Today we did hit early, I hit with Luisa from Italy (the carry on passenger coming from Rome), and Leanne, her husband Wayne and her doubles partner Debra Schmidt (who also had no luggage, coming from GBR but she got it this morning…and the Rome passengers were still waiting for theirs).
After hitting we went to breakfast and I must say, it was an impressive one. Everything from oatmeal to salad to muesli to bacon and eggs, smoked salmon and sautéed vegetables, plus lots of fresh bread, butter, jam, omelettes, fruit and more. Damien Pound, a lean Aussie put away an amazing volume of breakfast! (Photos tomorrow)
After breakfast and some exercises, I took my racquet for stringing, and watched the end of a very long match between the other American here, David Pitts, who is working this time of year in Helsinki and his wife. Pitts lives in New Mexico (which apparently has only one clay court, at Jimmy Parker’s club). Pitts lost 76 in the third.
I went back to Helsinki, this time to the center, about 30 minutes between the tram and walking, to the Kamppi area, where there’s a mall. And of course an interesting grocery store. I went first to Marimekko where I got a few bags (shopping bags for groceries and such), bought a 7-day transport ticket, and of course went into the grocery store. I’ve been in it before, when we were in Helsinki for the World Championships in 2016, but it is still interesting, and had a variety of foods, including some good apples, an amazing licorice array (black licorice seems to be the Finnish national candy), quite a variety of bread and rolls (sold by the gram), a sushi bar (complete with “vegan” sushi), also sold by the gram, and of course lots of fish, though I didn’t take photos of that department.
I tried to take the tram back to the hotel…but the track wasn’t working so I had to take a taxi, which was nearly as much as my 1-week pass. We are 30 minutes by tram from the city center here.
I walked around the area for a bit, signed up for tomorrow’s practice, and returned to write these blogs. The days are long here from around 4am till 10pm (days are shortening now by about five minutes a day).
