The way home.
We dropped our car off a bit early at Hertz because I was somewhat worried about the damage. As I said earlier, the process was very easy just had to write down what happened and pay the bill for the rental - not prepaid. We were then dropped at the terminal. The J lounge Finnair (Executive Lounge) shares is a bit stark, but the breakfast items were fine and the overworked staff really nice. The 2 or 3 staff have to look after the front desk, bring out the food and clean the toilets - hopefully in that order.
Because we were early we had to hang around for the Check-In to open. While we were doing so a tour group of about 40 Mainland Chinese turned up and jumped the queue. They caused massive confusion trying to check-in as a group with passports all over the place. There was no sign for a Business Class counter but a staff member was sitting nearby under an electronic sign for another airline and doing nothing. I went over to him and asked him about a J Check-In. He was it but his "sign was broken". Simply writing a basic sign on a bit of cardboard or actually making an announcement was apparently too much of an effort.
Further, when we left the J lounge to go to the departure gate there was no plane in sight and it was actually an hour late arriving - with no announcements, or changes to the departures screen, being made until it finally arrived. The late departure from Helsinki would have already been known when we checked-in and we could easily have been warned.
Finnair was adequate. Their planes appear clean and well kept but we had 4 flights with them and one was cancelled and another an hour late on a 3 hour flight. Their staff are polite but pretty impersonal. I preferred the Chinese contract staff on the Helsinki - Singapore flight to the "Finnish" employees in Europe. On our flight from Dublin to Helsinki my finished meal tray was left on my table for close to an hour until they had completed their most important task - selling duty free to the Y passengers. On the whole I would happily fly with them if they offer, basically, 1/2 prices fares again but would not pay a "full" Business Class fare for them.
As we took off the Irish Weather Gods had their final joke at our expense - sunny with scattered white clouds. Something we had rarely seen for the last 21 days.
Business class meal - Meatballs and mashed potato. Looking on FlyerTalk this seems to a normal lunch. As the Finns on there describe it - IKEA Cafe food. But at least it kept me occupied.
Leg room shot -basic economy seat. But better than the Air NZ 787. On the previous flight I had sat in the bulkhead row and was very cramped. This time I swapped with my wife - who also complained about being cramped - she is about 1.7m (5ft 7") to my 1.91m (6ft 3"). Both of us agreed that the ability to stick your feet under the seat in front was more desirable.
Nearer Finland the clouds cleared and we again had good views of the Finnish Archipelago - where Pushka said her husband did some kayaking in her current "Russian Around The Baltic" trip report.
