Finland Day 5: Punkaharju Ridge, Finnish Forest Museum

We headed out to the Punkaharju Ridge and the Finnish Forest Museum. Forests have always been important to the Finns. One exhibit had kids pick a stick from the forest and say why it was important to them. Cute! They had a room with HUGE forest equipment including a tractor that walked.

Megan

Me with a tree person. This reminded her of the trees she saw at a department store display when she was just a few years old.

Matthew driving a truck simulation.

Me driving with the virtual reality headset.

Matthew

Matthew on the rocking reindeer

Megan liked this owl reading area.

This tree is also a cool place to hang out.

Me on the rocking reindeer. It is less stable than you'd think!

Matthew hanging out in the tree.

Megan with a flock of wooden reindeer.

We went on a short hike around the museum.

Me and U on the Pususilta (kissing bridge).

There were some sculptures along the path, most of them of mermaids.

"Hunger for life"

"Don't be so sad, you are not alone"

Megan with "Let's keep our treasures safe"

"Life here, here and now"

It is very beautiful to drive along the Punkaharju Ridge. Pictures don't really do it justice since you can't see water on both sides at the same time.

Runeberg's Mound, the highest point on the Punkaharju Ridge. It commemorates the famous Finnish poet Johan Ludwig Runeberg.

We walked along the Kuikon Salpa trail which had some recreated fortifications from WWII that we enjoyed exploring.

U, Matthew, Me, Megan in the fortifications

U, Megan, Me, Matthew on the ridge

We enjoyed some yummy ice cream.

Back at the cottage, we ate grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner. Then we sat out at the lake for a bit. It was really nice :)

U's Step Count: 9415

Finland Day 3: Arctic Circle Hiking Area, Korundi, Summer Sledding

After another yummy breakfast at our hotel, we headed to the Arctic Circle Hiking Area. It was supposed to be warmer than the previous day and it probably was but it still felt pretty cool. 

Entrance to the hiking area.

We went on the Nature Trail Hike and on the Moss and Fungus Hike. We went over a suspension bridge and a foot bridge and saw lots of flowers and fungus and green! It was very different than the stereotypical arctic.

Megan, Me and U

Megan, Matthew, Me, Megan

Walking along the boardwalk

Flowers

Lots of green!

U and Me

Me and Matthew

Me and Megan

We tried to go to another hiking area but it was not accessible due to construction. We went by the Santa Claus Village where we ate lunch and mailed a few postcards that will be delivered around Christmas.

Matthew, Me, Megan

Letters to Santa come in from all over the world.

We went to the Korundi House of Culture which had some interesting art. Some was quite creepy.

This was a film of chickens eating.

Oil on canvas painting entitled "I Don't Have Any, I Don't Know, I Don't Understand"

Creepy tree doll

Iconic bridge close to our hotel. The first time we crossed it, we stayed in the left lane since we needed to turn left pretty soon after the bridge. Everyone else was in the right lane. We found that a bit odd. However, we discovered the reason when the left lane had to turn left immediately after the bridge. Those Finns were all getting in the correct lane well in advance. And they were nice to let us merge over a lane.

We went Summer Sledding at Ounasvaara. It was basically like a metal alpine slide. The chairlift ride up the hill was nice. We heard and saw a lot of military fighter jets flying around. We even saw 4 flying in formation!

Megan and Matthew

U and Me

Megan

U

Me

U and Me

Matthew and Megan

Everyone really enjoyed the summer sledding. Megan wanted to go 100 times. We went 5.

Here are people's thoughts on it:

Megan: Extremely fun! You could get some good speed especially if you leaned into the curves.

Matthew: Quite fun.

U: Fun. Not quite as smooth as a regular alpine slide. It was cool to be on actual runners (as opposed to the wheels alpine sleds are on).

Here are a couple pictures of our Rovaniemi car.

Megan, Matthew, U

Matthew, U

We enjoyed a pizza dinner at Sweet Home.

U's pizza

Matthew's pizza

Megan's pizza

Me's pizza. It had reindeer on it.

We parked near the Arktikum and walked down by the river. It was nice. The sun finally decided to make an appearance. That was nice since we had not really seen it in Rovaniemi. Here are a few pictures from our walk.

The water looked red.

Megan, Matthew, U, Me

View of the Arktikum across the river.

We took the night train from Rovaniemi to Helsinki. We had two adjoining rooms. It felt so much bigger when the door between the rooms was open.

Santa train!

U and Matthew's room

Me and Megan's room

Matthew and Me walked as far back in the train as we could go to the train car that was transporting cars and also as far to the front of the train as we could go.

Engines at the front of the train.

U Step Count: 14,961