In Reykjavik

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In Helsinki

Actually T and I are in Vantaa, Finland, a town just outside of Helsinki where the airport is located. We are on our way to meet uncle D in Reykjavik, Iceland for a much needed vacation. It is bright and sunny here in Finland. We spent the night at a hotel because we had a 24 hour layover. There is an entertainment center nearby "Flamingo" that we walked to last night, got supper and walked around. It has an indoor pool, bowling alley (that we walked over and looked into with a glass panel floor/ceiling), spa, movie theater, restaurants and attached hotel. We ate in one of the restaurants that overlooked the pool, and people on the other side of a glass wall were in the pool area ordering from the same restaurant. T wanted to see the new Shrek movie but it was only available in Finnish so we did some window shopping instead.

Back from Vienna

I was in Vienna, Austria since last Wednesday on a business trip. I just got back at almost midnight last night. It was very warm there (and very warm here in N. Germany) all last week. Vienna is a nice city. Most of the time I was busy and due to fly back Sunday morning, but I ended up just missing my flight in a string of bad luck (despite leaving early in the morning in plenty of time). My new flight was scheduled for late on Sunday and the whole time I regretted not having time to see more of Vienna so I turned the situation around and went back to the city for the day, walked around some parks, ate lunch at a sidewalk restaurant, and visited the Belvedere palace/museum. The most famous painting at the art museum is probably "The Kiss" by Gustav Klimt.

The night before I could tell again that Germany had won a soccer match. At one point people were running around wearing German flags and flying them from cars etc. (This was in Austria!!!)