Baltic 2011

Baltic 2011

Thursday, July 7, 2011

DAY 2 - 7 JULY Our first day in FINLAND! Helsinki sights

Amsterdam from the plane!


DAY 1 turned into DAY 2 quickly (heehee) while en route! Right after breakfast (in the middle of the ATL night, but 7AM in Amsterdam), everyone was getting excited…and ready to run for it, as the plane was late leaving Atlanta and getting into Amsterdam. Hilarious celebrity sighting: the Christian rock band PETRA was on our flight, sitting directly ahead of Ginny and on their way to a reunion tour in Sweden and Norway – “back to the rock.” As we flew below the cloud line, we saw lovely canals and lush green fields on the outskirts of the city. Check out Brianne's picture!

We only had a 1½ hour layover in the large spread out AMS airport, cut down to 45 minutes by late departure and 20 more minutes by deplaning from the back. After going through passport customs and security, we walked really fast and ran - KLM held the plane for us, and we had another smooth flight to Helsinki.

How exciting to be landing for the first time here - first time for AYS, first time for every one of us. The many little islands off Helsinki were visible from our plane windows. Our city tour guide Raila met us near the airport door! With Raila and our bus driver Pentti, we had our first official tour of the City Centre – Senate Square (including Alexandre II with a bird on his head), Olympic and hockey stadiums, the very cool Sibelius monument, the harbor, lovely churches, the beautiful train station, rug washing stations by the sea, and other sights.

Our hotel buffet dinner included 2 courses, lots of beverage choices, and options for everyone. After finding out that our luggage would get here between 9:00 and 11:30PM, we took a long walk (in broad daylight, by the way) to Stockmann’s department store (bigger than Harrod’s), the Orthodox church, and Market Square.

Off to sleep, dreaming of darkness ;)

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