Day 8 : Amethyst Mine

  Today we went up to an Amethyst Mine in northern Finland.  We took a tour to get up there which was about 2 hours on the way up.  We saw some reindeer in the woods as well as a lot of trees and snow.  

Our first stop was for lunch we went to a picnic area which had a little hut on a lake.  Inside the hut was a central barbecue.  It had a basin with three metal posts.  On each post was a little swivel tray you could use to cook on over the file.  After we got there the snow really started coming down.  We ate the traditional pork sausages and some other stuff like corn, mini burgers, spinach Pancakes, bread and cheese with Hot Chocolate.

We had a little bit of time to kill so we took a walk along the lake.  There are paths everywhere in Finland.  We even saw some big tired mountain bikers out in the snow down the paths.

All the paths are graded and they aren't little foot paths they are about 4 people wide.

Apparently taking with our guide everyone has a snowmobile or cross country skis.  He also mentioned you can take multi day husky rides and camp in the little cabins scattered thought out the wilderness.

After lunch we headed up to the mine.  We climbed a little bit adjacent to a ski resort.  The snow was coming down pretty good so we could only see the lights of ski hills.  When we hit the parking lot we started to see really different types of trees.  They are skinny and have this Dr Seuss look about them.  From the parking lot you take a Snowcat up the hill.

As we go the trees get shorter, stubbier and more spaced out.  First we stop at a little lodge with a cafe and bathroom.  Now the bathroom looks all neat from the outside and then you step into a breezy pit toilet.  Having been equipped with coveralls it was an interesting challenge going to the bathroom.  After the brief stop we headed up the hill even further.

At the top there were barely any trees, we passed some fence posts that look surreal all covered in icee snow.

For the mine we sat in a small little hut and had some warm juice.  One thing I will say about this place everywhere you go there is a warming hut with a warm drink.  Some fun facts I liked about the mine was everything is done by hand.  They do not blast or use any equipment other than a small chisel and their hands.  They do this to preserve the stones and the site in a sustainable way.  The mine was established in the 80's and its the only one in Europe.

We mentioned the one in Arizona which he had heard about and said it was a big deal.  Who knew.  After the talk we were off to dig up some Amethyst.  Luckily they had a little building around the dig area because its outside not in the mountain.

We were able to keep one of our finds so we each kept a small stone.  Very dusty work but a fun hunt.

On the way back down we took the Snowcat again.  This time as we looked out the window it reminded me of the submarine ride at Disney land except with snow and cool trees instead of underwater coral and shells.

We caught a night flight to Helsinki and will be headed to Copenhagen in the morning.  Most of our flights seem to have the little stairs outside. But it was kinda cool seeing a few planes all covered in snow kinda like we had been seeing cars.  Our plane had just landed so it wasn't too bad.

Now to wait until morning.  Hope to try out the Finnair lounge with my One World status for breakfast.  Our morning flights at 7:40a. Its going to be a long one.

Day 7 : Santa's Village

Today we headed over to Santa’s Village.  It was fun but also a little bit disappointing.  There were multiple buildings that had different gift shops.   The buildings were well built and really fit the theme.  I think the problem is you have this image in your head from when you were a kid on what saints village would look like.

I didn’t see a work shop, although I will say the elves were well dressed and I really liked their outfits.  So much so I bought my self a hat.  This village is on the arctic circle.

That is the magic line where for at least 24 hours once a year there is total sunlight in the summer and in the winter 24 hours of complete darkness.  Its a curved line that goes through the buildings and across the area.  Along the line they have it written the Latitude and Longitude of this particular line.

Now we did visit Santa in his official arctic office.  That was kinda neat it had an arctic theme as you waited to get in.  He’s a very popular fellow that Santa Claus.  They had a Guinness world record wish list.

Once you get to his official office you enter a live TV streaming.  You go up and meet him and can talk to him about anything. He really liked Joe’s beard of course it wasn’t as long as his but in volume it could get there.  After the visit we purchased photos and a video of our meet and great.  Very well done I actually really liked this part.

