A ladies trip to Helsinki

One of the summer memories to look back at is definitely the two days that I spent in Helsinki with my mother and my daughters. As a birthday gift my mother had bought a facial treatment for me at a beautician in Helsinki. Once we arrived with the bus I went there and met up with my mother and the girls afterwards. It was very nice and relaxing. Then we had lunch at a nice little restaurant called American Deli. Me and my mother had a good salad and Sofia and Carlotta took bagels. Then we went to some shops till we all were tired and went to the hotel to rest a bit. We stayed at the same hotel where we had stayed this winter, Hotel Vaakuna right in the centre of Helsinki. So nice, because it's very central, the rooms are big and the breakfast is very good.

I wanted to go to the fortress island of Suomenlinna, but it already was a bit late, so we had a coffee in a street cafè at the Esplanadi and then went to the new Skywheel at Katajanokka.
Next day we first went to a camera shop near our hotel and I got myself a new used Nikon D7000 which I started using right away. It should be better than my Nikon D90 and the best one I could afford at the moment. My first photos had odd colours, I think they seemed a bit grey, but I guess and hope it depends on the settings. It takes some time to get to know a new camera.
Then we went to see Tove Jansson's 100 years exhibition. It was very interesting and good. Tove Jansson is famous as the author of the Moomin books, but she has painted and drawn lots of other things, too. The exhibition was big and Sofia got tired after a while. Carlotta would have continued even more, so she was really affascinated about it.

We had made a last minute appointment with my brother and his wife at the Kauppatori market place where we took the boat to Suomenlinna. So nice that they were able to come, too! It was a very warm day and quite a few other persons had had the same idea as we, to take a day trip to the island. There's a lot to see in Suomenlinna, but this time we didn't have much time or energy in the heat. We walked to an outdoor cafè with a beautiful view and sat there enjoying the sea breeze eating ice cream and drinking coffee. Lovely!

Then back to Helsinki in crowded boat full of people returning from the island. We had the bus at 18.10, so it was time to get our bags from the hotel and head to the bus station. We were tired, but happy. I had bought some new books that I started reading in the bus.