We zipped into Helsinki this morning for one more visit. The train was mostly young kids for the first few stops; not sure why. Some were dressed in a most peculiar way. It was a glorious sunny morning, so we had a breakfast pastry and coffee at an outdoor coffee stand, cruised the market, found the last few souvenirs, and spent some time listening to the street musicians. The most interesting was the pan-flute-playing, South American-looking, dressed as Southwestern USA Indians, group. More amazing is that Niklaas saw them a year ago on a corner in Seattle, and I saw them last fall in Patagonia. Small world, eh? We ate a light lunch at an outdoor café (fortunately, we picked the right place and avoided the “wrong” place) and then made our way back to the Metla guest house. 
We decided to spend the night at the airport Hilton, rather than get up even earlier to drag our bags to the bus stop, take the bus, deal with luggage, etc. We stopped by the airport this evening and checked-in. The great thing about European air travel is that you can check your bags the evening before. So, now we can sleep in until 5:00. Had a light dinner in the hotel and we are planning an earlier retirement. Tomorrow our first flight is at 6:45. We then leave Amsterdam at 10:00 for Seattle, arriving at 11:00… too bad it’s not really a one hour flight! We should be home in time for dinner; hopefully the luggage will be too!I’ll post again once we are repatriated.
Update from Sea-Tac… no free Wi-Fi at the Hilton, the Helsinki airport, the Amsterdam airport, or the airplane…. but, thankfully the civilized people at Alaska Airlines have free, no-hassles Wi-Fi in the board room. We have arrived safely, as has our luggage. We are drinking our first less-bitter coffee in weeks, and ready for the last leg home.
I'll be starting up the blog again on Monday, 20 July.... Kiitos!
