Finland March 2014 (Part 3)

My last full day in Finland went well.  It was sunny, and I did not have a meeting until noon.  So I did a self-guided architecture tour in the morning.  Helsinki is compact and has a lot of interesting architecture, as illustrated here.

Early 20th century apartments, Helsinki

Another interesting building (from earlier in the week)

Then, I had an enjoyable lunch (at a Mexican restaurant with decent food) with my colleagues before bidding them farewell.  They even gave me a gift - powdered berries for sprinkling on cereal, etc. One blueberry and one lingonberry.  I am embarrassed to say that I haven't tried them yet, but hopefully I will remember to do so this weekend on my porridge.

For the afternoon's activity, I walked to the tram museum, passing by the parliament building on the way:

"Hey look kids, there's Big Ben, and there's Parliament"

Remember the movie with that quote (it's not a great movie, I admit)?

Hmm...my photos from the tram museum didn't really turn out.  On my way back to town, I walked by the Sibelius monument, which was pretty interesting (and more photogenic).  He was Finland's most famous composer, and my guidebook tells me that the Finns really like their music.

Monument for Jean Sibelius 

Then, I got some chocolate for LBJ (got the kids their Angry Birds lunch boxes earlier in the week) before heading out for dinner.  It snowed a fair bit in the evening, but it was raining when I woke up the next day - good day to return to Dublin (where it was also raining).  One last photo of Helsinki - sorry for the poor quality:

Uspenski Cathedral in the background there

It was a very productive trip, and I enjoyed seeing the city, but I was very happy to return home to LBJ and the girls (who were pretty well behaved in my absence, unlike my trip to Germany in June).