Exploring the Laplands of Finland

Kim scraping ice off the windshield with a coffee cup this morning. It was only -1°C (30.2°F) vs -2°C (28.4°F) yesterday, but there was still plenty of frost.

We crossed another time zone yesterday when we entered Finland so we are now 8 hours ahead of Texas. 

Lapland is Finland’s northernmost region, a sparsely populated area bordering Sweden, Norway, Russia and the Baltic Sea. It’s known for its vast subarctic wilderness, ski resorts and natural phenomena including the midnight sun and the Northern Lights. Capital Rovaniemi is the gateway to the region. The homeland of the indigenous Sami people, which extends into neighboring countries, centers on the far north.

Lapland, the conventional name for the region, is derived from Lapp, the name Scandinavians ascribed to the Sami people, who have sparsely inhabited the region for several thousand years. Today the Sami consider Lapp to be a derogatory term. They call the region Sápmi.

Much of the color is gone as we get farther north.

Sun coming up over the bay

We decided to drive up to Rovaniemi today to see the sights. Rovaniemi is the capital of Lapland, in northern Finland. Almost totally destroyed during World War II, today it’s a modern city known for being the "official" home town of Santa Claus (a total tourist trap), and for viewing the Northern Lights.

The Rovaniemi Church is a church located in the city center of Rovaniemi in Lapland, Finland. The 850-seat church, designed by architect Bertel Liljequist, was completed in 1950. The earlier church building, completed in 1817, was burnt down by the Nazis during the Lapland War on October 16, 1944

It certainly doesn't look big enough to seat 850.

Grady, this pic is for you, a LEGO Santa.

The one good thing I can say about Santa's village is this play area for children was a pleasant surprise. It had the garden of Eden, Noah's Ark, the nativity, Jesus' journey to Jerusalem, the tomb, and Jesus' resurrection, all with interactive pieces.

Santa's village is built on the line of the Artic Circle. Coordinates for you Bill.

Proof that we are in the Artic Circle 😀

We drove up a little farther north and took a short walk by this river.

Loved the way the ice looked on these leaves

toe stubbers

We walked across the bouncy wooden bridge

Kim felt to see how cold the water was.

Stopped into a little store to get a coffee and water. We were 211 miles from Russia.

Fazer (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈfɑtser]) is one of the largest corporations in the Finnish food industry. The company was founded by Karl Fazer in 1891, as a "French-Russian confectionery" in central Helsinki. Today, it employs over ten thousand people across Finland, Sweden, Russia, Denmark, Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Japan. Its products are exported to almost 40 countries.

Fazer is the leading producer of chocolates, sweets and biscuits in Finland with a market share of 30-40%. The Confectionery division has operations in the entire Baltic Sea region. Confectionery is sold in more than 40 countries. I bought some Fazer chocolate today. UmNom.

This market is like a huge Walmart. It had a little bit of everything.

We ate lunch at City 21 Cafe

I had the waffle with red crab skagen. Basically, crab salad on a waffle with a really good mixed salad, all gluten-free and dairy-free.

Kim had the crispy chicken bowl with sweet potatoes, also GF/DF. Almost their entire menu was GF/DF.

more logging photos

The lady at the inn this morning told us about this place to go for a walk. It was very hard to find and miles down a dirt and gravel road, but we finally made it there.

Kätkävaara is a forested hill with tor formations in its hill tops, it also contains the 7-kilometer-long nature trail. Kätkävaara’s stone fields are impressive ancient shores and they are often referred to as ”the devil’s fields”. The nature trail’s circle-loop route presents the area’s diverse nature. This trekking route is medium in its difficulty and it is recommended to reserve about 3-4 hours to complete depending on the pace. We walked it in 2 hrs, 10 min.

Funny thing about this sign is the 0/7km. If you've ever been to Europe you know that they don't use decimals for anything that I have seen. They use commas and dashes and other things that make no sense to me. Kim and I both saw this sign and thought 0.7km will be a nice little walk. After walking for a good ways, we both said this is not a 0.7km trail. Then we saw a sign that read 5/7km and we realized that it was a 7km (4.4 mile) trail. We didn't start hiking (and it was indeed a hike) until 4:40 and we were walking the trail backward from the sign measurements so we had gone from 7/7 to 6/7 to 5/7 when we realized we had only walked 2km of the 7. Oh boy! All the photos below are from the hike. 

