Exploring Helsinki

After the Meet and Greet we walked around the city center, and along the sea, and came upon a Farmers Market.  Karen and I had a snack before dinner.

Karen's favorite food: Crepes

Belgium Waffles

Vohveli

Farmers Market vendor

Fresh veggies

Grilled fish, pineapples and potatoes

Salmon Soup.. and it was stinky

Grilled Salmon

A statue at the Esplanade
Love the bird on his head!




Walking back we found the Stockmann's department store's Crazy Sale!

Would you buy this for 990 euros?

Everyone loves a sale!

Day 3: Ducks practice, fans Meet + Greet

The Ducks had a practice session, which was also open to the public.  A lot of the Finnish fans came out to watch this.

Afterwards, the Road Crew fans were treated to a private meet & greet and lunch with the players. The restaurant was dark, so I wasn't able to take pictures of the players.




The Finnish fans took off work/school to attend this practice



Radio guy, Steve Carroll chatting with the fans

Media covering the Ducks Road Crew

 

I bought one of those crazy Teemu shirts, and collected autographs

Dark photo of George Parros chatting with a fan

Ducks at Jokerit

Pictures from the Jokerit game. The Ducks arranged a bus to take us to the areena, and provided great seats for the Road Crew (center ice)

We were also given access to a "club" type area, which was off limits to the general public. 

The Ducks won 4-3 in OT.

The view from the bus as we pulled up

A huge banner of Teemu on the Hartwell Areena



Puck drop!

Post game hand shake

View from our seats

Ducks Radio guy Steve Carroll (right)

The Jokerit

 

Famous hockey players signed sticks to Teemu

Sports memoriabilia all over the wall at the private club area

Day 2: Exploring Helsinki

We finally made it!!  Its our first official day and the Ducks organized a three hour tour of the Helsinki and then gave us the rest of the day to ourselves before the Jokerit game.

Here's some photos of some Helsinki sites.



Downtown Helsinki


Downtown Helsinki





At the souvenir shop at Rock Church



The Lutheran Cathedral




One of the Finnish composers



The Finnish media loves Teemu

 

Some really good donuts!

Day 1: Arriving at Helsinki, Finland

We arrived in Helsinki with a wet greeting.

It was cool and rainy, but that's not going to stop us from having fun!

The weary travelers

American airports should have these lounge chairs!

Welcome to rainy Helsinki

Excited Duck fan tourists

the Sandys and Anita happy to be in Helsinki :)

The Ducks gave us a wonderful welcome reception, and a really nice welcome gift .

The Ducks welcome reception

The menu

So.. which one was reindeer?

That's right... Coke Light!

Layover in Chicago, then Helsinki

We made it from Los Angeles to Chicago, and waited at gate K 9 for our connection to Helsinki.  Although we left from LA, many Ducks fans left from Orange County to connect up in Chicago, meaning our plane was quite full... of Ducks fans heading to Helsinki!



Sandy documenting our layover

Chicago Airport

Ducks fans waiting