AMSTERDAM

This was our first foray into the streets of Amsterdam, and as you might expect, the Dutch ingenuity is evident in the layout of this city below sea level.  The airport is attached to the train station, so once we collected our luggage from the flight, we walked to the train that would take us to our hotel in the center of the city.  We exited our train and basically walked across the bustling avenue to the Arts Hotel, an avantgarde establishment festooned with local art and boasting a fabulous location.  Amsterdam is a very youthful city and most get around on bicycles or by walking.  Following are some photos of Amsterdam with brief descriptions.

Beautiful architecture

one of many canals in the city

Amsterdam was the perfect stepping stone back to the good ole USA.  Our hotel was surrounded by a plethora of cozy restaurants of all types of cuisine.  We had lovely meals wherever we went. I believe my favorite meal was a very delicious Hungarian stew we had the first night.

On our walks, we did pass the brothels with the prostitutes displayed in the picture windows.  They looked like very obese and badly made up drag queens to me.  

The second day we walked to the Van Gogh, Rijksmuse, Stedelijk Museum, and Rembrandt House.  What a perfect city for walking to some of the most famous paintings in the world!  I would love to go back to Amsterdam when the tulips are in bloom and we can get inside the Anne Frank house!  Ironically, the World Health Organization would soon declare a global pandemic just a few days after our return to the USA.  We often thought of Anne Frank and her family living in a glorified closet on the top floor of a home by the canal for two years!  Our pandemic sequestration didn't seem so bad in that context.

FINLAND: Ice fishing, tour of the snow castle, the Sampo Icebreaker

 I have absolutely no memories of ice fishing in Finland because I, along with most of the other women on this sojourn, chose to skip it in favor of a cozy sleep in at our Arctic tree house.

Gene, avid fisherman extraodinaire, took lots of photos as proof positive that he was there. Don't you recognize him?

Digging a hole in the ice in hopes to catch some fish

Sunrise as we left the Arctic Tree Houses for our next adventure

 

Finland is about all about fire and ice where tourists are concerned.  Ice art backlit by colored lights is a major fixture in these parts.  After our departure from the Arctic Tree House Hotel, it was off to the Snow Castle.  The sculptures were amazing as our Ice Queen guide Palvi (meaning Daisy) led the way.

Restaurant

Animal ice sculptures everywhere

Some of us took a turn down the ice slide

one of many surreal wall carvings

This is definitely ET

After exploring the Snow Castle, we boarded the Sampo Icebreaker in the Gulf of Bothnia.  On board we had a buffet lunch, a tour of the boat, and then a dip into the drink (wearing protective dry suits of course.)  Gene went; I didn't, mainly because I worried about the covid virus being deposited by other tourists in those suits.  Pictures below.

 

This was our last scheduled evening with our new found friends, and what a really warm and cordial group they were, too.  We had our final dinner together in a private party room at The Arctic Tree House and Matt gave us our "end of the trip" awards.  Gene got the award for best imitation of Santa Claus!  I got recognized for not leaving my underwear hanging to dry in the previous hotel.  I've been known to do that on other B&R trips, much to my chagrin.

Finland: Arctic Treehouse Hotel, Reindeer Farm and Rovaniemi Arktikim Museum

 At this point in the trip I'm frankly wondering why humans would choose to live in such a cold, harsh, environment that requires multiple layers of clothing.  I can take any adventure for a week, so it's off to the Arctic Treehouse Hotel, and the name inspires wonderment.  We've been assured of having a ringside bedtime seat for the best viewing of Aurora Borealis!  But first on the agenda is a brisk reindeer sleigh ride through the forest!

That's Gene and me being pulled by our favorite reindeer

This reindeer farm has been around for about 500 years, half a millennium!  The family gave us thermal clothing (that still didn't seem to offer enough warmth) and then introduced us to our very own reindeer (ours for about an hour).  The deer are very strong and swift, which makes me wonder why Santa required 8 of them, maybe because they were required to fly.  Dunno

Our trusty reindeer, wish I could remember his name, but it was Finnish and I couldn't have pronounced it anyway, took us for a tour around the swamps and through the forest.  This was quite a bit more restful than the snow mobiles or the dog sleds because these animals are on auto-pilot.  Also they weren't required to do their "business" while in locomotion mode.  That's me beside Gene and hidden under multiple layers of arctic wear.  

This was the view of "our reindeer" that is most memorable

Isn't he a handsome fellow?  And yes, those antlers are real, folks, not Hollywood!

Next up is the Rovaniemi Arktikim Museum, and I wish I could have spent the entire rest of the day in this place.  It was a beautiful and ultra modern museum washed in light that offered local arts and crafts as well as the history of this far flung area of the world.

A huge lunch of stew inside this gorgeous kota

The roof of the museum

After the guides hustled us out of the museum, we were told we could take a polar dive in the river that ran through this small town.  No takers!

A little history of Rovaniemi quoting B&R tour literature:  "The week following the 10th of October 1944 was a terrible seven days in the history of this proud little town.  The retreating German army systematically destroyed almost everything leaving  only 16 houses standing.  The German's final salvo was to burn the church to the ground, scorch earth policy. 

Without benefit of sheltering warmth and because of the impending frigid temperatures, the local inhabitants had no choice but to flee to neutral Sweden.  The town and its destroyed bridges were left to smolder beside the Kemijoki River.  

In 1945 the inhabitants drifted back and in March 1945 it was decreed that the town should be rebuilt.  They chose the talented architect Alvar Aalto, whose creed of functional "assymetricalism" was applied to rebuilding.  It's a monument to pragmatism, but not beautiful in any stretch of the imagination. 

Most of us ended up having dinner back at the lodge of the Arctic treehouse Hotel where we sat near open gas flames and had fun swapping stories with one another.  The treehouses were definitely interesting and did offer an unobstructed view of the night sky and Aurora Borealis!  

