Gondolas in Helsinki?

Sunday

Today's meeting was only a half day we we finished more or less on time at noon.

I was meeting David, a former boyfriend of my daughter at that time but he was running a bit late. That gave me time to put my stuff ion the room and have a quick lunch before he arrived. He has only been here a few weeks and is not yet in his permanent apartment. He was offered a chance to join us on the trip to Banff but had to go to Ikea so he had a bed organised for when he moves in. It was nice to see him again.

I was in too minds about going on the tour, since it was back to Banff and included the gondola ride to the top of Sulfur Mountain again. In the end, I decided I really didn't have anything else to do in particular so at least I'd be with my friends.

They had a large bus similar to the one we used for the road trip and a smaller one as well. I lead a contingent over to the smaller bus since it was getting packed in the large one. There were 9 of us, so we had plenty of room and a chance to have conversations that included everybody.

Our first stop was at the Banff Springs Hotel (again) but i was quite glad to have a toilet break there, since the next stop was the Bow Falls again and there are no facilities there. It had started to drizzle by then so I didn't bother to get out.

From there it was straight to the gondola station and with smaller queues than on Thursday, we were soon at the top. Unfortunately it was very cloudy with sleet/snow/rain and high winds. Occasionally it clear in patches to give a bit of a view but never the 360 views we had earlier. I helpfully showed some of my photos from that day so the newbies could see what they were missing. I never left the building, but a few of the guys walked to the weather station on the next summit. They were pretty cold and wet by the time they got back.

We then had several hours in the town to look around and have dinner. Ironically, the weather cleared in that time.We finished up in a bar that had a special on pizzas and steins. There were 8 of us having $10 pizzas and none of us could finish them They were boxed up for the party later. The $9 stein was a litre and Millie decided she couldn't drink it herself, so we got some extra straws.

We got back to the hotel around 9-30 and the "Helsinki" wind up party started starlight away in the hospitality suite we'd been using all weekend. At 10 we move down a floor to the Sanctuary Lounge which was much bigger. About 11-30 the management came to tell us we couldn't "serve" alcohol but it was apparently OK to bring your own glass with a single drink into the room. The drinks were moved to a member's room on the same floor and people wandered down there for their next beer or glass of wine/spirits. About 12-30 we were kicked out since we'd only booked it till midnight and the party continued back in the  hospitality suite. I left about 2 and there was still a dozen or so partying on at that time.