Porvoo is located on the southern shore of Finland, approximately 50 km (30 miles) east of Helsinki. It is the second oldest city (after Turku) in Finland, founded in 1346, and has currently a population of about 46 000. About 1/3 of the inhabitants speak Swedish as their native language. Porvoo is an idyllic little city (actually more like a small town) with its wood buildings, old brick-colored warehouses, narrow stone-paved streets, and small cafes, shops, and restaurants.

We took a bus to Porvoo from Helsinki with Tepa's mom Mirkku and ex-hubby Mauri on a Saturday morning, and spent a few hours sightseeing. At 4pm, we boarded M/S J.L. Runeberg, and old vessel, to travel back to Helsinki by sea. Whereas the bus trip takes about 35-45 minutes, the trip on the ship was 3.5 hours (and more expensive), but on a beautiful day, it's well worth it - unfortunately, the weather turned ugly on us right after we left the shore, and it rained much of the way to Helsinki!

For more info on Porvoo, see: http://www.porvoo.fi/ and http://city.porvoo.fi/matkailu/uk_index.html