January 22 blog

This morning started out with another big breakfast.  I will say that this breakfast fell a bit short of what we have come to expect here in Scandinavia!  Today, we started our day off with an hour and a half bus ride north to the city of Lahti, Finland.  Lahti is home to the annually held World Cup Winter Games, the Lahti Ski Games. As of 2010, Lahti is the only city to host the FIS Nordic World Ski Championship six times.  Our purpose in coming was to visit the Lahti ski jump as well as the Finnish ski museum on site.  Our guide, Lawry, informed us on the bus that today’s visit to the museum would be special.  We were going to get the opportunity to meet a Finnish Ski Jumping legend, Veikko Kankkonen.  Veikko or “Viki” won the gold medal in the 1964 Innsbruck games and allowed us to see his medals up close.   After going through the museum, we had the opportunity to meet Veikko and ask him questions about his career.  One of the highlights of the museum was getting the opportunity to test our ski jumping skills in the simulator.  We had a little class competition to see who could jump the farthest.  Veikko set the bar high with a jump of 83 meters but this distance did not last long.  This mark was eventually broken by one of this blog’s authors, Brian Simons, with a jump of 108 meters.  He can now say he beat the rest of his classmates and well as an Olympic gold medalist!  

After the competition, the group took a short bus ride to the base of the ski jump tower.  We all boarded elevators and went to the top for a spectacular view of Lahti.  Note to reader: Ski jump towers make excellent observation towers as well.  Next, the group headed inside for lunch; which consisted of salad, potatoes, chili, and rice pudding for desert.  While we ate, we were able to see a few Finnish skiers fly off of the ski jump.

After lunch, we said goodbye to Lahti and headed south towards Helsinki.  We made a  quick pit stop at the famous Littala Glass Outlet to see some of Finlands finest hand-blown glass.  Once back in Helsinki, the group enjoyed a free evening and time to explore Finland’s leading seaport.  We went around a few of the local shops near our hotel and returned for a trip to the sauna.  In the sauna, we experienced how many scoops of water Fins actually like on the hot rocks.  What seemed to be unbearable temperature for us; was probably a typical sauna for the Fins.  Tomorrow is our last full day in Scandinavia and we will be experiencing a Finnish League hockey game.  The Fins take their hockey very seriously and we are all excited to experience it first hand!  Good night from Helsinki!

Ryan & Brian