billinghamn

Great suggestions OldHigsonian - many thanks. Just walked up to the Sibelius monument and grabbed a coffee at Cafe Regatta where you can cook your own sausages. Got the tram to the main railway station, popped into Starbucks and will be heading for the ferry shortly.

You are right about the weather. It's fabulous and we have been really lucky.

billinghamn

That sounds a great idea but we are only here for the best part of a day anyway. Will need to do that on a separate trip.

billinghamn

Summary of our day in Helsinki:

Woke up at 6am Helsinki time - reminder that we are 2 hours ahead of the UK!



Breakfast at the Strand was served at the Bridge restaurant downstairs instead of in the Exec Lounge - it wasn't that good to be honest but it was free. Walked to the Sibelius monument which was interesting and good for stretching our legs. It was a lovely walk, around a couple of nice lakes. There was a lovely Yorkshire terrier puppy on a lead, reminded me so much of a family dog - same face and same inquisitiveness and desire to say hello.









We then carried on and grabbed a coffee at Cafe Regatta, a really cute wooden hut by the shore with great pastries (we resisted!) and an obviously high degree of of ecological awareness, with a fabulous outdoor open pit firewhere you can cook your own sausages. Whilst there we saw a woman walk down to the sea just wearing a bikini and had a brief swim before getting out. It was quite a sight to be honest: a) because she was brave to have got in there to start with, and b) because she was only in there was about a minute.



Then got the tram to the main railway station, popped into Starbucks (long queue and expensive) and headed up to the ferry.



Luckily got on the first one which had just arrived and the trip took about 20 mins.















After getting off the ferry, we stopped at Cafe Vanille for a soup and a blueberry tart, and then headed off further onto Suomenlinna. Very interesting place to look around - very green - lots of undulations.









Ended up at a very colourful sub!









After a good hour we both started feeling tired, so decided to head back to the ferry.







Headed back through the city to the hotel and grabbed the 615 back to the airport and checked in to the Hilton Vaanta which was very new, very clean and much more to our taste. The exec room was very nice.

corporate-wage-slave

Looks like you're having very good weather (not complaining, it's quite nice in Northumberland too). Quite a busy schedule, so I hope you get a lie in tomorrow! Thanks for the photos, it brought back good memories of Helsinki.

HIDDY

Take a short walk out of Tallinns medieval part and it's ten times worse than Helsinki. I do agree the old parts of Helsinki are nice but the modern parts aren't so great.
Although to be fair once you get out of most city centres in the world you'll see some grotty parts.

billinghamn

Yes fab weather here, which is much appreciated. I had previously commented on me not really needing my thick coat. However taking the ferry to Suomenlinna yesterday really highlighted the benefits! It might be relatively warm, but as soon as you get on the water with any sort of chill in the air, and you soon start to feel it.

So much for a lie-in this morning! The airport Hilton hotel is lovely - much nicer than the Strand, but we have both woken up hot in the night, and the air con is highly unintuitive and resists any suggestion about reducing the temp of the air it is ejecting!

So back to reviewing posts on FT!

KARFA

Hi billinghamn. I am one if those who has yet to make it beyond HEL airport so interesting to see what Helsinki is like. Did you get a room with an in-room sauna at the airport Hilton?

billinghamn

Unfortunately not - I got a standard exec room, having only paid the minimum through the Hilton.com website. I reckon I could have haggled for a sauna, but staying only one night and we were both pretty tired, we weren't too bothered to be honest. Perhaps next time though.

KARFA

Ah ok. I thought there might be some "hot" sauna pics to be posted soon. I was there a few months ago just for a tier point run so arrived late Saturday and left early on Sunday. I paid for a standard room but was given a sauna one, tried it if only to sweat out the champagne from the flight. It was pretty cool.

Just sat in the lounge at HNL to start the journey home. Run to San Juan earlier in the week all went well. I leant a lot from your live tr and the "lessons to learn" bit. May even do it again sometime.

OldHigsonian

Its a bit less dramatic at this time of year, but chances are she was a winter swimmer. They do that year round. There are clubs dotted around helsinki with changing facilities and they run "bubblers" to keep the water open from freezing when it is really cold.

it is supposed to have health benefits, but like a lot of these things it main benefit is the great feeling you get once the painful thing stops.

Looks like you had a nice day. As you can see from the photos Helsinki is in its brown phase.

billinghamn

Nice one re hot sauna photos. Perhaps next time eh? Glad to hear about your successful trip to SJU. I have been monitoring closely. Enjoy your trip home.

billinghamn

Just arrived in the CCR for the first time. It did indeed feel special from the warm welcome at the door to the almost immediate service on the terrace.

To be honest the service was so good I thought I might need to take out an injunction against the waiters etc so we could enjoy our second breakfast...

Seriously though, very impressed so far.

layz

From T3 you're almost guaranteed a gate 24 departure as all BA flights depart from a remote stand. One time I received another gate it still turned out to be a bus departure.

The planes tend to park in an area which is close to the T1 green mile which is only a short drive. My problem with the whole bus gates is although there's a fast track for the boarding pass scan (usually) they don't check who's boarding the bus so when you're in the waiting area after the BP check they'll call all Club Europe and status travellers all those who were milling around near the door plus half those sitting down decide to get on the bus. So as someone who's entitled to board first you only have a few options:

1) Try barging to the front of the queue as you meet the criteria to board first, but then look like an inconsiderate tosser and of course you could be pushing past those equally entitled to be there.

2) Stand around near the door edging yourself closer to the door as time goes on ready for the bus to arrive.

3) sit in the waiting area and board near the very end on the last bus. More chance of getting a seat and less waiting in line.

Presumably BA will move to proper gates in T3 when airlines move to T2. Any idea when BA will do this?

billinghamn

I've never flown from T3 before so thanks for explaining about the standard arrangements for BA departures. We took a variation of your second option in your list. We simply sat in the window right next to the door, and then we allowed the "inconsiderate tossers" (IT) to get in the way of the families with kids when BA asked them to board the bus first. The ITs were then told off by the BA crew which was good to see, as well as slightly amusing.

layz

I'm pleased that the BA staff were not rewarding people for pushing in.

I'm looking forward to Star Alliance moving out so we get some proper gates. I don't know why people feel the need to push on, the plane isn't going anywhere without them.

Although as luck would have it my need to fly to Prague on a regular basis will disappear by the end of May so I won't be using T3 as much. I'll miss the nice quieter lounges.