We loved the 30 hour ferry trip from Travemunde to Helsinki - masses of food with loads of fresh fish and salads and puddings, and wine on tap with our dinner. Comfortable cabin, a sauna and jacuzzi and even some live music!  This is Antte and Marina, playing Johnny Cash, Sting, REM etc.  They told us that Finnish pop is all heavy metal, although that's not what we heard in the taxi when we got here. There do seem to be a lot of tattoo parlours and goth fashions around.  Still hot and sunny, and another hour forward on the clock.

We spent 3 nights on a boat moored up in this marina, where the harbour master, Harold, and his wife Michaela, put on a barbecue on Friday nights.  Here we are enjoyig a drink with Siggi and Inge, who bought a boat in April and will be sailing it for the first time tomorrow, with their three sons, none of whom have sailed before!  Inge is an osteopath/homeopath and her partner Siggi repairs lorry engines.  They live in Munster, where Ian was stationed in the army 60 years ago.

This is Aileen, teacher of Dao Lu Tai Chi in Walthamstow.  Aileen organises trips to China for her students, and we joined the Mandarin class she offered in preparation for the April trip. I liked Aileen’s teaching style so joined her women’s group on a Friday morning.  I’m sure it's good for me but I asked  Zhoey how to say "W0 de xīgài hěn téng  我的膝盖很疼  

Zhouey (pictured with the cello in the previous post) accompanied us to this exhibition of Chen Li's paintings, curated by Katrine Levin.  ​We had the opportunity to meet Chen Li (and I really love his work) after meeting Katrine at Terry McKenna's exhibition of his portraits in the same gallery.  Thanks to Zhouey, we now have an invitation to visit Chen Li at his studio in Kunming.