Inari, Lapland, Sunday June 6th

On Thursday (June 3rd) we caught the 10.06 train to Oulu. No warning whistles or announcements, but on time we glided out of the station. We abandoned our reserved seats and moved to the upper deck where the view was much better. For mile after mile and hour after hour we travelled through forests and farmlands. We got talking to a farmer. He grows wheat and canola on his 40 Ha south west of Tampere. In spite of the generous EU subsidies it is not enough to live on and he has another job as a food inspector. His father had farmed close to Leningrad, but at the end of World War II that area was ceded to Russia and his family were displaced.

The train was late into Oulu and it was a mad rush to board the connecting train to Rovaneimi. I was glad of the help of a student to lug my case down the steps and then up the other side onto the correct platform.

It was raining in Rovaneimi, but we walked down to the Supermarket. Bill was carefully studying the beer prices, when the checkout girl suggested he make a decision quickly as it is illegal to sell beer after 9 p.m. in Finland and it was then 8.55.

Although the outside temperature was only 5 C, we roasted in our room and had to open the window and turn the fan on to be able to sleep.

Rovaneimi was completely flattened in 1944. Alvar Aalto was largely responsible for planning the new town and so we inspected some of his buildings. Certainly most of the buildings even when relatively plain and utilitarian are well proportioned and well finished.

We spent some hours in the Arktikum - the museum of the Arctic.

On Saturday morning we left Rovaneimi by bus. Apart from two Adelaide women and later 2 Japanese, the passengers were all locals. It was sleeting as we left and rained intermittently all day. More lakes and farmland and in one part we must have gained some elevation as the trees were quite stunted. We went through some ski resorts - mostly for cross country sking rather than downhill.

We  crossed the Arctic Circle just outside Rovaneimi and near there whizzed past Santa's Village. Tonight we are staying in Inari - in Sami country and it is cold enough to get out the possum wool gloves!

N

No shortage of bike parking in the railway stations in Finland.

Standard train station on the Helsinki Oulu line

Typical blocks of flats in Rovaneimi. The town had to be rebuilt after World War II.

Modernist reindeer street sculpture in Rovaneimi

Alvar Aalto insisted on including the sculptural decorations on his buildings.

The altar fresco in the Rovaneimi Lutheran church, which was built in 1950.

Santa's Village is only a few kilometres from Rovaneimi, and Europcar is his official rental car company!

On Friday, in Rovaneimi the sun did not come out until ten o'clock in the evening, and Bill took this sunset picture at about midnight.

The view from our hotel window in Inari.

On the way to Inari we saw several herds of reindeer, but it was raining (or sleeting) and the bus was travelling at high speed so I have no photos. However I can recommend this product - not too leathery and very tasty. Today I had smoked reindeer pizza for lunch and it was good.

A small storage hut in the Inari outdoor museum. It has a collection of Sami buildings and artifacts. In summer, the mosquitoes trouble the reindeer and the sheep so much, that the Sami have to build shelters for them as well as themselves.