After visiting Santa we decided to send some post cards.  They have special stamps as well as a special postage stamp so we sent some off to a few kids as well as sent one home for our selves.

There were also mail boxes that they would send the letters next year.

Its amazing how many letters this place gets every year.

After some more shopping, which did have a lot of locally made items which is always a plus.  It makes it easy not spending money on useless things if you only buy things made in the area you visit.  One thing that was real neat were wooden cups made out of Birch.  They have one or two little holes for you fingers to hold the cups.

These are a few pictures of a hotel at Santa's village.  Believe it or not this was taken at 4p right after the sun went down.

Inside the PostOffice was a lot of nice decorations.

Winter park area at the village that had ice skating, sledding, and Igloos.

Day 6 : Rovaniemi Sleigh Rides

Today was all about being outside.  First stop was the tour shop where they gave you an extra pair of socks and big winter boots.  They say your feet stay warmer with a bit of room to breath.  They also put us in blue full cover snow suites and gave us a full head cover with helmet.  

From here it was to our snowmobiles.  The route was full of roads for snowmobiles, dogs and cross country skiers.  Intersections even had large fancy signs with kilometers to the next town.  But on our route to see the reindeers there was not a soul but us. 

We pulled up to a nice farm with reindeer tied up loosely to trees like you would normally see a horse.  Little smaller and fuzzier than a horse but otherwise thats the image I saw.  Overall they were even cutier standing there in the quiet wintery wonderland.  

We mounted up two per sleigh held on a single reign with a single reindeer who took us for a quick ride around the park.  Ours started off quick and then decided to stop.  

He just waited for the guys behind us to catch up then took off again.  Almost like cat and mouse, but no mater how much we tried the reigns he was doing his own thing. 

We found out there are no Caribou in Finland which would be wild reindeer.  Although the reindeer roam wildly on the off season they are all owned by registered ranches.  They allow the reindeer to give birth in the wild and the baby live “wildly” until they are three.  At three they are trained for pulling a sled which takes 3 years or so.

After the reindeer we hopped back on our snowmobiles and rode over to lunch.  Lunch was in the middle of the woods surrounded by snow and trees.  There was a single t-pee with a fire place in the middle ware we roasted sausages.  We had some hot chocolate and enjoyed the warmth.

Last stop was a Husky farm.  There were 5 week olds, 5 month olds all the way up to around 10 year olds.  At around 10 they retire to homes in the area.  The dogs love to run and I guess have three options for a 12 dog sled.  The front guys are the smart ones that have to listen to the commands from the musher.  They are usually female too so that was a fun fact.  The ones in back are the hearty ones, they have to make the sleigh go where the guys in front want.  The ones in the middle are usually the younger ones in training along side an older one to show them the ropes.  They just help pull the weight but don’t have to think at all.  After the ride we had some warm juice in a yurt with another wood burning fire place.

Day 5 : Route to Rovaniemi

Christmas Day evening we hopped on an "Express" train up to Rovaniemi from Helsinki.  Finding the train was a bit challenging because its an auto train so you had to go to a different area than all the other trains.  The last few cars of the train had double decker cars loaded on them.  We stayed in a little room that had 6 chairs.  They were so uncomfortable, believe it or not the Amtrak that Quinn and I took last summer was much better.  Must remember to just spend the little bit extra and just get a sleeper cabin.

About 10 minutes out of Helsinki everything turned white.  The rest of the trip was snow covered trees and fields.  Each train station (there seemed like a lot for an "express") had piles of snow everywhere.  I met a Finish gentleman in the dining car.  He has a summer place up north that he needed to get cleaned up because they have had a few weeks of snow.  He mentioned he lived up here one year but after 5 months of snow he moved to Spain.  I asked why everyone speaks English.  He said that they are required to learn Finnish and Swedish in school plus one other language.  A lot of people choose English but he also mentioned that a lot of TV shows are in English with Finish subtitles so they also just start picking it up.

