In the Arctic Circle - Rovaniemi

Yesterday we took the train north from Helsinki to Rovaniemi. Trip is about 10 hours and quite comfortable. We passed through neat fields and then forests. Based on an extensive sample, we suspect that there is a national agreement to paint all farm buildings dark red/brown, with white surrounds on windows and doors.

Rovaniemi is a metropolis of 39,000, but we will find some smaller stops as we move on.

Last night we had a lovely dinner of reindeer at our hotel (that's the end of Rudolf) and Berna has realized that she should have taken more interest in the details of this trip - too late now!

Rovaniemi is on the Arctic Circle (nearly). At this latitude, polar bears wander in Greenland and Siberia is in perpetual winter; here it is warm enough (nearly) to walk around in a t-shirt. Currently, the suns sets at 11:30 pm and rises at about 3:15am, though I'm not sure that it really gets properly dark.

We took the #8 bus out to the Arctic Circle (Napapiiri in Finnish). There is a tourist complex out there, including a Santa Claus Village and souvenir shops. It is all reasonably well done and quite friendly, though all of Finland seems a friendly place. Everyone takes their photo at the Arctic Circle marker and all the kids (of all ages) meet Santa Claus and have their picture taken. It's a popular place to send postcards from and the post office is smart enough to have a special postmark for them.

We came back to town and looked around for a lunchtime snack. Because it was there, we went into the most northerly McDonalds in the world - the food's no better however.

Rovaniemi (pronounced with a rolling "R") has a great museum called Arktikum, which covers this regional specifically and the Arctic areas generally. The exhibits are excellent and give a real insight into a very different part of the world and the lifestyle of its people.