Helsinki and Tenerife Winter 2011

Helsinki market. Rye bread is the default staff of life.

Do Finns eat rye bread? The real question is, do the Finns have more versions of rye bread than the French have cheese! The loaf on the lower left hand is the one that I learned to bake at a Helsinki bakery back in 2002.

Spuds are a way of life.

In Seattle, we love our fruit. In Finland, they love their spuds. Never saw so many varieties. The first new potatoes in the Spring go for about $15/lb, during the first week of availability.

Finns excell with smoked fish sandwiches.

A new dimension to take out food! Gravd lax on hard rye rounds. And to compare, a gravd white fish as well. Was that ever tasty with some Finnish beer.

Small herrings, fried, pickled and baked. Everyone eats herring.

Ah, my favorite subject. I wasn't raised Jewish for nothing. Forget about those Icelandic and Dutch herring. This is the real deal. From these little gems, comes the best mustard herring. I had a typical tasty dinner that included filleted intact herring, breaded in rye bread and fried. Served with mashed potatoes and ligonberries. The perfect accompanyment would be vodka. The other way to serve them would be to gut them, keeping head on. Deep fry and serve in a paper cone. Sold on street corners everywhere(in the summer).

OK, this is not a Charbucks. This is a real coffee house in Helsinki.

This is the back wall of a coffee shop in Helsinki. Two things really stood out on our trip to Helsinki and Tenerife. First, there was not one woman with a water bottle welded to her hand! Second, there was not a single to-go coffee cup seen anywhere. See, it can be done! Seriously though. The coffee is very good in Helsinki; and their coffee shops are really works of art. Not a single Charbucks to blight the scenery.

You're never alone when drinking coffee by yourself.

How's this for a seat in the coffee shop to contemplate your navel!

Oops! this is not Helsinki in winter. It's Tenerife in winter. A big difference.

Talk about a contrast! This is the tram that goes from Santa Cruz(capital of the Canary Islands) in the norh to the old capital city of La Laguna. La Laguna is six kilometers to the west, and is 1,800ft higher than Santa Cruz. Great for tourists, and absolutely jam-packed for locals going to work. In La Laguna, we got literature on the plans to build a high speed rail line that follows their one high speed highway from Los Cristianos(tourism on the beach) 75 kilometers in the south, up to the airport just north, and then on to Santa Cruz. From there, it will go west, to the other airport. All told it will be about 140 kilometers. And run every 15 minutes. It has already been approved. It starts construction in 2014. All this for an island of 800,000 people. Really makes Puget Sound area as lame as it really is.