Today was mostly a travel day going from Helsinki to the Arctic River Lodge in Sweden.
We got to the airport around 10 for our flight around noon. We had fun poking around the shops, and then took off for our uneventful flight to Rovaniemi, Finland. The terrain between Helsinki and the Arctic Circle looked similar to Minnesota - lots and lots of shallow lakes created by glaciation, with endless forests of trees planted for timber.
About ten minutes from the airport was Santa’s Village, a tourist trap established in the 1950s along the line of the Arctic Circle. We had lunch, stepped over the Circle line a few times, and visited the small wooden hut that was built in 1952 to welcome Eleanor Roosevelt who came here as a UN Good Will Ambassador.
We drove west across Finland for an hour and a half to the Swedish border. Along the way we saw several reindeer, and a fox. In the of town of Pollo there was a rest stop, craft stores and a spectacular river view. We all go out of the van and drank cloudberry liquor by the Swedish border sign, which is evidently traditional for Swedes to honor important occasions, such as crossing the border.
Once we crossed into Sweden, we traveled for another hour and a half to get to our lovely lodge on the Tarendoalven River. We got settled, and then had half an hour to sit outside, look at the river and be peaceful until dinner.
The lodge has lots of activities - canoeing, walking trails, biking, as well as dog sledding - that we can do tomorrow.
I enjoyed these photos and comments! Pat
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