Day 19: Jyvaskyla  18C
Yay, sunshine pouring in. I'll pack the jacket away. So this is the last 180kms of our trip. Thank goodness for that.

Our first stop for morning tea was at the international ski resort of Lahti. A massive complex with three ski jumps, swimming pools and several of the 2 million saunas that the Finns need. The jumps have a porcelain surface so they can be used all summer. I caught sight of a person flying down the middle one but just couldn't move quickly enough to catch them on camera. It was the Samis who introduced the Finns to skiing as a sport. Some skis are up to 3 meters in length. The skiers have a weight limit and are disqualified if they do not come in at the requisite weight. They start competing at 7 years of age.

In such brilliant weather the fireweed illuminated the forests making the final journey memorable. There was still a proliferation of moose signs all along the highway yet no sign of a moose. As compensation, our tour guide gave us each a silver moose Christmas decoration.

Helsinki is a young country established in 1850 when the capital of Finland was shifted here to be on the Baltic sea. It was originally a sea fortress going back to the 18th century. Down at the port is a huge statue of a naked woman towering over a pond with seals providing fountains of water. This is Helsinki rising from the Baltic sea. The townspeople were deeply shocked at her naked state but the sculptor explained that she would not be clothed under those circumstances. The population is around 650,000 and coming into the city is a huge ever-changing computerised sign running the length of a rooftop showing the current number of people in the city. So when 40 of us turned up, the sign added us on; each time a birth and a death is recorded, up it pops on the sign. Now, ain't that grand?

Helsinki is an administrative city rather than industrial one, but she does make ice-breakers which can cut through the thick winter ice, and container ships. In a couple of weeks there is to be a meeting of Trump and Putin for which
2, 000 journalists are expected. We were shown the grand meeting hall on the sea front.

We were taken to the grand ostentatious Helsinki Cathedral where a wedding was taking place and then on to the simpler but imposing Lutheran Cathedral. The Sibelius  monument is spectacular. It looks like an artist's impression of a pipe organ but is actually just a collection of 600 metal tubes of varying lengths. When you stand under it the wind sings in those pipes capturing the ever-changing moods of Sibelius music. Of course when we boarded our coach it was to the hypnotic 'Finlandia' which we all know so well.

Our tour ends with a farewell dinner tomorrow night but Peter and I are staying on here for another 5 nights so you will hear much more of Helsinki over the next few days.