Hello Helsinki

Over the Christmas and New Year holidays the Baker clan's annual trip took them to far away Finland. Bridget and Andy met up with Eric during the layover in Amsterdam. Bill and Bernie were later found at the airport in Finland. For those of you who are wondering, Linus spent his time at "camp" in Seattle.

Our first stop was Helsinki where upon arrival, we had a traditional Finnish Christmas Eve dinner. Christmas Day found us exploring the city streets and sights. One of our first stops was Senate Square and the Lutheran Cathedral.

We then walked to the Russian Orthodox Cathedral with its' golden onion domes. After reading some brief geo-political musings in the Rick Steves guidebook we venture inside where we viewed part of the Christmas Day service.

Next we found our way to the Market Square and the Czarina's Stone monument. Along the street are the Swedish Embassy, the Finnish Supreme Court and Finland's Presidential Palace. According to Rick Steves one can climb to the top of the steps surrounding the monument for a "spectacular 360 degree view."

Continuing our tour of the city we came to the Esplanade, a tree lined park between rows of shops and businesses.

While walking down the Esplanade, Eric came across a poster for a theatre production he expressed interest in attending.

As the afternoon wore on we decided to go ice skating at the ice rink in the square next to the train station. There were minimal wipeouts and zero broken bones suffered.

We ended the day by returning to the Lutheran Cathedral where we were lucky enough to get some tickets for that evening's Cantores Minores concert.