Day 265 Sat 7 Jul 2007 Helsinki, Finland

Dawn comes early but we are woken in time for a 6am breakfast before disembarking to a showery Helsinki where there are sufficient patches of blue sky to portent a reasonable Saturday. It's too early to find a hotel so we park in the main square beneath the glistening white cathedral with its star covered green domes and find coffee whilst we watch the harbourfront market being set up. Buying a ‘Helsinki card’ from the tourist office and stripping it bare of brochures we embark on a harbour cruise which gives us a good overview of the city against the pale blue northern sky, before catching a city bus tour. By this time it's pouring down so we are glad to be inside listening to a commentary in 11 languages, including Latin (even Rome doesn’t have Latin on its tour buses). After more coffee and smoked salmon sandwiches I2 makes a pilgrimage to the Marimekko shop and we find a Lapp restaurant for dinner where we dine on Elk and Reindeer, followed by cloudberry crème brulee.