Turku and a comment about an interesting custom

It was raining this morning when we left Helsinki, and continued to pour on our drive here. Turku is a big industrial and business city, as we drove into the outskirts and toward the core of the city I was amazed at all the new factorytype buildings and the large apartment blocks. Reminds me quite a bit of Llubjanka )sp= in Yugoslavia in the 1970s. We found our hotel with only a bit of trouble, for once Google map directions were correct, but I had trouble figuring out where we were on the map. We are staying in a hotel right in the center of the downtown, the older part of the city, on what appears to be the main street. The hotel is part of the same chain, Scandic, that is affiliated with FinnAir. This is a bit less posh that the Helsinki hotel. I haven't checked out the sauna yet / will let you know how it is. The rooms are smaller and the bathrooms definitely more Finnish in feel (smaller, everything closer together, no tub just a shower, etc.) The restaurant is not open, except, they promise, for breakfast because....

and, here is the interesting custom, this weekend is Juhannes or Midsummer, and nearly EVERYTHING is closed. Really, almost everything - no mcdonalds, subways, wayne's coffee (the finnish equivalent of starbucks they say) hardly any restaurants (we were told none at all, but we did manage to find a restaurant at a local hotel chain called Sokos, and one at the Radisson that are open. We also found a cafe down on the docks, and a restaurant that appears to be mostly pizza, etc., another on a boat moored along the Aura River, and a pizza and kebab restaurant around the corner from our hotel that appears to be run by someone whose name is Al Nadir. Someone was getting very testy as we were looking for a place to have lunch - I don't know why as it was only 2 o'clock in the afternoon and we had a big breakfast at 6:30 am, I won't say what his name was, perhaps you can guess!!! We ended up having lunch at the Radisson - it was actually quite nice and, by finnish standards, not particularly expensive. The Radisson restaurant (Aurora) is right beside the River Aura, so we had a nice view. As it was raining lightly, it was really nice to be inside looking out!

After lunch the rain had left up for the most part, and we decided to stroll down the riverside toward the harbor. We saw some fantastic boats - including the last 3-masted ship (I can't remember what kind it was, not a ketch, not a yawl, not a frigate, but a ......will look it up and put into my next blog. And another huge, modern sailing ship, the Suomen something. Took several pictures for the boat buffs among the family. Eventually, we wound our way back to the hotel, where Himsel is now washing some pesto sauce of his white pants (with palmolive soap - good thing to have when you travel) and I am about to go check out the sauna. More soon, love you lots!