Blogs from Finland, Europe

Tina Writes It was a big day so we have split this blog into two. Rob didn’t mention it was my birthday. Having already gone on the Huskey sledding in such amazing surroundings, it was already one of the best but now it was time to go to Santa Village. You could say this was the reason we came here in the first place. To meet the big man himself (this is as close as it gets id say). Maybe some of you don’t know this about me but I LOVE SANTA!. Santa to me is like what I think people who are religious think about God maybe. I am a believer. I still hear the sleigh bell ring. So it was shaping up to be a pretty good birthday. The bus dropped us at the ... read more

Rob Writes: There wasn’t a lot of excitement the day prior to this jaunt. It had been my work Christmas night out on the Friday night, and despite only having drank ½ a pint of lemonade and a couple of shots of spring water (honest) I was extremely ill the following day. Don’t know what happened. In hindsight this worked out in my favour. I never slept much Friday night and spent most of Saturday morning heaving into the lavatory. But what finished me off was trying to fix Tina’s mums (Jean) WiFi on Saturday afternoon. Where is this going? Well, we had to be at Edinburgh airport for 4am on Sunday morning, which meant getting up at 2:30am. The carnage detailed above allowed me to sleep like a baby from 9pm on the Saturday night, ... read more

Woke up with the sun coming in the un-curtained windows. Allowed us to look at nature all night - behind closed eyes. Still looked good this morning. As we were walking to breakfast we heard the sound of a jet. Next thing a fighter jet zooms overhead into the wild blue yonder. Turns out the nearby airport is also a military base. This thing was going very fast and the noise went on for quite a while. Nice breakfast then went back and finalized packing. Called our valet service who picked us and our bags up. Stored the bags at the hotel and headed off on foot to Santa’s village. A 30 minute walk. Again, whine walking a couple more jets went screeching over us. This time different colored planes. Maybe Air Force and navy - ... read more

Pas de souci... je ne vous laisse pas tomber... nous vivons seulement activement et chaque journée est bien remplie... soirées aussi vu qu'à partir du passage du Cercle polaire arctique, plus de télévision... pas souvent un très bon internet mais aussi une fatigue du voyage du jour qui fait que si le soleil ne se couche plus... nous oui.... nous rejoignons nos pénates avec grand plaisir !!!! Pour ce blog je vous mettrai des photos de Rovaniemi... le fameux village du Père Noël... Et oui... il nous a reçu et nous a même dit "Moein", en luxembourgeois... On ne peut malheureusement pas prendre de photos... c'est ici le gagne pain des étudiants en photographie... on en achète une pour leur faire plaisir et on garde son rêve d'avoir connu le Père Noël en mémoire... Evidemment ce ... read more

Ikaalinen (suédois : Ikalis) est une ville du sud-ouest de la Finlande. Elle se situe dans la région du Pirkanmaa, non loin de Tampere. Vous remarquerez qu'ici la deuxième langue est bien le suédois... Dans le train qui nous menait en ville à Helsinki nous avions rencontré un jeune étudiant qui nous avait expliqué qu'à l'école les deux langues se pratiquaient... Nous sommes venus à Ikaalinen dans le but d'aller au magasin d'usine d'Ittala... malheureusement ils n'avaient pas tout le choix que l'on nous a présenté à Helsinki mais avons tout de même ... read more