Blogs from Lapland, Finland, Europe - page 2

It gets light very late in the arctic so we had a lazy morning in bed and went down to breakfast about 9:30am. Breakfast is buffet style and there is a section of cereals, breads and toasts with jam, some sort of unidentifiably porridge type mush, baby sausages and what looked like scrambled egg but tasted like baked custard… There were also croissants and several cheeses, cured meats, tomato, smoked salmon and cucumber to choose from. Following breakfast, we collected our clothes (ski jumpsuits and boots) and went back to the igloo to try them on for size. We didn’t think we needed them today so we put our own thermals and clothes on and went for a walk into the village. It is only a few hundred metres down the road and there is another ... read more

For better or worse, the heatwave gripping much of Scandinavia abated just the day before my summit attempt of Halti Mountain in Finland. The mountain's summit is actually in Norway but the highest point in Finland is just short of the summit. Norway recently tried to redraw its border to give Finland the entire mountain but was denied by a constitutional technicality. Of course, with the heat dissipating came the rain. A lot of rain. One minute I was basking in the sun at Pihtsusjärvi hut, the wind whipping up from the hot south, the next minute the wind shifted from the north, as in the North Pole, definitely not hot. I managed to tag objective numero dos of the Scandinavia Peak Bagging Trilogy in ~3 hours from the hut and another 2½ return, pretty pedestrian ... read more

Hallo Fussballfan's und Bloger's Kirkenes hat uns mit gutem Wetter erwartet aber infolge fehlendem Campingplatz sind wir, nachdem wir die "Grossstadt" besichtigt haben weitergereist. Die Fahrt zur russischen Grenze war erlebnisreich, zumindest was die Strassenverhältnisse anbelangten. Das Ende der Strasse war irgendwie auch das Ende der Welt. Ende und aus und nur noch die Barentsee mit ihren eisigkalten Fluten. Das war nun der entfernteste Punkt von Daheim auf unserer Reise und somit geht es jetzt wieder südwärts. Auf wiedersehen Norwegen du wunderbares, traumhaftes mit tollen Überraschungen gespicktes Land. Wilkommen Finnland du unbekanntes, seenreiches, wildtierreiches Land in dem man vor lauter Bäume den Wald nicht mehr sieht. Kaum angekommen steigen auch die Temperaturen auf 26 Grad und der Mückenbestand kommt langsam auf die unangenehme Ebene.... read more

The northern lights; does it get any better? Yes, it’s better when they’re visible! You could only actually see the picture I've posted via clever clogs use of your camera settings. When that was taken I was stood next to the photographer (thanks Bob) but I saw bugger all. Seeing the northern lights would have been the icing on the cake of our holiday, we didn’t see them, but it was a fantastic cake anyway. We went to Finnish Lapland, above the Arctic Circle, in December. We flew from Manchester to Helsinki to Ivalo, it was interesting to fly over Finland, as it was pretty desolate looking place in winter. We were picked up and driven to Lake Menesjärvi. On arrival at the hotel our driver took a moment to point out various locations in ... read more

Dernière excursion, nous embarquons à bord de l'ice breaker Sampo au départ de Kemi, à 1h30 de Rovaniemi. RDV 12:30 à la gare de Kemi, le taxi du Sampo arrive quelques minutes en avance pour nous amener au port. Toute la mer du port est recouverte de glace pilée geante d'une couleur marron claire. Mis en service en 1961, le Sampo ouvrait la voie, ou plutot cassait la glace pour la navigation des autres bateaux. Dans les années 80, les bateaux étant de plus en plus gros, Sampo a dû prendre sa retraite pour laisser place au Polaris, un ice breaker bien bien plus gros. Sampo est donc désormais un ice breaker de tourisme. Nous naviguons sur une glace de 50cm d'épaisseur, recouverte d'une dizaine de cm de neige. Le bruit, le spectacle de la neige ... read more