Friday, July 5th, Helsinki

Clocks went back an hour as we sail toward Helsinki, Finland. We arrived at port at 8:00, had breakfast in our room.

We left at 9:30 for our Helsinki by Land and Sea Tour. There was a light drizzle as we left but it cleared quickly and the temperature was about 74 degrees. We toured the Helsinki archipelago for 1 1/2 hours. We viewed many highlights included the Suomenlina Fortress. The land portion of the tour included a stop at Market Square. The food smelled delicious and the fruits and vegetables were just beautiful. I bought a flag of Finland at the market and then headed back to the bus. The tour continued around the city with stops at the Senate Square, where we saw a military band playing, and at Sibelius Park to see the sculpture which looked like a pipe organ.

We returned to the ship, had lunch at the Lido, and went to our room for a nap. We got up to see Samantha make a marzipan rose. The rose was not pretty and poor Samantha is not a great demonstrator. We left and went back to napping.

We had drinks in our room and dinner in the dining room. Tonight I had Double Baked Cheese Soufflé, Chilled Coconut Nutmeg Soup, and Lamb Loin with Artichokes and Red Wine Kalamata Olive Sauce. Lois had the Seafood Louis, Roasted Shallot and Butternut Squash Soup, and Quail with Apricot Bread Stuffing. For dessert I had Sacher Torte and Lois had the Master Chef Rudi's "Premiere," a white chocolate chef's "toque" filled with sweetly delicate milk chocolate mousse and decorated with macerated berries.

The evening show was the Moscow Magic Show. It was a husband and wife team that performed very well. After the main stage show, the Filipino Crew performed several folk dances and sang songs from their country. Very nice evening of entertainment.

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