Day 1- Thursday 5th July

We awoke at 3.00am this morning, to allow us to get to the airport in plenty of time for our early morning flight to Tampere. Sandy had hardly slept, as he was still awake at 11.30 last night, so he was looking a bit tired right from the start! At the airport, we got checked in quickly and our flight left Edinburgh more or less on time at about 6.45am.

By 11.15am Finnish time we had landed in Tampere and were getting our rental car, a very comfortable VW Golf TSi BlueMotion. Guess what- after all the rainy weather we have experienced in Scotland since April- with rain almost every day- it was just great to arrive to what seems like the usual summer weather that we experience in Finland- warm sunshine with temperatures hovering around the 25 - 26C level- fantastic!

Bacon rolls at Edinburgh airport for breakfast at 5.15am!

We ate lunch close to Tampere, a very good buffet for 9 euros each which consisted of soup, salads and various hot dishes, as well as unlimited drinks. Then we headed on towards Helsinki, where we arrived at our hotel, checked in and changed, then headed out to explore the area around once again. It's a wonderfully clean place, Helsinki, and it's just lovely to wander around and watch the Finns going about their lives in the sunshine. After a pizza dinner, we returned to the hotel apartment and sat on the balcony for a while in the sunshine, before getting Sandy and Olivia ready for bed.

Close to our hotel in Helsinki.