Day 2 - Day off from Hockey - Dec. 27, 2015

Well, today is a day off from our viewing of the tournament. There is only one game in our arena - Denmark vs Switzerland, and we're not going. Instead, they organized a 2-hour tour of Helsinki in the morning, and tonight is the Welcome Reception. All of the people on the tour should be here today, so they will greet us with some entertainment, a dinner, and our jackets. That part goes tonight. We leave the hotel at 6:00 pm, and should return about 11:00.

Cornelia, our Guide

Our tour guide today was Cornelia. She is a pretty Finnish lady and speaks English very well. Our driver was Jari, which she says is a popular Finnish name.
We saw a number of the sights around Helsinki, which is a fairly young city compared to other capital cities in Europe. It has a population of about 800, 000. When it was made the capital city, it belonged to Russia and the Tsar decided the capital should be further away from Stockholm than the original capital city. At that time, Helsinki had a population of about 1500, and only 5 stone buildings. Now, there are a lot of big buildings, modeled after the architecture of St. Petersburg.

Luthern Cathedral

We stopped at the Luthern Cathedral, which is a large church built up on a hill. There are a lot of steps going up to it, and there is a statue of Alexandre II in the square at the front of the church. The sun was shining fully on the Cathedral, and it was quite spectacular to see. It appears that this will be the site of the New Years celebration as there were a number of workers setting up staging in the square at the front of the Cathedral.

Alexander II

OKRA - Craft Store

Across the street from where our bus stopped, Dawn spotted a craft store that she had researched before we came over, so she was quite excited about going in there. She didn't spend much time looking at the Cathedral, and instead, scurried across the street to make some purchases from the store.

After that, we went on with our bus tour. We passed the ship building area. Apparently they have 3 main ship building yards in Finland and build many of the world's large ships. There were 4 ice-breakers moored near here, along with a number of large ferries that go between Helsinki and Sweden (overnight), Helsinki and St. Petersburg (didn't fit our schedule), and Helsinki and Tallinn, Estonia. We will be taking this ferry on a day trip, later on in the tournament.

Ferry from Stockholm

Ferry is just in

We went by some beaches and swimming area, one which is used for winter swimming. Can you imagine, people pay money to join the club so they can swim in the Baltic Sea in the winter. We didn't see any swimmers, but apparently they are around. Near one of the beaches, we stopped at the monument to a famous Finnish composer (Jean Sibelius). There is a unique stainless steel monument along with a bust of his head at this site.

Monument to Sibelius

Sibelius' Bust

The bus dropped us off at one side of the park, and then moved to the other side of the park to pick us up. We were quite careful while walking in the snow, but Dawn slipped and fell. She was really worried about her knee but was likely more embarrassed from the fall. In the end, she was all right, but she did have a couple scary moments.

Ice Breakers

A Boat in the Bay

After that, it was on to a visit to a church that was cut into the rocks, in another part of the city. The bus had to park quite a ways from this church, and it was a walk to it. We decided not to go, and instead, walked around the close vicinity of where the bus was parked. There was a slight wind, and our faces got quite cold in the -4 degree temperature. We got back on the bus and then headed back to the hotel for the afternoon.

Statue

Church Cathedral

Back on the bus at 6:30 for our trip to the Messukeskus Convention Centre and our Reception Dinner. Everyone is here now, the last groups arriving late this afternoon, so there are now 11 buses to transport our group around, and 526 guests on the tour.

When we got to the Convention Centre, they let us off the buses in order, staying on the bus until the previous group was in. It worked out well, because, within half an hour, everyone was in the hall and seated. As soon as we were seated, we were told to go to the buffet table to dish up. There were 3 buffet stations, each one being accessible from both ends, so things went pretty quickly. We were amazed that this many could be eating so quickly after arriving at the hall.

Hotel in a Ship

Olympic Stadium - 1972

It was a cold-plate dinner, salmon, caesar salad, green salad, chicken fingers, pasta salad, desserts, coffee/tea. The salmon was great, and there was more than enough to go around. We have had quite a bit of salmon while in Helsinki, so it must be one of their staples.

After that, it was entertainment by a comedian they had hired to be the emcee as well one of the bus leaders. He was pretty good, and had us laughing pretty hard very quickly. He described life growing up in Canada, which was something everyone could relate to; things like dad watching the hockey game on Saturday night, while drinking beer, dads being as surprised as the kids when the presents were opened because he had no idea what they were getting. It was a lot of fun.

The Comedian

The group

This was followed by introductions of the owners and staff of our tour company. Besides the owners and their family, there are 11 bus leaders, some who are staff, and some who are volunteers. Most have been on these tours with the company before, so were known to those who have come before.  Rita talked about starting out on their first World Junior tour with 23 people - 20 parents of players, and 3 guests, advancing to this year, their 12th tour with 526 guests. They don't do tours when the championship is in Canada, so we estimated they have been doing this for about 24 years. It is a first class tour, with first class facilities, and first-class management. We are more than happy to be with them.

Ater the dinner, it was back on the bus to return to the hotel. We got back after 11:00, and it was time to head to bed.

The stage