Our trip to Rovaniemi started with a flight from Copenhagen airport to Helsinki at 8pm on Boxing Day. We were all pretty tired, but luckily it was a short flight and after moving forward an hour, due to time-zones, we got there about 10:50pm.
Our hotel was a 10minute drive away and we had a good (but short) sleep, we headed off to the airport at 6am to catch our 8am flight to Rovaniemi.
 |
| Location of Rovaniemi |
Rovaniemi is located on the Artic Circle in Lapland (the northernmost province of Finland). It is considered the traditional home of Santa Claus and home to both Santa Park and Santa Claus Village.
The snow was pretty deep when we arrived, but it was a nice warm -6 degrees:
 |
| Snow pile |
 |
| heading to the car - and the thermometer |
We had arrived about 9am so we had plenty of time before we could get to our cabin (at 4pm). We decided to head out to the Ice Hotel and the Igloos. The glass-topped igloos have been pretty famous on Facebook and we'd always wanted to see an Ice Hotel so we loaded the car and started out that way.
 |
| Driving in the snow |
 |
| Beautiful sunrise |
 |
| Another nice shot of the sunrise (of course being in the arctic circle it was either sunrise, sunset or dark) |
 |
| Bus shelter |
Of course, ice and snow on the car became a bit of a problem:
 |
| ice crystals on the car |
 |
| Welcome to the Arctic SnowHotel and Glass Igloos |
 |
| Giant snow pillars in the entrance |
 |
| Is it cold Tomas? |
 |
| The glass-topped igloos - I wonder how good the view is when the roof is frosted up like that |
 |
| The frozen lake behind the Ice Hotel |
 |
| Yep, well that's not sailing anywhere for a while |
 |
| The reception building |
 |
| Wall of the Ice Hotel |
 |
| Making an Ice Bar |
The Ice Hotel was open for tours at midday and it was only 11am. It was also going to be about 20 Euro (about $30) per person for each of our 7 people. However the hotel was open for guests to pack and leave, so we may have ummm accidentally wandered in and saved $210..
 |
| Entry to the Snow Hotel |
 |
| "Sneaking in" - Nothing says stealth like three kids in snowboots |
 |
| Ice bar in the hotel |
 |
| Corridors - the whole interior was packed snow and ice. |
 |
| Dining area |
 |
| Another dining area - is that the Hearthstone symbol at the back? |
 |
| Carvings on the walls |
 |
| Ice Carving of an owl |
 |
| Corridor of ice carvings |
After the Snow Hotel, we headed to the first of our Christmas destinations - the Santa Village.
The village was opened in 1985 and houses the official Arctic Circle Santa Claus as well as a Santa Claus Post Office and lots of Christmas shops. It was already getting late, so we visited the main shop and Santa and then the Post Office where we sent off some postcards so they would get the official Santa Claus poststamp. By then it was getting dark (4pm) so we left and made our way to the cabin.
 |
| The official Santa Claus |
 |
| Our Christmas photo with the real Santa Claus |
The Santa Village sits on the Arctic circle and we didn't realise that we had crossed it several times in our wanderings.
 |
| Arctic Circle |
 |
| Santa Claus Village |
 |
| Santa Claus Village |
 |
| Site map |
In the Santa shop we saw a Santa exhibit about Christmas around the world. In Finland, Santa (or Joulupukki) visits children on Christmas Eve and gives out the presents personally. Originally the Finns celebrated Kekri (All Hallows Day) for a big feast. The floors were covered in straw and straw ornaments were made. As Christmas increased in importance, it overtook Kekri and by the 1800s, it absorbed All Hallows Day. The next stage had nuuttipukki (scary horned goats) that roamed the villages looking for beer and treats and scaring children. In time these lost their horns and began delivering presents, before eventually becoming Santa or Joulupukki.
 |
| Traditional Nuuttipukki costumes |
 |
| Reindeer |
 |
| Some of the strange inhabitants of the Arctic Circle |
 |
| Santa Claus Village |
 |
| Christmas trolls in the Santa shop |
 |
| Santa Claus' Main Post Office |
It was pretty interesting getting to our cabin.. Turns out that the address on the website and confirmation email wasn't correct, in fact it was some poor person's house. After pulling into the driveway we got bogged getting out and had to give the car a bit of a push. Eventually I found the correct address on an email and we arrrived at place with a few cabins and sheds. We had no idea which one was ours so I called the company but they couldn't really make it clear where we should be. Eventually we found that one of the cabins was unlocked with the keys on the table inside - so that was ours.
The cabin had been described as being for 7 people with a queen bed, 3 single beds and 2 sofa beds. It didn't quite have that - it had lots of single beds and a maze-like layout. It was also heated in typical Nordic fashion to about 30 degrees C.
While Peter, Heather and Kristine (the adults) went out to buy groceries, I stayed to get the rooms sorted out and kids showered. After dragging beds, cots and chairs through tiny passageways I was pouring with sweat. Fortunately when Kris returned two hours later (the store was 40min away) she managed to find the window key and we could let some air in. Despite the weird layout, the fact that the kitchen for 7 people was a stovetop with two hotplates and a small frying pan, and the fuse for the stove tripping and not being replaced for a day, the place was comfortable and served as a good base camp for us.
More on the cabin, Santa Park and our return to Santa Village in the next post.
No comments:
Post a Comment