Finnish the Ship now to Santa

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Off the ship this morning. We say our final farewells to friends and crew. No tears but a few more laughs and subtle digs. Good crew.

Out to our private transfer. This turns out to be a local taxi but a very nice guy - huge.

Into the wild blue yonder. This dude has a booming voice and struggles a little with English but is generally very easy to communicate with.

We get to one part where there are signs about militarily restricted areas. I ask if he is worried about being so close to the Russian border - only 10km away. Not at all he says. We find out a little bit later he is married to a Russian. No wonder he isn’t concerned.

We have around 6 hours in the car to Rovaniemi. Eventually cross the border into Finland and the roads improve 120%. He warns there will probably be animals on the sides of the roads. Nek thing - reindeer to the left, right and middle of the road.

Lots of reindeer to be seen. At one stage there were around 5 or 6 reindeer leading a line of traffic coming towards us. Who needs lollipop people when you have reindeer directing the traffic. Looked very funny.

Long trip but we made it safely. Our hotel is a bit special tonight. The Arctic Tree House Hotel. Rooms are built into the surrounding forest and you look over trees and not much else. Sitting here in bed ATM with the windows open looking over a pine forest. Very enjoyable. Our dinner in the restaurant was even nicer. Very happy campers tonight.

Re-packed Stephanie’s case as she leaves us on Friday. Tomorrow we do Santa and then an overnight train to Helsinki but then she flies to Stockholm so we needed to adjust her case weights to suit that flight.

Bags and weight restrictions have been a killer but we are getting better at it now.

Off to sleep in the wilderness now.

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