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.