Day 21 - Sunday, June 21, 2009 - A Day Trip from Helsinki to Tallinn, Estonia We were happy to see some of our Elderhostel tour members at the buffet breakfast at the hotel this morning. Everyone but us will be flying away later today. Our flight isn't until Monday so we have one extra day in Helsinki. Since the entire city is virtually closed for the Mid-summer holiday we have decided to take the fast boat to Tallinn, Estonia. The young men working on the main desk of our hotel have been very helpul and we have enjoyed the hotel, [View Full Entry]

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Day 20 - June 20, 2009 - Saturday in Helsinki, Today is the last regualrly scheduled day of our Elderhostel trip. Tomorrow everyone but us will be leaving but more on that later. After breakfast we went on a bus tour of the city. Due to the midsummer holiday the streets were quite empty which made it much easier for the bus to get around. Helsini is the only European captial with no medieval past! In1746 Sweden built a huge fortress on an island outside of its harbor. The town of Helsinki was founded to supply the fortress. Actually, Helsinki was [View Full Entry]

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Day 19 - Friday, June 19, 2009 - Harjattula, Finland Most of our Elderhostel group of 23 are rather sad that we didn't have another day in this lovely setting. But we are also eager to go to Helsinki, the capital of Finland. So it is with mixed feelings that we leave this lovely spot of wild floweres, forests along the Baltic Sea. These past few days we have been blessed with the bluest of skies and purest of white billowing clouds - the sky of Finland that is reflected in their flag! We got off the expressway around 11:30am and [View Full Entry]

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Day 18 - Thursday, June 18, 2009 - Turku, Finland After breakfast in the school dining room we embarked on an all day excursion. As we passed through the edge of Turku (pronouced tour-kooo) with the emphasis (as for all Finnish words) always on the first syllable) the "r" is rolled, and they they strecth out the vowels. Everyone is the area seems so proud of their city; they speak of it so lovingly. We passed an immense shipyard where the largest cruise ship in the world is being built! We could see it from the highway and the ship appeared [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday, June 17, 2009 - Turku, Finland We arrivied at the harbor in Turku at 7:00am without any breakfast on the ship. We were hoping for coffee and a roll but no time. We managed to get our luggage on the elevator, then down the gangway and then a long walk through the terminal to our waiting bus. Our new site coordinator, Heikki Toimi, was at the bus to welcome us. The drive to the school took about 30 minutes. We will be staying at the Finnish folkschool named Paasikivi Opisto located in the community of Harjattulantie. In addition to [View Full Entry]

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June 16, 2009 - Tuesday- Sweden - Turku, Finland Wonder of wonders! We looked out the window this morning and saw a blue sky and sun shine! Finally on our last day in Sweden we are going to have a nice day! After breakfast we had our last talk from our Sweden site coordinator. Paul, the Professor. Due to another group coming in our lecture was moved to upstairs in the manor house, a lovely pale blue room with a lovely view of the water. Today's lecture is actually on the European Union which I discussed on the previous day's blog. [View Full Entry]

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Day 15 - Monday, June 15, 2009 After breakfast we learned how the European Union was first thought about after WWII. France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, Italy and West Germany all signed the Rome Treaty in 1958 forming an European Economic Community. The countries agreed to economic, cooperation, customs cooperation, a common market, and common agriculture policy. In 1973 the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark joined the EU. In 1981 Greece joined and in 1986 Spain and Portugal. Sweden's entry into the European Union was in 1995 along with Austria, Finland. A few things h [View Full Entry]

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Day 14 - Sunday, June 14, 2009 Today is an all day field trip. Unfortunatley, it is still raining. We have lost track of how many days it's been raining now. But we were told that is hasn't been this cold in Sweden in June in the last 50 years! I've been wearing layers but could have used a warmer coat. Someone on our trip was told last June they were hot when they visited Scandinavia! So one never knows! We left right after breakfast for our trip to Uppsala where Scandinavia's first university was founded and its largest,most historic cathedral [View Full Entry]

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Day 13- June 13, 2009 After breakfast we made our way up the hill to hear a lecture entitled, "A general look at Sweden today." Our site coordinator, Paul Reichberg is a retired professor at the school. He actually lives in Uppsala which is a two hour train ride each way and he has been teaching at the school for 29 years! He told us his father was Jewish and living in Vienna when the Anschluss happened in 1938 and the Nazis took over Austria. His father was age 25 and was able to escape to Finland. He met a non [View Full Entry]

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Day 12 - Friday - June 12, 2009 - In route to Sweden It's still raining this morning. I wasn't surprised as I had heard heavy rain pelting the hotel roof during the night. The hotel had a very nice buffet breakfast and great coffee. It's fun eating the soft boiled eggs out of the little egg cups with the tiny spoon. I guess it's something of an art to crack the top open and eat it without getting any shell in your egg. Our bus left at 8 am for the ride to the main train station in Copenhagen. It's [View Full Entry]

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