Northern Lights Tour Day 03

Day 03 Jan 30, 2025, Helsinki, Finland

We get up and pack up. A leisurely breakfast consists of more bananas and toast. My stomach is better, but not good enough yet.

We check out of the hotel and join the tour bus at 10 AM. Fun sights and monuments entertain our cameras as we travel through the Finnish countryside.

We visit the “Rock Church”, dug into the rock. The acoustics are amazing! With a pipe organ and a choir section also. After that, we visit the Sibelius Monument, made from 600 stainless steel pipes, representing the music of Helsinki.

Today’s bus tour finishes at the Oodi Library. It is a very modern museum with book robots, 3D printing, free Meeting rooms and gaming rooms. They even make some windows look as if it is raining! I snack on more bananas and tea. We find a supermarket and get bananas, rice cakes and applesauce, etc.

We walk back to the hotel and nap and relax for 2 hours. Then we walk our luggage to the train station. We will ride a sleeper train tonight. It is probably our best sleeper train yet. We have a bathroom and shower in the room! Albeit an airline size bathroom, it has a panel that folds over the toilet to reveal a shower! We even get some sleep. Elee lets me have the lower bunk to placate my upset stomach. A photo of some of our fellow travelers shows how narrow the aisle in the train is!

We walk through several train cars and find the bar car. Yes, it seems that every train in the world with sleeper cars has a bar car! I smuggle a banana and a bottle of water in as I am keeping to my strict BRAT diet. Elee and others in our group order food and drinks from the bar. The conductor walks through and I hide my banana and water under the table. The conductor inquires about our tickets. Luckily, he accepts our story of being in a group and seems to recognize the validity of the group.

We continue to get to know the members of our group and all chat amicably together. The Aussies are a very friendly group! I take my leave and make it back to our car and sleeper unit for the night.