Still Wednesday, June 15, 2016 | still Finnish and Euros

Edie and I went back in time to board the bus to Porvoo for the afternoon. The weather was absolutely delightful, the best we had seen yet on this adventure.

Rust-colored old warehouses, a 14th-century cathedral and numerous inviting cafes and galleries are among the highlights in Old Porvoo, one of Finland’s best-preserved Old Towns. Located about an hour east of Helsinki, Finland’s second-oldest city was founded nearly 800 years ago when the region was still ruled by Sweden.

The Porvoo Cathedral is a heavy, squat white stone building, this church wins no awards for architectural innovation, but it’s among the oldest in Finland, with parts dating back to the 11th century. The building was burned down four times between 1300 and 1700 and took a direct hit from a bomb in 1914 – miraculously the bomb fell through the roof but did not explode. The roof was burned by an arsonist in 2006, but the damage was repaired while some of the Catholic-era murals are still being restored.

We took a leisurely stroll around the leisurely town and stopped for some tea and pastries.

Back in Helsinki, we enjoyed dinner at the brand new Löyly restaurant/bar/sauna. A commanding, environmentally friendly structure built with converted waste wood in a former industrial area along the edge of the Baltic Sea. Löyly is the first project in Finland to earn certification from the Forest Stewardship Council. It is quite a building to see. It is intended to resemble a huge boulder when the wood ages into grey.

Löyly, which means the steam radiating from the rocks when you sprinkle water, is Helsinki’s first true public sauna. It’s the real deal – heated by wood, features smoke and has an accessible cold body of water to jump into at the end. The sauna ritual is a religion to the Finns. Almost every person we met mentioned that there are five million people and three million saunas in Finland.

Taking a sauna begins by washing oneself and sitting for some time in a hot room, typically 200°F while pouring water on the hot rocks to create steam. When the heat begins to feel uncomfortable it is customary to jump into a lake, sea or swimming pool. In the winter, rolling in the snow or swimming a hole cut in the ice is tradition. Next comes a beer and sausage. Then you start the ritual all over again – sauna, lake, beer, sausage, repeat.