There were many boardwalks to get over marshy and rocky areas. The only problem with the boardwalks was that they were wet and icy. We both slid a few times, so had to take it very slow on those.

the stone fields

took this photo because of the curled bark

Still some color in this area. Ruska is the Finnish word for autumn leaf color. When the Ruska is at its best, it is also the best time for berry and mushroom picking. Many Lappish chefs love autumn for it's bounty. I just love autumn.

some of the boardwalk over the stone fields

Up in the tower at 600' taking a goofy selfie.

The sun was going down when we reached this sign with 1.55 more miles to go.

steam rising from the lake

Two things I really wanted to experience on this trip were to see reindeer and the aurora borealis. Neither have happened. We have stayed up late, driven out into the countryside late at night and sat in the car for an hour, gotten up out of bed to go outside and keep checking, all to no avail. No Northern Lights to see. 

I could have paid €5 to pet a reindeer at Santa's Village today, but that is not the reindeer I want to see. Here are some fun facts about reindeer. I may as well write about them since it doesn't look like I'm going to see any, even though Finnish Lapland has a population of about 200,000 of them.

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*     Reindeer and caribou are the same animal (Rangifer tarandus) and are a member of the deer family. In Europe, they are called reindeer. In North America, the animals are called caribou if they are wild and reindeer if they are domesticated.

*     Both male and female reindeer grow antlers, while in most other deer species, only the males have antlers. Compared to their body size, reindeer have the largest and heaviest antlers of all living deer species. A male’s antlers can be up to 51 inches long, and a female’s antlers can reach 20 inches.

*     Unlike horns which are never shed, antlers fall off and grow back larger each year. Male reindeer begin to grow antlers in February and female reindeer in May. Both sexes finish growing their antlers at the same time but shed them at different times of the year. Typically, males drop their antlers in the late fall, leaving them without antlers until the following spring, while females keep their antlers through the winter until their calves are born in the spring.

*     Reindeer are covered in hair from their nose to the bottom of their feet (hooves). The hairy hooves may look funny, but they give reindeer a good grip when walking on frozen ground, ice, mud, and snow.

*     Reindeer are the only deer species to have hair completely covering their nose. Their specialized nose helps to warm incoming cold air before it enters their lungs, and it’s also an excellent sniffer. Their good sense of smell helps the reindeer find food hidden under snow, locate danger, and recognize direction. Reindeer mainly travel into the wind so they can pick up scents.

*     The antiparasitic drug ivermectin is FDA-approved to treat and control warbles in reindeer. Warbles is a parasitic infection caused by the reindeer warble fly. The fly’s larvae can penetrate the reindeers’ skin, causing harm to the milk, meat, and hides of domesticated herds. The larvae can also cause disease in people.

*     Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer began guiding Santa’s sleigh in 1939, when Robert L. May wrote the story of “the most famous reindeer of all” as a Christmas coloring book for his employer, the department store Montgomery Ward. The company gave away the coloring books as holiday gifts to children to entice their parents to visit and shop at the store. Do you know what two names May considered for his red-nosed reindeer before settling on Rudolph? (Rollo and Reginald) Somehow I just can't sing Reginald the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

*     In 1948, May’s brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, made the story into a song. It was featured in a cartoon shown in movie theaters, but wasn’t released as a stand-alone recording until 1949 when “The Singing Cowboy” Gene Autry recorded the song and its popularity soared. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is one of the biggest-selling Christmas songs of all time.

Our nice little walk day turned into:

Miles - 9.9

Steps - 21,514

Floors - 18

It's been raining since we started back to Kemi from our hike and it is supposed to turn to snow in the wee hours of the morning and snow all day tomorrow with a high of 37 deg. We may have to change our outdoor plans to sitting by a fire somewhere. 

"Yes, it is true---God will remain faithful even when you are not, because his faithfulness rests on who he is, not on what you are doing."  PDT