HELSINKI, HORSES AND HILARITY

We were up bright and early, had breakfast in the Lido which is a buffet and fast.






We have a full day ahead of us and that being the case, you will get to see many photographs of our outing here in Finland. We were to meet the Lassley's in the Queen's lounge at 8:15 to disembark and head for shore.






We first took a sightseeing bus tour of Helsinki

and then we were off for a 1 hour ride to our first stop which was Porvoo, Finland.

It is a lovely small village surrounded by water,

and we toured the center of town on foot. As you would go up the small cobblestone streets, you had no idea what would be waiting for you around the next corner.

There were many "Kodak Moments" there as is was such a quaint little village with many interesting boutiques.

As usual, I left the group so I could take advantage of the sights there and possibly find some interesting things that I might paint at a later date.

It was a perfect place to gather data since there weren't many people there.

I loved this "throne" where the children could sit and pretend that they were the king or queen due to the crown that was mounted to the back of it.

They also can watch the little fairies dance in the windows of the stores. A perfect place for the imaginations of the little ones.

I have neglected to mention that most of the buildings are painted either red or yellow as those are royal colors.

It was an easy walk and we were very lucky. Frank found this little car that he really liked, but I told him that he couldn't have it since I refused to drive something around town that would have people thinking that I sold Mary Kay! ;-)

We each made a "pit stop" before we got back on the bus and I happened to capture this image of Papa!

As soon as we got back on the bus, it poured down rain for about 15 minutes. If we'd still been outside, we would have been soaked! That's where the luck came in. Since we were under cover, we were dry and happy campers.
After another 20 minute trip throughout the Finnish countryside on the bus (not nearly enough time to dry out had we gotten wet!)

We arrived at the Savijarvi family owned horse farm. It is a working farm and the family has had this place for 7 generations. Located at the end of a long lane of willow trees,

the present Savijarvi is a large manor house built about 1890, and the working farm is about 1,000 acres of mostly forested acreage. Mainly devoted to the raising of horses, a riding school and carriage driving, the farm also engages in organic produce farming and logging, and the large, extended family living on the farm also opens it up at certain times to visitors and tour groups. The 100 year old manor house still in use.

Many generations and branches of the family still live on the property. The family was both gracious and hospitable. We were greeted as we got off the bus by this young woman, a family member, carrying a tray of cranberry juice.

We then went to a sloping terrace where our hostess was Anita, daughter of the farm's owner, told us about the place and the horses.

I was intrigued by her story of how the farm became mainly a horse farm.

It seems that earlier in the 20th century, her father was somehow encouraged to sell dairy cows to Russia. However, in the beginning he didn't receive any payment from Russia in return. After much badgering, a bargain was struck which sent Russian horses to the farm in exchange for the cows and the rest is history!!

Horses were then trotted out of their stables for us to see.

Here is a Mother and her colt and he was the cutest, most frisky little fellow. He kept biting his Mama on her behind.

Of course there were then the Shetland ponies that are used mainly for breeding and show purposes.

I had a horse when I was a young girl and her name was Cricket. She was part Arabian and part Shetland and mean as the devil, so I'm not too intrigued by Shetland ponies. They're like daschunds ... very temperamental!
After the horse viewing, lunch was served in the manor house and dessert on the terrace out back.

We were told that the name Savijarvi meant "Clay Lake". I didn't see a lake anywhere, but I'm sure there was wither one on the property or one nearby.
The meal was a typical, simple Finnish lunch beginning with Thistle soup.

Legend has it that an early country remedy for the ailments of a life well-spent and heartily lived came from the pulp of the sow thistle. This was followed by a fish stew, small white potatoes, green beans and home made beer or Grog. the stew tasted much better than it looked.

The food was good, but I can't say much for the Grog. Our dessert was made and served to us by the Grandmother which was a homemade cake frosted with whipped cream and garnished with raspberries.

It was accompanied with frozen lingonberries, currants, chopped celery and rhubarb.

You were told to drizzle warm home made caramel syrup over everything. It was very different and wonderful!!! The different textures and the tartness frozen berries along with the sweetness of the caramel complimented each other perfectly.

Our lunch was served to us by family members, but we went to a large dining room and got our own dessert and then went out on the terrace to enjoy this delightful treat and also the cool crisp air.

After lunch, we toured the grounds and went down to the stables where the horses were kept. There were lots of houses on the property since so many family members lived and worked here.

There were many more painting and photo opportunities here.

We even got to tour the tack house, go inside the stables and pet some of the horses.

After lunch, went back to the city center in Helsinki and toured the marketplace.

There were lovely fruit vegetable and flower stands there along with vendors everywhere.

It was on the waterfront and across the street from the Helsinki Cathedral.

We even ran across a cowboy in the market that looked as though he could have been from Texas! He was selling some food item that he had made and handing our samples.

I couldn't resist taking this photograph of the two of us reflected in the mirror as we walked down the street. It was certainly something a little different.

We were back at the ship by 4:00.

We had a quick cocktail and then decided that we needed a little nap after a long day. After we got up and cleaned up, we opted to have dinner in the Lido tonight rather than the main dining room since we wanted to play a game called "The Liar's Club" which was put on by some of the crew members and then go see a comedienne who was entertaining on board. The game started at 9:15 so there was no way we could have done all this and have dinner in the main dining room too.
We not only played the game ... we won!!! The name of our team was Billy Jack, so how could we possibly loose??? Liar's Club was originally an American comedy game show, produced by Ralph Andrews. The panel, or in this case the crew members, would be given a very unusual word and then each of the three members would make up a definition of this word and you had to guess who was lying and who was telling the truth. It was great fun.
After the game we saw Geraldine Doyle who is the winner of 6 MO Awards. Voted "Best Stand Up Comic in Australia" in the first year both male and female comics vied for the prestigious award, she had previously won Mo Award’s for "Best Female Comic" and "Best Versatile Performer". She was cute as a bug and very funny.

This had been an evening of fun and games, so we were ready for bed.
We had a very bumpy night as the seas were very rough and the winds very high, so the ship rocked us to sleep like babies. Our little pig was waiting for us with our chocolate treat and kept us company tonight.

It has been a long day and we need to be rested up for Stockholm tomorrow.
XOXO, Pcasso