Santa's Village
24 december 2017, Finland ⋅ ⛅ -16 °C
It was wonderful seeing Santa and would really love to come back with all the grandkids one day. A dream come true.
Christmas Eve in Rovaniemi
24 december 2017, Finland ⋅ 🌙 -21 °C
Another full day visiting Santa's Village, wandering around town and taking photos of the sunset. Unfortunately still no Northern Lights. We finished the day with a Lapland Dinner at a very quaintLäs mer
Rovaniemi
25 december 2017, Finland ⋅ 🌫 -10 °C
Leaving Rovaniemi city centre today. We decided rather than walk around this morning we thought a snowman build on our balcony could be the activity for the morning.
Arctic Snow Hotel
25 december 2017, Finland ⋅ ☁️ -10 °C
Next stop via bus to the Arctic Snow Hotel and Igloos.
The Snow Hotel sleeps 70 guests and is one of the largest in the Nordic region. The building is carved each year to be different in appearance.Läs mer
Arctic Snow Hotel
25 december 2017, Finland ⋅ ☁️ -9 °C
Ice Hotel rooms are set up in themes and was amazing how much detail is in each room and corridor.
The Chapel
25 december 2017, Finland ⋅ ☁️ -10 °C
The Ice Hotel even has a Chapel.
Ice Hotel Bar
25 december 2017, Finland ⋅ ☁️ -9 °C
At the Ice Bar you don’t order a drink with ice, you order a drink in ice. A frozen icy glass gives the drinks a totally new dimension of a cold drink.
Arctic Christmas Night
25 december 2017, Finland ⋅ ☁️ -11 °C
Yes, we saw our first although faint Northern Lights before heading to dinner.
Christmas Dinner
25 december 2017, Finland ⋅ ☁️ -11 °C
Our Christmas Day meal was mushroom soup, this was followed by Salmon cooked over the flames of the central fire in the restaurant and John again had Reindeer, this time more like a hamburger meat. WeLäs mer
Bedtime at the Ice Hotel
25 december 2017, Finland ⋅ ⛅ -15 °C
Our room for Christmas night has several ice sculptures around the walls and it is lit by coloured lights. It will be interesting to see if we get a good night's sleep. The room temperature isLäs mer
Boxing Day - Snow Activities
26 december 2017, Finland ⋅ 🌫 -19 °C
Sleeping in the Ice Hotel was different. We slept in very tight cocoon like sleeping bags (which were a little difficult to move in) on top of reindeer hides. My feet got a little cold in the earlyLäs mer
Glass Igloo
26 december 2017, Finland ⋅ 🌫 -18 °C
This afternoon we checked into the Glass Igloo. They are rather cute with a glass roof and a bed you can tilt to see the Northern Lights and heated so no sleeping bags or reindeer fur to keep warmLäs mer
Dinner in the Ice Hotel
26 december 2017, Finland ⋅ ☁️ -17 °C
Dinner tonight is in the Ice Hotel dining room. The table is ice and some of the dinner setting is also ice. Dinner was yum, tomato soup, John had Elk and I had Chicken and a yummy chocolate dessertLäs mer
Bedtime in the Glass Igloo
26 december 2017, Finland ⋅ ☁️ -18 °C
After dinner we retired to our room, finished our bottle of bubbles and waited for the Northern Lights for a while. The Northern Lights did not appear so hopefully on the cruise up the Norwegian CoastLäs mer
Leaving Arctic Snow Hotel
27 december 2017, Finland ⋅ ☁️ -15 °C
Today we are leaving Rovaniemi and going to Stockholm for 5 days. Rovaniemi was a very interesting place to visit so much to do, visiting Santa was definitely a highlight but so were all the otherLäs mer
Rovaniemi Airport
27 december 2017, Finland ⋅ ☀️ -2 °C
When we arrived at Rovaniemi Airport we were surprised at how busy it was, people were everywhere.
Stockholm is our next destination.
Stockholm
27 december 2017, Sverige ⋅ ⛅ 2 °C
Arrived in Stockholm and staying in an Air BnB. The apartment is small but with a certain eclectic character of its own. The owner of the apartment has left the fridge and cupboards full of food andLäs mer
Information Seeking
28 december 2017, Sverige ⋅ ☁️ 4 °C
The apartment is quite central to so many sightseeing places. Today's adventures started by looking around Hornstull where we took the train into Central Stockholm. We visited the tourist informationLäs mer
Medieval Museum
28 december 2017, Sverige ⋅ ☁️ 4 °C
We then walked into Old Town (Gamla Stan) it has cobbled streets and lots of old buildings which are now restaurants and tourist shops. We continued walking to a Medieval Museum which had displays ofLäs mer
Abba Museum
29 december 2017, Sverige ⋅ ⛅ 2 °C
Today is Cultural Day, we plan on visiting 4 all very different museums.
The day will be long and the light was short but discover Stockholm is the plan.
Abba Museum was first, it was fun learningLäs mer
Vasa Museum
29 december 2017, Sverige ⋅ ☁️ -6 °C
Vasa Museum was No 2 which provides a detailed account of a ship which sunk when it was first launched in 1628 and how it was raised and restored in the 1960's.
The Vasa ship capsized and sank inLäs mer
Junibacken
29 december 2017, Sverige ⋅ ⛅ 3 °C
Third was more like a children's fun place called Junibacken where we rode a story train through chapters of a story by Astrid Lindgren.
Swedish History Museum Stockholm
29 december 2017, Sverige ⋅ ⛅ 3 °C
The last museum for the day, Swedish History Museum, was only a quick visit as it was closing 45 min after we arrived. We just had time to visit the Viking section where we viewed artifacts from theLäs mer
Old Town Stockholm
30 december 2017, Sverige ⋅ ⛅ 1 °C
Today was another day in Gamla Stan (Old Town) so we could take some photos during the daylight. We wandered around for a while taking photos, visiting the local stores and finding the narrowest laneLäs mer
Changing of the Guard
30 december 2017, Sverige ⋅ ⛅ 1 °C
At noon we walked up to the Royal Palace and watched the Changing of the Guard which was the winter version (less marching), not quite the performance in London.