Travels with Kathryn

As you may have guessed from yesterday’s quick post, I have indeed made it to Rovaniemi where Santa Claus’ office is located. However, I will get to that…

On Friday, we were all ready to set off for the 3 hour journey from Äkäslompolo south towards Rovaniemi. We had a little delayed start as the minibus that was coming to collect us, or more specifically, its trailer, lost a wheel on route and the driver had to stop to replace it – not something I would have enjoyed in -17 degrees! He also then did not want to risk the trailer’s wheel up the uncleared road/hill up to our hotel, so all the luggage and some of the people was loaded into the minibus, and I and others offered to walk down the hill where we met the minibus, were reunited with our luggage and off we went!

Having been in a remote part of beautiful Northern Lapland, arriving into Rovaniemi was something of a shock. Rovaniemi (in addition to being famous for Santa Claus’ village) is the capital city of Lapland and has such things as an airport and thousands of tourists. However, it is not pretty and more than Finnish levels of busy, i.e. I am not sure we’ll cope.

On arrival, we had a quick drop off of the bags. We are actually staying in another hotel, but our hotel (which is owned by the same company) is the 2 star and therefore does not have a reception, luggage storage or breakfast/dining facilities of this 4 star hotel, its only a 9 minute walk but means there was a bit of a comedown.

Rovaniemi is the capital of Finland and is actually Europe’s largest town by area, but this includes 54 surrounding villages. The name Rovaniemi comes from the Sami word “roavve,” which means a hill covered by forest, or a location where there was a forest fire at some earlier time. The population of Rovaniemi is around 65,000, but millions of tourists visit every year (particularly at Christmas!). There has been a settlement here for thousands of years, but it did not become an actual parish until the 18th century. Towards the end of the 19th century, the community grew rapidly to work in the forestry industry. However, there is nothing left of this as the city was burned when the occupying German forces were ordered to burn all government buildings as they retreated from the region – in fact 90% of all buildings were destroyed, and in the area near the train station an ammunition train exploded causing even further damage. The city was therefore completely rebuilt according to a new plan (which is meant to look like a reindeer – see below) and the buidings are mostly ugly concrete cubes, rather than the prettiness of the rest of Lapland.

Our minibus offered to take us to Santa Claus Village (to make up for delay), and this was much appreciated as the village is a 10 minute/€30 taxi journey. Now, I should make it clear that Santa (and Mrs Claus) do not live in Rovaniemi, this is where Santa’s office is based, but they actually have a home in the North Pole. They are Finnish, and the Finnish do not like crowds, so of course they commute back and forth rather than living here. I was not completely sure what to expect, but the village really is a village – a colletion of hotels, restaurants, shops, a post office, areas for various animals and an office for Santa Claus. I had expected it to feel more like a theme park, but it is not. On this first day I had a wander around, had my photo taken crossing the Arctic Circle (which of course I have already done, having been north of it all week!), buying postcards to be posted tomorrow and then escaping the crowds. It is really pretty, but its a commercial operation and with there being other people there (not as many as I had anticipated, but still other people!) I am not sure whether it had the magic I wanted from it…

Back to Rovaniemi to check in and have a final group dinner. This has been an excellent group, and even though they were all Intrepid virgins, I think they have now all been converted! It has also been rather nice to have all organisations done for me after a couple of weeks on my own, particularly in this part of the world with limited infrastructure. However, I am on my own from here on out…

Yesterday (Saturday) after breakfast and dropping off my bag at the “nice” hotel, I started with the sites of Rovaniemi including a trip to Artikum which is the only real museum in the city covering the history of Rovaniemi, life in the Arctic and the impact of climate change in this region (in a word – BAD). It was an interesting visit, but not somewhere I would add to the “must see” list whilst you are here.

