Destination Unknown Part 5

 We were finally able to leave Manchester on our second attempt. There were several new lockdowns and flight bans implemented during January. Our first flight from Manchester to Helsinki got cancelled. We managed to book another flight with a layover in Frankfurt. To board the flight our butler had to take a Covid-19 test and fill out an entry form to Germany. We decided to book a hotel by the airport so our butler could take the test the day prior to the flight. This way the test will still be valid for the entire trip and we do not have to stress about receiving the results or the trains being late. 

Our room at Doubletree Hilton.

Grandpa and Bu ready to enjoy the warm cookie.

We stayed at the Doubletree Hilton Hotel. The hotel is only a five minute walk from the train station at Manchester Airport. We checked into the hotel and stayed in our room with the free cookie while our butler went to take the test and buy some dinner. We really liked the hotel and the free cookie was such a nice touch to make us feel extra welcome.

We got the results back that our butler tested negative for Covid-19 and that we were good to go. Our check in to the flight the next morning went smoothly. There were some customers that were disorganized with their tests so the queue took longer than necessary. After the security check we went to Boots and got ourselves some breakfast. We got the chicken sandwich trio. Perfect, one for each of us. We got the meal deal so we also got a smoothie and a cookie dough brownie.

The flight itself was uneventful. We got free coffee and bottled water. 

We had a couple of hours to kill in Frankfurt Airport so we found a cozy corner to relax in and watch Netflix. Later on we got some snacks from the bakery at the airport. A delicious sandwich with smoked salmon, cream cheese and egg. We also got a delicious nut croissant. Mjau, we were watching Netflix on our phone and forgot to take pictures.

This time we got some apple juice and a power bar on the flight. 

Since we already had a valid covid-19 test, our entry at the boarder control went smoothly. Since we had been in England we just had to fill in an additional form with our butler's contact information.

Our room at GLO Hotel Art.

In Helsinki we stayed at the GLO Hotel Art. We really enjoyed our stay there. Our room was a bit on the smaller side. However the bed more than made up for it. We think this is the first time we have used a smart bed. So wonderful to be able to adjust the bed to your liking. We also like that the hotel provides you with a friend in your room. It is nice with some company and you will not feel lonely if you are traveling by yourself.

Our new friend!

Comfortable position for relaxing.

Our reservation included breakfast. The breakfast buffet was served in the restaurant at basement level. The atmosphere is really nice and cozy with brick walls. The breakfast was delicious. They had warm bread, karelian pies, crêpes and croissants with different jams. They also served warm potato patties, bacon and scrambled eggs. A selection of fruits such as watermelon and pineapple was also served. We got a bit excited and might have eaten too much. No worries, we went back up to our room and laid down in our magnificent bed for a bit.

First plate of breakfast.

Crêpes and croissants with jams and nutella.

We were happy to see that they have several new chocolates and snacks in Finland since our last visit. They have a new delicious Tupla Nougat, we think we might prefer it over the original. They also have a new Geisha Salted Caramel. We were really looking forward to this one since we love salted caramel and we love Geisha. Unfortunately we have to say we were disappointed by the new Geisha Salted Caramel. We think it might have worked better if they had a layer of liquid salted caramel in the chocolate instead of having it incorporated into the filling. Perhaps if they had regular Geisha with bigger chunks of crunchy salted caramel it would have been better. We still prefer the original and the delicious Cappuccino Geisha.

Excited to try the new chocolates!

The new Tupla has a delicious white nougat centre.

We also tried some new Fazer Chocolate Thins with strawberries, oat and almond. They were really light and a good snack. We liked that it had proper chunks of strawberries in it. The almond and oat also gave the chocolate thins some extra crunch. We like our snacks and sweets to have different textures in them.

Delicious strawberry bits in the chocolate.

Bu and Grandpa trying some new chocolates.

They also had some new savory pastries. We also revisited some old favourites of ours. We had a Eromanga Lihapiirakka (meatpie). We have not had this brand before. It was really delicious and the filling-dough ratio was perfect. We also had a Dallaspulla. Dallaspulla is a bun with quark and vanilla filling. So delicious. We like them when they are a bit darker and the top of the filling is a bit crispy. The new savory pastry we tried was a new take on the traditional Karelian pie (karjalanpiirakka). This one was basically a Karelian pie with egg butter already in the pastry. A really nice addition. Usually when buying Karelian pies from the store for a snack we find ourselves wishing they sold a packet of egg butter on the side. This solves the issue perfectly. We definitely recommend trying this one.

Ready to start our feast.

The yellow is the egg butter, the white is rice filling.

Delicious meat filling. Lihapiirakka is one of our guilty pleasures.

We were also excited to finally be able to visit cafés again. We just had to visit Fazer Café and get the Geisha pastry. It is our favourite pastry at the Fazer Café. We also got a Chai Latte to warm ourselves after walking in the snow. The Geisha pastry is a milk chocolate mousse cake on a chocolate biscuit and with hazelnut crunch in the middle and there is also some pieces of hazelnut in the mousse. So delicious, especially the hazelnut crunch. We really enjoy the mix of the smooth and crunchy textures.

Enjoying Geisha pastry and a Chai Latte.

Delicious Geisha mousse cake 

We also found some additional new snacks in the grocery store. They now have a limited edition white Snickers bar. It is coated with white chocolate and we think the filling also differs from the original. It looks lighter. We also bought a Brunberg Mocca Kiss. It has been a really long time since we last had them. Our butler was not a fan of them when younger. Our butler was pleasantly surprised that the Mocca Kiss was not as bad as memory had served. Perhaps they only tried the regular ones before. The Mocca flavour was however not as strong as we had hoped. It was still really good and light and fluffy.

I wanna stuff some chocolate in my face.

So delicious!

On our last day in Helsinki we left our luggage at the hotel and decided to walk around Helsinki for a bit before leaving the city.  We visited Akateeminen kirjakauppa, a bookstore, and found some interesting new reads. We bought The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories. It is a collection of 34 Japanese short stories by different authors translated into English. We are really looking forward to reading the stories. After the bookstore we went to Paulig Kulma. There we got a cup of coffee, a delicious chocolate-ginger raw cake and a Runeberg's torte.

Delicious raw cake and Runeberg's torte.

After our café visit we returned to the hotel to retrieve our luggage. Our butler then dragged our suitcase through the snow all the way to the train station. We bought a train ticket and were on our way to Lahti.

Bu and Grandpa back in Finland.