Helsinki, Finland 2024: Part TWO

Well hey there, friends!  Happy Tuesday!  Today, I have another HELSINKI, FINLAND post for you!

If you missed PART ONE, make sure you catch that one before reading this post today.

Guess what happens when this lady travels with just her hubby and not those four other cute faces?

One trip to Europe turns into only two posts and not twenty seven.

You’re welcome. 😉

Today, I’m wrapping up our WONDERFUL trip to Finland.  Andrew and I hit the ground running the minute we returned home, so it was nice for me to go back today and think about these places, these days, and these very special memories.  We love you, Helsinki!  We are already excited to go back for the third time.  It was such a WONDERFUL little trip.

Speaking of which, let me just say this…I know that many of you have the resources and the desire to travel but time keeps getting in your way.  Andrew and I used to feel THE EXACT same way.  If we just “had two weeks” then we could go to XYZ.  We would say that all the time.

“Well, when the kids’ schedules are less busy.” (That’s not happening for like a decade.)

“When my mom/your mom has ten days free to stay with the kids.” (Those ladies are living their best retired life, that’s not happening anytime soon either.)

We made a lot of excuses about “time” being the main issue why we couldn’t go/do/see and then one day, we just decided to heck with time, we’ll just make shorter trips.  Would we like to stay longer?  OF COURSE!  Is it possible in this stage of our life?  Not really.  So, just a little encouragement/reminder from me to those of you willing and able but you just can’t seem to carve out a big block of time, I get it!  I totally do!  I also get that tomorrow isn’t guaranteed, so let’s seize those opportunities when we can.

As a reminder, here are some of our amazing “shorter” trips (that I’m SO GLAD we did!):
WINTER IN LONDON
WINTER IN PARIS & NORMANDY
FALL IN LONDON
FALL IN PRAGUE
BALI, INDONESIA

And just this August, I took my team on a fabulous three night cruise out of Florida which was amazing too!  I love a long cruise, but we had the very best time in just three short nights.

Okay, now back to Helsinki, Finland PART TWO 🙂 .

Here we go…

This was our second full day of the trip, and we decided to rent a car and hit the road.  We loaded up that morning and took a GORGEOUS drive.  Finland is one of the most forested countries in the world, so as you can imagine, it was just beautiful.  I took a million videos and photos of our drive but none of them do it justice.  We drove about 90 minutes and stopped…

…in the charming river town of Turku.  It was cold and rainy, and we were bundled up and out to see the sites!

We walked and checked out this cute town…

…I love any town with markets!

My favorite travel companion!

I also love any river town too.

We stopped for lunch…

…at this very cool pub…

…and we shared a delicious lunch all cozy inside.

After this town, we headed about 15 minutes down the road to our second stop but holy cow…

…look what we saw from the road?!  The uber nerdy travel agent in me flipped out when I saw them building Royal Caribbean’s newest vessel.  Andrew exited and drove back around so that I could get a better look…

…at Star of the Seas!!

I know, I know, but I am just SO into cruise ships that standing there on the dock watching them build a vessel that my own clients will cruise on just MADE ME SO HAPPY!!  I just loved seeing it!

We made our way to Naantali, Finland after that…and sigh, I have no pics.

After our drive back to Helsinki…

…we had maybe my very favorite dinner of the trip at La Famiglia.  The table was perfect, the view was so pretty, and the food…

…was delish!

Speaking of food…

…our final day in Helsinki started with a FOOD TOUR!

I must admit, it was probably the best food tour I have ever done 🙂 .

Here is our final full day in Finland…

We met our guide who walked us over to a great food hall to begin our historical food tour.  Andrew and I love any tour that involves history AND food.

These stalls were oh so cute!

 

We began our tour here.  Is it ever too early in the morning for…

…traditional brown bread topped with salmon, a berry infused raw herring and mushroom salad?

We knew right away, this food tour was not for the weak 😉 .

After that…

…they brought us out traditional caviar blinis followed by three more servings of different types of caviar that were served just off a spoon.  I’m going to be honest with you, after four servings of caviar, I think I’m good.  It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t good enough for me to want to eat again.

We wrapped up our stop and continued through the market…

…at this particular stop, we had baked cheese with jam and two different types of reindeer.  One type of reindeer was a sausage and the other was just lightly salted and dried.  This place also offered brown bear.  Apparently I’ll eat fish eggs and raw fruit flavored fish, but I draw the line at a bear.

When I told my kids we ate reindeer Smith asked me who was going to guide Santa’s sleigh this year?  Bahahaha!

Our food tour took us back outside for more stops.  Oh Helsinki, you are so cute!

I’m carrying around goodies that we bought to bring back as gifts.

We visited a very famous candy shop in Finland called Fazer’s.  It’s known for their “blue chocolate” which is just a really delicious chocolate in a blue wrapper.

We stopped at this bakery and had a traditional cheesy bread filled with rice.  This was delicious!

Next up…

…we ate our weight in licorice.  Andrew and I aren’t even licorice people but after all of that fish, I was delighted to eat this candy.

Speaking of candy…

…we visited this chocolatier…

…isn’t he adorable?!  He makes and hand paints all of his chocolates there in his store.  I bought more gifts from him as well.

Our final stop…

…was a rooftop bar with beautiful views of Helsinki…

This was a gorgeous place to finish our tour.

We enjoyed seasonal drinks to wrap up our tour.

When our tour was over, we headed back out to see more Helsinki which included a stop at…

…the Moomin Shop.  Moomin is a very very famous character in children’s books in Finland, and we saw it referenced all over town.  We bought Mades two books and a stuffed Moomin (we always bring home the kids something when we travel…and this was her souvenir).  We have read these two books and cuddled her Moomin every night before bed since arriving home 🙂 .

Andrew and I spent the rest of the afternoon walking and enjoying Helsinki both old and new…

…as we were going into a cute restaurant to warm up and have a drink, I met Hana who is a sweet blog reader!  How adorable is Hana?!  I was so excited to meet her in Helsinki!

Well clearly we were hungry again after the food tour 😉 .  This was our “snack”.  Bahahaha!

Helsinki knows my love language 🙂 .

We wrapped up our trip with one final dinner…

…this time at Manhattan Steakhouse.

You guys, it was such a sweet trip with my favorite guy to a favorite city.

We love you, Finland!

I hope this country is now on many of your radars too!  It was WONDERFUL!!

My travel agency would love to send you to Helsinki too!  If you have questions about this or any of our other European destinations…or cruises…or Walt Disney World…or Universal Studios…or Mexico, Hawaii, the Caribbean, Australia, Asia, Africa, South America…you get the gist, please contact us today for free quotes and information about our vacation planning.

Have the best Tuesday, friends!  I’ll see you tomorrow! xx