Day 15 - Helsinki

We are on the move today from Bergen, Norway to Helsinki, Finland. You may be asking why we would go to Finland in January. It’s a valid question, lol. Before I explain, let me compliment the freaking genius of the Bergen airport. Well, except this sign…

At the airport, you can tag your own bag, scan the tag yourself, and send it on its way to the plane. You can do all of this without talking to anyone. Then you scan your boarding pass in the appropriate security line and send your stuff through the X-ray machine. We didn’t speak with a person until that point. Of course, both our backpacks got pulled over for cords or whatever. But we basically sailed through the entire process in 15 minutes.

There’s a large bookstore once you get through security, which was nice to see.

In Europe, you don’t know your gate number until about 90 minutes prior to boarding. But at least in Bergen, we had a general idea as our flight is international and we needed those gates, not domestic gates. The business class lounge was very nice, very serene as opposed to the hussle and bustle of the terminal. But I made us leave it way too early due because I wanted to get in line for the flight. As it turned out, the plane was very small and there was no reason to rush to get there.

As to why Helsinki? In 2017 we did a Baltic cruise that was supposed to go to Helsinki. But we got stuck in St. Petersburg due to weather so we missed that port. Yes, I see the theme of port missing continues. So on this trip, when I was figuring out how to get back to Dallas, I was looking for a place we could fly home on a direct flight. It’s January, and winter, we really did not want to mess with connections.

Finnair is in the One World Alliance and has a direct flight from Helsinki to Dallas. With this side trip we killed two birds with one stone, Finland and a direct flight. Win win. And there is an Olympic venue, so we can check that off the list too.

Many of the cruisers seemed to have booked their flights through Viking. I am not a fan of this as I’d rather deal directly with the airlines. Also, I’m sure some people had direct flights but almost everyone I talked to had multiple connections. We heard that Viking changed their plans at the last minute, and gave them

more than one connection. Uggg

To close out the cruise, Viking had offered a 60% cruise credit compensation when we were stuck in Alesund for four days. After we missed another port on the way to Bergen and hit more “unforeseen” weather, everyone thought the compensation would be increased. Last night we received a letter saying we will get 100% of what we paid for this cruise towards another cruise. I think other than money back, which never happens, that’s about the best we could have expected. So we will sail on Viking again at some point. We are waiting on the details of the credit - how long do we have to use it, etc.

Ah Europe and very small planes. We had to check our bags. The backpacks barely fit in the overhead. We are on a Finnair flight operated by Wideroe. It’s like American Eagle, but smaller.

Some views as we left Bergen. Gorgeous.

Our flight probably had 100 people on it and Martha and I are literally the only people in baggage claim. Everyone else had a connection. Everyone!!! Our two lonely bags were the only ones on the conveyer belt.

Weirdly, we did not go through immigration or passport control as we left the airport. Norway is not in the EU and Finland is. Maybe they have some sort of side agreement, but it was strange. I hope no one looks for a stamp on our way out of the country.

The hotel is good, a Marriott in the heart of Helsinki. It should be convenient to a lot of things. That’s for tomorrow.