 Below are photos of the famed SANTA CLAUSE VILLAGE of Rovaniemi 

Good to know where to find these huge cities in case we get lost 

FINLAND: Snow Hotel and Snow mobile safari and Auroral Borealis!

Some of our intrepid travelers bellying up to the bar of the snow hotel

Entrance to Narnia

 

 

Departure for the iconic Snowhotel which is a 30 minute drive south to the lake shore at Lethojarvi.  The entire (huge structure) was carved completely from ice.  The B&R literature likened this to a trip to the legendary Narnia.  It was dream like and magical with intricate carvings and skillfully placed colored lights.  Some tourists opt to spend the night here and imbibe in the ice bar.  Not our group.

 

 

Wall sculptures adorned the passageways

one of the many unique bedrooms with a fur cover for the bed

The ice restaurant for those who stayed the night

Another bedroom

 After the magical tour of the snow hotel, our group headed over to a salmon dinner at the Kota Restaurant.  We were driving the snow sleds afterward so no wine for us!  

 

After dinner, the guides herded us over to our eco friendly snowmobiles and the adventure began. Oh, first they dressed us in multiple layers of arctic wear because we were going to be traveling at night and going relatively fast.  Think of riding a motorcycle in temperatures reaching 30 below zero!  Yep, it was that cold.  More on that later.

 

We commenced our snow mobile caravan in search of Aurora Borealis.  In retrospect, this was the highlight of the entire trip for me and I could say it was a highlight of my bucket list, too.  We rode through the evergreen forest laden with snow, under a crystal clear sky and a full sized amber moon.  We traveled several miles until we came to another Sami Kota way out in a remote area.  Thankfully, there was a blazing fire within and we all gladly gathered around the fire for our lesson on the physics behind this phenomenon, a talk given by another descendant of the Sami.  They plied us with more of that hot glogi berry juice and gave us campfire sticks reminiscent of what we Americans generally use to cook marsh mellows over an open fire.  They gave each of us a bread dough to wrap around the stick that we were then instructed to hold over the fire.  Delicious!  

 

After we had warmed up a bit and finished our dessert of hot juice and toasted dough, it was time to head back to the lodge and prayerfully get a glimpse of the great northern lights,  WHICH WE DID!  Unfortunately, the berry juice was a diuretic and most of us were dying to shed the arctic astronaut suits.  It was so bad that I considered getting frost bite of the tush just to get some relief.

 

Matti, our guide giving us lessons on the northern lights

 

One of our first glimpses of Aurora Borealis

 A most wonderful and memorable day!

 

FINLAND AND AMSTERDAM- dog sledding, forest skiing, and Kota

First destination BEANA LAPONIA

Welcomed by Donder? Or maybe Blitzen?

 Finland is where we learned about the true definition of COLD.  It was -30 Centigrade! There is not much going on around here so far.  The Lappish Village is across the river, over the frozen ice, and is comprised of a small supermarket, a small church and a few houses, making it about as much of a metropolis as our beloved Hillsboro.  

Meet one of our new husky dog friends

We wasted no time in delving right into the unique adventures of Lapland with a morning cruise through the forest via dog sled!  I chose to ride in the sled under the warmth of the multiple reindeer hides as Gene took on the task of mushing the dogs,  and yes, even in Iceland, the pups respond to MUSH!  We were assigned a mixed crew of sled dogs in all colors and mixtures of breeds, all raring to get on the trail.  It seems they don't really know how to sit still, even having to relieve their bladders and bowels while moving at 15 mph!  Amazing and kind of hard to watch, especially when one of the pups had to poop. 

Once I got over the shock of being driven by a team of dogs, I relaxed and watched the snow flocked scenery whiz by.  Apparently, the Fins have a dog sled competition similar to the Alaskan Iditarod!  Humans have an uncanny ability to create sport wherever they are in this world.  

We visited the outdoor kennels where the dogs stay when not pulling the sleds.  Yes, they stay completely outdoors in the extreme cold, although they each have a dog house.  These guys and gals have one purpose in life, to run very fast!  Most of the dogs were very friendly and loved to be petted while some were shy and withdrawn.

This is one of our fellow travelers, who had just undergone chemo for Multiple Myeloma

After the exhilarating dog sled ride, we were given the opportunity to see another part of the exquisite boreal forest powered by our own human energy-on cross country skis!  As a longtime down hill skier, I honestly underestimated the skill and willpower required to ski on relatively flat land.  In fact, as I was exiting the ski shed, I immediately slipped on an icy ramp and fell hard, bumping my head and apparently tearing my left meniscus!  My head was fine, but the knee is still a chronic bother. The good news was that I got to retire my skis before making a complete arse of myself on those cross country skis AND the lead guide and myself headed back to the cozy lodge where we got a head start on lunch! He regaled me with stories of his very fascinating life of being a trained veterinarian specializing in bovines, which is all fine and good except he married a German girl who insisted on living in Munich where there is a dearth of cows!  Hence his current job as a B &R tour guide!

A clear night with a three quarter waxing moon makes for  auspicious aurora watching

That night, as if our day had not been adventurous enough, the group departed the lodge on foot in search of an Aurora experience (maybe or maybe not).  We had dressed up warmly to make the short trek to a traditional Sami Kota (which is a traditional hut made by the descendants of Sami nomads of Lapland).  We circled around a blazing central fire and drank warm berry juice as we crossed our fingers in hopes of seeing the Revontulet -a Sami term that translates as "the fires of the fox."  A local Sami instructed us on the famed and elusive, NORTHERN LIGHTS!  And, no, sadly we saw only a whisper of aurora through the trees, but the night was magical never the less.  

The view of the Sami Kota from outside