Second part of our Helsinki adventure. We started with the Lutheran Cathedral, just four blocks from our hotel. It dominates the central Helsinki skyline and all the guides call it a must see. It’s a big white church that seems to have a crowd outside constantly. Not sure what else to say. Yeah, I was kind of underwhelmed. But that didn’t slow us down. We headed to the Kiasma contemporary arts museum and Ateneum. Both impressive. The next day, we took a ferry to Suomenlinna—a historic fort and World Heritage Site. It’s spread across several islands and a bit overwhelming. The wind also managed to spoil a lot of footage we shot. Oh well. Then Monday we hit the Amos Anderson Art Museum and caught a show of emerging artists. All in all a spectacular cross section of Finish art and culture.
It’s time for another travel adventure. We decided to take advantage of the recently-added Finnair nonstop between SFO and Helsinki. Turned out to be an easy flight and we felt comfortable in Helsinki almost immediately. This is just part 1. Stay tuned for more.
Final part of our 2016 European jaunt. We had a couple of days back in London before the flight home. Hit the National Gallery and reacquainted myself with a number of my favorite Impressionist works that I studied in art history classes. Explored the City of London a bit more and discovered the original Roman wall just a couple of blocks from our hotel. Picked up some gifts before the slog to Heathrow. I have to hand it to Virgin for making the airport experience rather pleasant—definitely the best part of their business class. Then back to SFO just in time for a glorious sunset.
Part 2 of our 2016 European jaunt. We start with a quick train trip from London St. Pancras to Lille, France. Then we picked up a car and headed to Amiens, which would be our base. Rich has studied World War I extensively so visiting the region on the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Somme proved irresistible. And who am I to turn down several days in the French countryside? Finally we wrapped up with a quick return to London.
Vacation time again. We decided to take advantage of the record low British Pound and last-minute biz class airfare sale so we headed off to London for a few days.
Got a new camera body this week. I splurged on the OM-D E-M5 mark II—an update to the original E-M5 that I have had for a couple of years. The new design fixes a few issues I had with the original so we should be seeing slightly improved, smoother video. Otherwise, the holiday season has kicked off with decorations appearing around the city and our house. Ho ho ho.
Yes, I’m still here. The long gap is due to computer issues. First the new iMovie had just enough changes to throw off my editing workflow. Then my hard drive died. Fortunately I didn’t lose much, thanks to backup, hence this multi-week compilation. The Fall season progressed. Daylight saving time ended. Rain started. AT&T is trying to make us pay for three weeks of service we never received. Plus my husband and cats are cute. There. All caught up!
Not sure what to theme this week. Just day to day ordinary stuff for a long married gay couple in San Francisco. Driving around in the electric i3. Cute cats. Washing the 3-series. Hiking with the guys. Deer in the woods. And other stuffs.