which had been recommended by my sister Soo and her husband Mike as one of the places they has enjoyed seeing on their visit to Helsinki. The place is  a complex of houses which were started building in 1902 and became the base for a practice by 3 young architects who had set up their practice in 1896. The site, which they located in 1901,  is 16 hectares  alongside Lake Vittrask on a small hill and  is idyllic. Each architect designed his own house within the complex, hence there is a mix of styles and materials which is most attractive.  Full details of the history can be found at http://www.nba.fi/en/hvittrask_en

The approach for us was via a typical Finnish rural road - gravel surface , narrow and with birch forest on both sides...

Tim driving down the road - note all the nav-aids; and we still ended up on the scenic route!

The inside of the buildings are delightful and we wandered around looking at the  rooms, the furniture and the heating system with all these incredible brick  faced heaters and fireplaces ..........

...in this room the candelabra really took my fancy

We wandered around all the rooms and then went off to the gardens for a look at the lake through the trees

 ...and noted that daffodils and narcissi are still in bloom in May this far north (61 degrees)

Then it was time for a cup of coffee in the cafe on-site and a very interesting Finnish cake which was  more like sugared worms in appearance but very tasty

Tim apparently unable to look at my cake!

Then we drove into the city and looked for our hotel, the famous Hotel Kamp. This is not only probably the most central hotel but also the most expensive! Still we are all on holiday.
The hotel was relatively easy to find but hard to reach as a demonstration was sitting in the one way street outside and the police were remarkably unhelpful about ideas on how to get around the problem. In the end  after a lot of driving around Tim found a way which did include going all up another one way street in the wrong direction much to the consternation of the local taxi drivers.  On our drive we did see the cathedral

......and another smart place which we will identify tomorrow!

Eventually we found the Hotel Kamp and got checked in only to find it is one of those greedy places that charges like a rhino for the rooms and then asks Euros 20 per day for the internet  in addition!
Still it is comfortable and  two other friends of Tim and Wendy are here with their car (Lyn and Eric) although they had a window broken in the Discovery  in Tullin and are hoping to get a replacement fitted tomorrow here in Helsinki.

Kamp Hotel front entrance

After a restorative drink we all went out for a pleasant dinner in an Italian restaurant around the corner  seeing these gargoyle-like carvings on the wall as we walked.............

Anyway it was now 9 pm and still broad daylight so we all went back to our rooms.

Tomorrow is a rest day from driving so we will be looking at the sights of Helsinki.