We both had a good night’s sleep and were in no rush to get going as apart from being in breakfast by 10am our plans today were chilled and fluid.
AT 9.30am we drove over to the Christmas House to claim our free breakfast. The food was hot and plentiful although the scrambled eggs were just average. I did find it incongruous that they were serving both Reindeer meat balls and Reindeer sausage in a place where people had come to meet Rudolph and his pals. Nevertheless, I tried both and I must say they were both quite tasty.
With typical Finnish efficiency at exactly 10am breakfast was cleared away whether people had finished eating or not. Karen managed to grab herself a second hot drink but only under protest.
After popping back to clean our teeth we headed back out in the car. This time we were going to venture further north than we had ever ventured before. At Barry’s suggestion we were heading to a pretty looking hiking trail in the Arctic Circle called Vaattunkikongas just a few miles away.
Unsure what to expect we found the turning and then made our way down an unmade road for a further mile. We pulled into the car park and decided to follow the easy trail that was designed for wheelchairs.
We followed what we would call the boardwalk and what the Fin’s called the duckboards. It felt like Ranworth but different. The rivers and streams were bubbling either sides of us and it was quite lovely. There was a beautiful smell of freshness in the air from the fir trees.
Not as predicted though it started to rain slightly and we found shelter in a ‘lean to’ they had thoughtfully provided along the route. Just outside of this was the facility for a campfire the remnants of which was still alight. As there were massive piles of wood stacked for use, I put some onto the fire and soon got it going again.
We sat for a while watching the flames gently dance. I do find log fires incredibly soothing, and it started the debate again about having one at home. Perhaps this time I will go and enquire about them. 30 minutes had past when we thought we should make a move and finish the rest of the trail.
Nearing the end there was suddenly a commotion and lots of dogs barking in the distance. We could then see across the river what looked like a Husky farm with loads of them all getting very excited for some reason.
We left them behind and went back to the car and decided to drive further onto Vikakongas a couple of miles further on and walk a short trail there as well. Here I took the latitude measurement on my phone to mark our most northerly point. This was quite pleasant as well and had a kayak Salom Couse marked out in the rapids.
As we had seen a sign for a café as we had tuned into the car park, we thought we would drive on further to find it. It turned out be in a garage so we thought we would head back. As we did so Karen spotted an enormous Reindeer grazing by the road with some great old antlers. We tried to get a picture, but it was difficult to do so from the car.
Back at Santa Claus Village we headed back to the Christmas House to get ourselves a hot drink. Karen was disappointed with the size of her Latte.
It was now 3.30pm and we decided to combine lunch/dinner and treat ourselves to our first and last authentic Finnish meal in the number one rated place to eat – the Salmon Place. This was within walking distance and was in a very cute small wooden building.
The fresh salmon was being cooked over an open fire and was served with some Finnish bread and butter. It was delicious. Karen washed hers down with a large beaker of blueberry juice. The bill was £43 but we felt it had to be done.
With that we headed back for the final time to our little cottage. Now it’s not very often we have time to sit and do whatever we want and so we thought we should make the most of it. The Santa Claus village is not exactly heaving with nightlife as everything either closes at 4pm or 6pm so unless we wanted to head for whatever nightlife Rovaniemi had we didn’t have much choice.
We had a hot cuppa and then settled down to watch ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ on Netflix. We both really enjoyed it. Then whilst Karen watched something dreary again on iPlayer, I went in for my last Sauna which I really enjoyed.
After getting ourselves organise for leaving in the morning and setting an early alarm of 6am we had an early night.
We have enjoyed Finland but feel we have done what we set out to do. We probably could have got away with less time in Rovaniemi but with flight timings etc trying to do it with a day less would have been a rush and quite stressful.
