Arrival in Helsinki - Dec. 25, 2015

Merry Christmas everyone. It doesn't feel like Christmas for us, but it must feel even less like it to those who have to work at the hotel, with the buses, and at the airport. We sure appreciate them doing this for us.

We bussed to the airport in Munich, leaving our hotel at 8:15 am. There were 151 people staying at the hotel from our group, and they had booked 3 buses. Unfortunately, there was not enough room for all the baggage, and they had to hire a van to get the extra to the airport. It seems the drivers didn't anticipate how much space would be needed for the bags, and didn't pack too well. They had to repack, but there still wasn't enough room. In fact, it was quite a tough fit for all the people, but we finally made it.

It was about a 45-minute drive to the airport. They had chartered a flight on Tuifly for us because Lufthansa was not flying on Christmas Day (at least to Helsinki). The plane was a 737, and there was quite a bit of room. Many of us (including Dawn and me) had an empty seat between us, which allowed us lots of room. Otherwise, it would have been very crowded - not much room between rows, and relatively small seats.

The flight was just over 2 hours, and we lost another hour in time because Helsinki is farther east. So we landed in Helsinki at about 2:00 pm. Then onto our bus (we were scheduled for bus #2, which held a lot of people. However, one of the buses sent only held 46 people, so some had to move over to seats in the other buses in order to get a ride.

We arrived at the hotel about 2:50, and the check-in procedure began. They had 4 lines set up to accommodate all of us, but still it took a long time. Then, one of the elevators to our floor was not working, and with all the bags, it took a long time to get everyone to their rooms on that side of the hotel.

Finally, we were in our room. It is a nice room - large, a king bed, large bathroom, a sauna (which it is unlikely we will use) and a large sitting area. It took quite a while to figure out the lights. Like all the hotels we have stayed in in Europe, you have to put your room card in a slot just inside the door that applies power to the lights. However, in this room, the light controls are electronic and adjustable for different "moods". It wasn't a problem at this time, but when it was time to go to bed, it became a problem because I couldn't figure out how to turn the lights off. I finally found the switch for the lights on our headboard, but it took a lot of searching.

We had a good sleep. It feels like we are finally catching up and our sleeping rhythms are adjusting to the time difference. Our bus leaves for the games at 2:40 pm, so there is lots of time to get up, shower, eat breakfast, and relax for quite a while, before the hectic schedule begins.