Magical Lapland

Lapland has been on the bucket list for a while and a number of expat friends have made the trip and raved about it. I had hoped to go when the kids still fully believed in Santa, but the cost always put me off (plus we usually fly home for the holidays). Then, to my great joy, Easyjet announced that they would start a new direct route from Amsterdam to Rovaniemi. Since we started winter break so early, we were able to book tickets for Dec 14-17 when most Dutch kids are still in school so we got a real bargain. I also booked 10 months out and was able to secure a really nice, affordable AirBnB. I mean, when Santa booked our flights and AirBnB.... 

We had an early morning flight as you do with EasyJet, but were rewarded with a beautiful sunrise from the sky. We arrived after 3 hours to a winter wonderland! In Lapland, the sun rose at 10:30am and set around 1:30pm! And the sun, when it is out, sits very low on the horizon so it was always a muted grey sky. We were excited to all be in Finland for the 1st time! 

We got our luggage and rental car and drove downtown. After suiting up in the car, we went to lunch at Roka Street Bistro, which was really tasty. The kids made a sledding hill out of the pedestrian ramp out of the parking garage! Portable sleds coming in handy! 

Santa's official working office is downtown next to a small ice skating rink so we headed there after lunch. There was no line to meet Santa, but the kids had to be convinced to go in and did not want a photo (I guess I should be grateful to save the $40). Still, we went in and he sat the kids next to him on each side. He tried to engage with them, but they were being really quiet/shy. He told them to be kind to us, to help us and to always say thank you. Then he wished the kids a beautiful life. It was very spiritual to me and I had to hold back tears. 

Santa inside, but they wanted to play in the snow. 

I should have taken my own photo with him!

Excited about the little snow on the shovelled sidewalks in town. 

We did a big grocery store run, which is an adventure in a new country as we take our time exploring the riches. Google translate came in very handy! Then we drove the 45 minutes from the city center to our AirBnB near lake Raanujärvi. So much snow out there! 

The wood shed looking very beautiful in twilight.

Our house had a wood burning stove and a sauna and we took advantage each night. There was no one around us, so we could go from the sauna directly outside into the snow in total privacy. 

Our first morning, the kids got suited up to play in the snow. The house had a few kick sleds (a traditional Finish sled/scooter thing that people use to get around). We trudged in the snow over to the neighboring school house to play in their playground (which was under about 3 feet of snow). 

Then is was time for our first adventure! We booked day tickets to visit the Artic Snow Hotel. They advertised having a sledding hill and the famous snow/ice hotel, which opened the day we visited. We were told the sledding hill wasn't ready, but looked ok to us. We had brought some of the sleds from our rental house and used them to go down! 

Reindeer crossing on our drive! 

We did see snowmobiles out on the lake so knew it was solid enough to sled onto! After sledding 15 minutes, workers arrived with sleds from the resort and others started to take part. 

We had lunch reservations at the Kota restaurant. The wood burning fire felt great after a morning in the snow. 

After seeing our 3 reindeer friends on our drive, we then enjoyed reindeer 3 ways (burger, soup, and in pasta). Yum. 

The Snow Hotel was comprised of dozens of rooms, a chapel, a huge restaurant, and a bar. There were also communal bathrooms off of the corridors. The rooms all had different themes and very impressive carvings. No way I would stay there- claustrophobia city and brrrr, but really cool to see the spaces. Felt like touring an amazing art museum. The kids really enjoyed it. 

Not creepy at all to have these faces staring down at your while you sleep! 

From the Snow Hotel, we drove into Rovaniemi to go to Arktikum, the Artic Museum, which was really cool. I had no idea about how screwed Finland was in WWII. Cool to learn about the Sami people as well. 

We decided to visit Santa's Village that evening. I had a vision in my head of a quaint little village. This was a commercial scene! A friend warned me off of the hours long wait to visit with Santa so that wasn't on our list, but we wanted to see the Artic Circle and go on the webcam for our families to see us. I also wanted to mail letters from the official North Pole post office. That was pretty cool- seeing all of the mail sent to Santa from around the world. 

We messaged our parents and aunt Leslie and they all got to see us waving and doing the Macarena on the webcam. 

-5 Celsius = 23 Fahrenheit. Very reasonable temperatures while we were there- could have been much, much colder! 

Some more snow fun while Pete tracked down an info desk to get directions to Santa's Salmon Palace, a spot that came highly recommended by our friends. We were planning to make dinner at home, but thought a shared salmon fillet appetizer would hit the spot. It did! We got it to go and devoured it outside in the snow. 

A quick stop into Santa Clause Village Grocery store for some staples: Gingerbread oreos and hot dogs to roast back home.