We arrived in the wintery wonderland about sun up about 10am.  Of course there seems to be only one bus line or some taxis so a walking we went.  We did see a lady with a shopping basket on skis, picture doesn't do it justice but it was slick. We had to stop at a shopping center to thaw out it was -19C out and we are just not use to that.

From there we found a Finnish restaurant to have lunch but apparently the only door to the place was stuck.  So when we walked up the guys was using a screw driver getting no where.  Of course there were people inside as well as waiting outside.  So the guy went back to the truck and got out the crowbar.  He was able to open the door but then as we walked in we found out they were full, so we stopped at the Pizza Kabob place next door.  The dough was great the rest I would put in the category of mystery meat and cheese whiz.  Mental note, no more pizza this trip.

The downtown area had a winter playground that had like a slot luge that kids would slide down.  There was also an igloo with an ice table and chairs.

The last thing for the day was a walk over to a museum that had a history of Finland.  Biggest part that stuck was that the germans destroyed 90% of Rovaniemi in the late 40s so the whole time had to be rebuilt.  This bottom picture was the ceiling in the museum.

And this apparently was a traditional shoe for the area.  

Day 3/4 : Helsinki

Christmas Eve:
Little bit of ice skating today on the side walks.  The rain froze over as soon as it cooled off a little so you had to watch out for the shiny walk ways.  In the morning we did some shopping at the local shop Stockmann’s.  It had a bunch of high end brands of cloths but in the basement there was a giant grocery store.  

We walked backed by the Cathedrals to see about mass but apparently most Fins don’t go to church except for Christmas so the small churches had people standing out the doors.  I did notice a strange flag that I swear looked like it had a garlic clove on it.

On the way to one of the cathedrals we passed the Sauna and Pool area.  We watch a couple walk over to the pool.  The lady got on the vertical stairs dipped into the water and then got right back out without even letting go of the stairs.  The guys went to do the same thing but he paused at the knees, the then continued but as it got up his leg he stopped and started to get back out.  The lady was yelling at him to keep going so back he went and again didn’t make it and wanted to chicken out.  At this point the lady got down on her knees on the side of the pool and coached him until he dipped to the shoulders, got out real fast and ran back to the sauna.

Christmas Day :
  we packed our bags in the morning since we would be taking the night train to Santa’s Village.  For the day the plan was to go to the zoo.  Luckily the sun was out so it was a bit warmer.  However at high noon the sun was only about 20 to 30 degrees above the horizon.
The walk to the zoo was about a mile and a half.  It was all under construction but there was a real fancy pedestrian bridge that went to one island that seemed to just be a large park with bike and hiking paths.  We saw another one of those turtles, green this time, to help guide the way to the zoo.

At the entrance to the zoo there was a giant Sloth and a Kimotodragon.  Some of the animals were hibernating but the owls were out and about.  

We saw 4 different types, the big white ones were real neat looking.  There was also an African bird area with Parrots and a lot of other birds in a tropical enclosure.

Next the zoo had a Bear Cage from 1903. Thank goodness it wasn’t in use any more.  It was so small but the sign said that it was designed to hold 3 black bears.  If ever there looked like a dungeon for an animal this was it.  The picture even showed someone walking up to shake its hand.

After the Bear cage we went to see some very large cats.  You could get up an personal with them with about 5 feet between the low fence and a cage holding them back.  They were so close that the male lion decided to mark his territory and was able to spray Quinn’s leg.  The other cats they had their were endangered with only about 40 remaining in the wild.

The last few things we saw were some camels, reindeer and what looked like moose but they were local to the area and were called Elk.  And the Giant Mosquito, which I’m not quite sure what the point of him was.  At first it looked like a spider.

On our way back we walked by the Cathedral again but were able to go inside.  It was not decorated or really that interesting.  The only unique feature I noticed was looked like they would lock you in the pews so once you got in you couldn’t get out.

Finally the last part of our day was catching the Santa Claus express up north.  The last few cars of the train were for cars stacked two high.  Although it was raining in Helsinki by the time we went about 10 minutes on the train everything was covered in snow.  Super excited for the next few days.