Blogs from Lapland, Finland, Europe - page 8

Brrr, minus eight degrees at Helsinki Airport this morning ... and minus 16 degrees in Ivalo which is where we will be heading later today. Well, actually, Ivalo is just the airport that we fly into. Ultimately we are bound for the Hotel Korpikatano in a remote place called Menesjarvi. There we will spend the next seven nights watching for the Aurora Borealis and our days dog sledding, snowmobiling, ice fishing and going on a reindeer sleigh-ride (when will we sleep?). I use the term 'day' very loosely here because the sun will not show itself above the horizon while we are inside the Arctic Circle!! So it will be either twilight or dark for the next week. A new experience for us; we have been in Alaska in July and seen the midnight sun - ... read more

After an awe-inspiring ferry crossing an ice-bound Baltic Sea, I arrived at the Finnish port city of Turku. I was rather sleep-deprived after a very early start in the morning, so I invigorated myself with a bracing run around the snowy city and then got an early night. The next morning I decided on an impulse to Finnish Lapland to see the Northern Lights. I'd read that around the equinoxes is the best time to see them, and that solar activity was at the height of its eleven year cycle in 2013. A rather expensive detour, but I decided that I couldn't really be in Finland at that time and not try and see them. I looked at various ways of getting up to Lapland (1000 km North of Turku!) and ended up booking a flight ... read more

Geo: 67.1571, 26.9157It was probably the most uncomfortable ride so far as we were sat at the back of the sleigh which got more of the bumps. We had expected it to be pulled by a reindeer, but as I have eaten most of them we had to make do with a snowmobile. This took 6 of us up to the top of the highest hill where we went into yet another log cabin for coffee and had a talk about Amethysts and how they are mined locally. So lots of lovely rocks to look at. Then it was down the mine we went and armed with a small hammer we searched for amethysts. Everytime I found an interesting looking rock our guide looked at it with his torch and told me it was worthless quartz. ... read more

Geo: 67.1571, 26.9157It is 20 degrees below 0 and falling, 9pm and we are taking a stroll around a frozen lake. There you have it- the excitement of an evening in Finland! At the end of our 40 minute walk there is a wooden hut with burning log fire in which to warm up after a short foray onto the lake to see what there is to see- on this occasion no Northern Lights but a stunning display of the stars and constellations which we would never see back home. All attempts to photograph this superb display failed so if the Northern Lights do appear I doubt whether we will get any pictures.The following morning we tackled the usual buffet at leisure. Ian made superb pancakes in the waffle maker. At least we have now discovered ... read more

In between driving like hell for thousands of kilometers, my faithful unlicensed co-driver and I stopped to wander about Urho Kekkonen National Park in Sodankylä, North of Finland. We arrived there around midday, and set off with pristine equipment and sufficient accessories - two pairs of dry shoes, two backpacks that were not about to fall apart anytime soon, first aid kit that could easily sort out a decent-size village that had faced a series of weird accidents all taking place simultaneously, enough astonishingly mild ready-made pasta to suppress our appetites for days, flashlights, towels, sleeping bags, repair kits, pinhole cameras, you name it. We had confidence in our earthly belongings but little fai... read more