14 April 2002: Petra and Stefan popped in

Michael: My cousin Petra and Stefan dropped by and visited us in Helsinki today. They came on the overnight ferry from Stockholm. It takes about fifteen and a half hours in each direction. There is usually entertainment on board, with a few bars and restaurants, a cinema and some tax-free shopping. Tax-free shopping is not allowed between two European Union countries (like Finland and Sweden) but there is an exception made as long as the ferries visit �land (which an island between Finland and Sweden). We took a short tour around Helsinki city, which is a bit sleepy on Sunday mornings. Based on what we've seen of Saturday nights it's probably recovering from a hang-over. Anyway, the weather was "warm" at +10C, so it was quite pleasant to wander around.

After accompanying Petra and Stefan back to the Siljaline terminal I decided to walk around and see if there really is more to Helsinki than meets the eye. I wandered around aimlessly in the southern part of Helsinki and discovered some areas that I've never been to before. Nothing really amazing, but lots of nice 1920s architecture (of course scattered with the occasional 1950s eyesores). I might come back to this area when the shops are open since it looked like some of the antique shops might have some interesting things (like a model of a Mini Cooper S rally edition).

7 April 2002: It seemed like a good idea until...

Elke: What do you get when you cross an over-confident husband, my bike and an icy skateboard jump in the middle of the night?

Michael: Well, let's just say that it's a shame we didn't have a video camera handy to witness my half-baked idea turn into a bruised chin and a realisation that I'm not a kid anymore :(

6 April 2002: Drum roll please ... Elina is walking on her own!

Elke & Michael: Good on you Elina! Way to go! Keep it up! Fantastic! Amazing! Well done! ... hey come back here!

3 April 2002: My shiny new pram

Elina: Mamma and D�dd� were very annoyed that my pram was damaged in the flight to Germany. The Finnair lady sent us to a pram shop to see whether it could be repaired or if it had to be replaced. Fortunately, they said it was too difficult to repair so they gave us a shiny new pram as a replacement (actually prams seem to be about twice as expensive in Finland as they are in Australia). It's really comfy but the old one looked cooler. This one has won a few design awards and it's easier to turn (so hopefully Mamma won't crash into so many things anymore) and has better suspension (so we can go bush bashing in the forest with D�dd�).

2 April 2002: Home sweet home

Elke: Well, this morning it was time to catch a plane back home. Before we went to Germany, +5C was "shorts and T-shirt weather", but after 4 days of 15-17C, 5 degrees feels really cold. Hopefully we'll get used to it soon.

1 April 2002: Spectacular architecture, great weather and nude men

Michael: Elina made sure we didn't sleep in this morning. We walked down to Marienplatz and had breakfast in front of the Neues Rathaus (New City Hall) which was built between 1867 and 1909, and is famous for it's Glockenspiel. Everyday at 11am it comes to "life". As folk music fills the square the mechanical figures begin to dance. The Glockenspiel depicts two events in Munich's history.

The colourful dancers perform the dance of the coopers (a cooper is someone who makes wooden barrels). This commemorates the end of the plague in 1517.

The other performance re-enacts a famous tournament of jousting knights that was held for the royal wedding of Wilhelm II and Renata von Lothringen that took place in Marienplatz in 1568.

Later we met up with Tobi and his friend Carolyn in Max-Joseph Platz. We walked north to the Englischer Garten (English Garden) which is the largest city-garden in Europe. The English Garden is where people like to relax when the weather is nice. Some people are so relaxed that they sunbake in the nude. Mostly they were strange men, who quickly disappeared in their lederhosen, long socks and sandles when the clouds rolled in.

Once again it was time for some traditional Bavarian food. This time it was a fried slice of pig knuckle with red cabbage. It was pretty good but probably not too healthy for the arteries.