I Need A Vacation.: September 2019

Great weather again today and we are taking the Winterland Ice Bar and Helsinki Highlights excursion.

When you arrive, there are HOHO buses right there that you can take and a souvenir/gift shop terminal with duty free tax free souvies.

But I decided to try the ice bar and vodka shots for something different. I know there is one in Sweden and that is more of a bar setting which I know I would of enjoyed but this was touted and the "worlds largest ice bar". It wasn't as big as I thought it might be and I think it's more of a place to bring your kids. It's in a warehouse setting and I would of designed it a little bit different. Because it's dark maybe a dark sky with twinkling lights like you were outside instead of open beamed warehouse. Also I would of liked piped in music because it was a little quiet.

When you walk in you suit up in their heavy duty overalls, boots and slim gloves before you go in the ice bar for your shot of vodka in a crystal clear ice shot glass. They have a tobogganing area and you can take a kick sled for a spin which I did for a short couple minutes. There are various ice sculptures and igloos. They also had a husky dog sled ride that would do 2 laps for 20 euros each. The ride was only a few minutes so we passed. If you have kids this is a place for them and they will offer (I think it was Cranberry) juice instead of vodka. We were there for maybe 45 minutes and if you want more of a bar setting this is not for you.

One more stop at the Temppeliauko Rock church becuase it is literraly built from solid rock. We got let off for about a 5 minute walk from the bus. There isn't much walking around the church and it won't take you long to view the church. When we were there someone was playing the piano and it has great acoustics. When you leave there is a cute souvenir shop right across the street to the right. A big selection of very unique gifts. I found these little music boxes that you wind and play everything from "Imagine" to " let it be" . We had the option of staying in town and taking a shuttle back but that would of only given us 2 hours. So we went back to the ship and went through the cruise terminal gift shops.