Day 14: Another Day in Helsinki

Tags

europe, finland, helsinki, suomenlinna, travel, vacation

I forgot to post the last few days.

On this day, we took a ferry ride to Suomenlinna Fortress. It was about a twenty minute ride and we spent the bulk of the day roaming the island. Suomenlinna is a sea fortress right off of Helsinki. It encompasses six islands. It was built in 1748 as protection against Russian expansionism.

The island makes for a nice day trip now. You can walk around the fortress. There are several cafes as well as museums and other historical spots. There were cannons lining the walls. You could go into the tunnels in the walls. It was pitch black inside, so I stayed out. The water is all the Gulf of Finland/Baltic Sea.

This will mostly just be a photo collage.

Those are all swans.

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[Late] Europe Adventure: Berlin

Tags

berlin, eftour, europe, germany, travel, wanderlust

That awkward moment when you realize this was supposed to get posted LAST summer. Like 2015. Whoops.

Late, but not forgotten, Berlin 2015. Berlin will mostly be a photo diary as I no longer remember the small details of the day.

From what I recall, we only spent one day in Berlin. We arrived via a sleeper train from Munich and got straight to sight-seeing. It was mostly a driving tour so I didn’t get many photos and the ones I did get aren’t that great. The next morning, we flew out to head home.

Brandenburg Gate

 

Europe Adventure: Salzburg

Tags

austria, ef tour, europe, travel, wanderlust

This has been in my drafts for months. I guess I never published it. Oops. I have several I never published. They’ll be out soon.

We took a day trip to Salzburg, Austria  on one of our last days in Europe. Salzburg is where Mozart was born and also where Sound of Music was filmed. First though, we stopped at the salt mines right next to the city.

View from next to the salt mines

 

We had to put on jumpsuits before we could go into the mines.

Inside the mines, we saw machines that the miners would use and took a few slides to get deeper quicker. There was even a ferry that took us across an underground lake.

After the mines, we took a Salzburg tour. Our guide was a sweet old lady who knew everything about the town. She told us a lot about Sound of Music and Mozart, because I guess that’s what they figure Americans know about.

Julie Andrews danced here!!

And here!

This is where Mozart was born.

She also danced here. This was the Do-Re-Mi fountain.

Austria was just beautiful. I don’t know that I’m desperate to go back, but I’m so glad I got to mark it off of my list.

Europe Adventure: Munich

Tags

eftour, europe, münchen, munich, travel, wanderlust

We also spent a day in Munich as part of our tour.  In the morning, we visited Dachau Concentration Camp and in the afternoon, we took a walking tour of the city.