Helsinki, the capital of Finland is a seaport with a population of 500,000. It is a strange mixture of ultra-modern, Russian era and 17th century buildings.

One of the more interesting sites was the church of the rock. Instead of building a traditional church the architects blasted a large crater into a rock outcrop, smoothed out the walls and roofed the crater with a dome.

We visited Helsinki’s main square with its huge church. We came across a strange looking conglomerate musical instrument seemingly abandoned in the square. Surprising at the center of the square there is a statue of Czar Alexander II. The Finns are not exactly friendly with the Russians with whom they’ve fought a number of wars over the years but Czar Alexander is an exception as he supported Finnish independence.

Before stopping in Helsinki we went to the village of Porvoo about 21 miles east of Helsinki. The village of about 8000 was founded in 1464 and retains much of its original character.

The town has a wonderful candy store where they make their own candy and Laura managed to find a pair of boots there unlike anything she had seen before.