I met up with Jess (from my group who was also having the extra day in Rovaniemi) for lunch, and I was genuinely planning to order the ceaser salad for lunch, but then I realised that it was Christmas, I was on holiday, and they had waffles:

I then checked into my apartment for the night – this will be the most expensive single night of my trip, but it was all I could find this close to Christmas and I am glad I did as it means I could return to Santa’s Village where I enjoyed myself far more (yesterday being a little overwhelming). My first stop was to the post office to post my Christmas greeting to myself for next year, and then rather than wait 3 hours to see Santa Claus, I instead decided to go and see the real brains behind the operation – Mrs Claus! We had a lovely chat, and she was looking forward to waving Santa off and having a little quiet time after Christmas on his return.

As per yesterday’s post, I was actually here to wave off Santa Claus. You can watch the full event via the link below (you can see me towards the end as I was at the front of the barrier next to Santa’s sleigh). It was magical, I completely recommend it, although I upset a lady by refusing to give up my space for her child with the disgruntled that comment that: “children no longer come first I see”. I am not sure this has ever been a rule, certainly not my rule, and perhaps she should have got there 30 minutes earlier when I and the families around me (including their children who I was holding space so they could see!). Anyway, I am sure her version of the story is different…

https://vimeo.com/event/2708649/embed

After all that excitement (and by now being very cold), I got a taxi back to town, had a trip to the supermarket, and then bed.

I am writing this on the train from Rovaniemi to Helsinki, which I had expected to be busy (it being Christmas Eve after all?), whereas I appear to be on my own. However, this is a 9 hour journey, so I am sort of expecting people to board at the stops along the way – 2 hours in and no sign of anyone else so I will let you know!

So, that was Lapland. It really is a magical place, but I can not recommend it highly enough to see more than just Rovaniemi. You absolutely should come here to Santa Claus’ Village to see Santa Claus, Mrs Claus, cross the Arctic Circle and visit the post office - I would also suggest (if you have children) going to Snowman World which has ice based activities. Whilst you can do many other activities (such as sleigh rides and dog sleeding) here, these are mere tasters at inflated prices… My suggested family itinerary is:

• Option 1: Fly into Helsinki and take the overnight train (I love overnight trains and I know a number of children that do too!) to Kolari (the Northern most train station in Finland) and then get a transfer to your hotel in the Yllas region or perhaps further north; OR
• Option 2: Fly direct to Rovaniemi and then arrange a transfer to your hotel in the Yllas region or perhaps further north. I would not recommend driving unless you are very confident on snowy/icy roads!
• Then, spend a couple of days in remote, beautiful Lapland relying on a local operator (of which there are many) to organise trips snowshoeing, ice fishing, skiing, dog sledding, snowmobiling, reindeer rides, meeting reindeers, sauna-ing etc.
• Then, transfer back to Rovaniemi and stay overnight (ideally in the Santa Claus village). On your second day, go to Santa Claus village first thing to visit my recommended attractions, starting with a visit to Santa Claus.
• Day 2 in Rovaniemi either fly from Rovaniemi home, or (perhaps again) take the overnight train to Helsinki and fly from there.

I am obviously more than happy to discuss this at considerable length for any one who wants to plan a trip to Lapland. Even if you are not a Santa Claus fan (and in which case, I am not sure you’re my kind of person!), then you should still come to experience remote beautifulness. I am so pleased I came.

Tomorrow, I will be in Helsinki for Christmas, so I shall take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and I’ll raise a toast to you (potentially an actual piece of toast if all shops and restaurants are closed in Helsinki!). I am certainly having a very different Christmas this year, and I have missed parts of my own run up to Christmas, for example, this is the first year in living memory I have not made x hundred Christmas Pudding truffles, and its weird not doing any Christmas celebrating with family or friends! However, I have also loved not having to deal with any of the pressures of Christmas and instead getting to experience all the other Christmas stuff from everywhere I have visited. Anyway, after that reflecting, back to the now and I hope you all have wonderful days, and Santa brings you everything you asked for (I put in a good word with Mrs Claus and Santa’s elves, which they promised to pass on).