Photos from Finland (and Estonia)

After leaving Iceland, Katie and I went to Finland for about a week. We spent most of our time visiting our friends Fei and Tapani, as well their daughter and Fei's parents. We managed to pack in many small adventures in Helsinki, including taking a ferry to an island that was once a fortress, sampling some of the country's best micro-brews, and making several trips to the sauna. We also spent three days bicycling around Turku (Finland's old capital), and we even squeezed in a day trip to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.

We had a great time on this introduction to our yearlong journey. Finland is a lovely country in northern Europe, with landscapes full of rolling hills, tall pines, and long summer days. And of course, there was also plenty of great company.

Here are some photos from our trip to Finland and Tallinn:

Riding the ferry to Suomenlinna, a small island off of the coast of Helsinki.

This was once the largest dry dock in the world.

The fort on Suomenlinna.

A wheat field near Turku.

We ate farm fresh strawberries during our bike ride.

Red barns and rolling hills – are we in Wisconsin?

We slept in Hanka's shelter while waiting for the ferry.

It looks like a lake, but this is actually the Baltic Sea.

Here's the big ferry we had to wait overnight for.

We also got to take a few of these smaller ferries.

This dragonfly landed on Katie's backpack strap. It must be good luck, right?

Lenin hid somewhere in this village.

The view from the top deck of St. Olaf's church.

People sure were shorter back then.

Where to next?

The town square in Tallinn.

There were a lot of cool suits of armor in Tallinn.

Here's the ferry we rode to Tallinn and back.

For more of my photos from Finland and Estonia, click:

• Helsinki, Finland
• Turku, Finland
• Tallinn, Estonia