Lapland!
Map of the trip to Finland
Ever met the big man himself? We went to Lapland, Rovaniemi, for a chance to meet Santa.
Our trip was brief but very memorable for many reasons. It started with a road trip to Birmingham airport and the Novatel for an overnight stop. The flight was scheduled for 7am so in this mad country we had to check in at 5! I had forgotten to remove my cycle repair kit from my rucksack and the 'jobs worth' on security saw fit to confiscate it including the rubber solution to mend tyres but not my pen knife - go figure!
On a Reindeer
At the other end things improved greatly and we arrived to snow everywhere. Once aboard our coach, David and his mum were off to have a quick snowball fight while we all waited on a couple of stragglers.
We did a little exploring of the hotel after the briefing from our rep. Then we changed for dinner. The hotel rooms each had a sauna but we didn't use them. It had been a long day so had an early night knowing an early start was waiting for us on the Saturday.
We were kitted up on route to our Hotel with all the gear (see photo). Once at the activity centre we had the opportunity to try out various ways of getting around in the snow. There was a mini skidoo for the youngsters. Tandem skis, snow shoes and these ski seat things. Mum and I hobbled about on the double ski things for a few minutes with much laughter and little progress. We also tried the seat thing and got much further and then I noticed the technique that was having better success with others was more of a scooter type means of propulsion rather than running.
On a skidoo!
David really enjoyed the skidoo, as you can see from the video, and had a few goes on it; including a little accident. I say little because the staff were fantastic, no fuss, just righted the skidoo and carried on. The vehicle probably never did more than 10 mph and he was on a rope minded by one of many young Finns staffing the centre (actually the dog specialists were more mature but more on them later).
The sun was never seen all day and only rose to provide some light about 10am (local time) before dropping below the horizon around 3pm. This low light wasn't a problem at all but does affect how your photographs appear. You can see the reflective strips on the clothing showing up very brightly and the flashes we going off virtually every shot.
Continuing the diary into afternoon.
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