Spent an hour last night trying to figure out how to set my alarm clock ahead one hour. Must have got it right because the alarm went off at 8 am, which was the correct time. Today was the day to change our Scopolamine seasickness patches but we decided not to. Everything okay so far so like, what's the worst that could happen?

Watched us dock in Helsinki under a bluebird sky, then up to the breakfast buffet at nine and off to join our tour of Fiskars Village at 10:00 a.m.

    

Our first stop after boarding the bus was Senate Square. In the middle of the square is an impressive statue erected in 1894 of the Russian Tzar Alexander II who was regarded as "The Good Tsar" in Finland. To one side of the square is the imposing Helsinki Cathedral (formerly called St. Nicholas' Church) built as a tribute to the Grand Duke, Nicholas I, the Tsar of Russia. Flanking the church to one side is the Palace of the Council of State with the main University building on the other. After a short wander about the square, it was back onto the bus and a drive along the Esplanade Park that borders the main shopping in Helsinki.

  
    

Helsinki is a relatively new city by European standards. Early in the 19th century, it was basically transformed from a village to a city when it was made the capital of Finland. And speaking of Finland, our guide told us an interesting tidbit. The country is 2/3's forested, with 80% of the land privately owned. However, there aren't any no-trespassing laws so there is open access for all.

As we drove west towards Fiskars the countryside started to become less treed and slightly more open with crops and pasture. Reminded me of British Columbia without the mountains. Birch, aspen and pine with reddish granite outcroppings everywhere.

After an hour on the bus we arrived at Fiskars Village. The village was founded in 1649 for the main purpose of processing iron. There are no more active foundries today, but various craftsmen, designers and artists have moved in over the last few years to ply their trades. The bus took us on a bit of a tour of the site with a local guide to fill us in on what we were seeing. Finally parking near the Worker's Tenements, we walked down past the copper smithy, the former cutlery mill then back to the Wardshus Restaurant for a coffee and a sweet bun.

      
      

After that it was a wander through some of the shops to make a few purchases. I was looking forward to acquiring a Fiskars hunting knife but as I found out, knives are no longer forged in Fiskars. However, not to be denied, I did buy a Gerber brand knife (an American knife maker bought out by Fiskars) that was made in Taiwan. Not exactly what I had in mind, but it was bought at Fiskars. Then it was on to the bus at 2:00 and back to the ship by 3 o'clock.

  

We met Laverne for a late lunch then back to our stateroom for a couple of hours of quiet time before castoff at 6:00 for our overnight sail to St. Petersburg.

      

Down for dinner at 8:30 pm and as it was again formal night, everyone dressed to the nines.

  

After dinner it was back to the room and early to bed, as we had to set our clocks ahead one hour again. Five thirty was going to come awfully early. Even so, we were out on the balcony at midnight as it was still quite light out.