Overnight Layover in HEL and Karl Fazer Café

• Planning Wife’s First Mileage Run
• Finnair JFK-HEL-MAD, Layover in HEL
• Finnair Business Class Lounges at HEL
• @home British Airways Lounge at HEL
• Aspire Lounge at HEL with Priority Pass
• Holiday Inn Las Tablas Review
• Chocolate Churros at San Gines
• Museo Del Prado, Retiro Park, Royal Palace
• Museo de Jamon
• Madrid Tapas Tour
• Iberia Business Class Lounge at MAD
• Finnair MAD-HEL Business and Economy Class

We took the airport bus down to the city center. I already had bought some roundtrip bus tickets for both of us so she wouldn’t have to purchase it on the bus with Euros. I also took a quick city tour before she got there so I knew exactly where to go.

I took her along Stockman’s to see some lights and then straight to Hotel Kamp.

Along the way, we saw a trolley very similar to the ones in Boston. Of course they look much newer and probably work. Not like the ones in Boston.

We saw the Helsinki Cathedral on our short walk around downtown Helsinki.

We needed dinner so we looked around for somewhere to eat. Everything was so expensive and there wasn’t anything interesting so we just went to Subway’s.  The money we saved got her a handbag at Longchamp, which was just across the street from our hotel. She wanted one for a while and it is much cheaper to buy it here than back in the states. I also got a VAT refund at the airport in Euros.

Later that night, we went to Karl Fazer Café. It was open later than most places so we went in for a hot chocolate and jalapeno chocolate cheesecake. The cheesecake had small seeds of the pepper in it, which gave it a small pepper kick to it. It was definitely interesting but I like my cheesecake very traditional. It supposedly won some awards for it but it wasn’t my cup of tea.

The hot chocolate was very good. This was one of their specialties. They had a few to choose from.

Afterwards, we walked inside their chocolate store. Karl Fazer is a large chocolate company here in Finland. They had a large store in the non-schengen portion of the airport. They had a large variety of chocolates here. They sold it in various packages as well. We bought a few different kinds to try when we are back at home.