The most magical trip ever...

What an amazing experience.  I have so many photos to share with you and work has been so super busy that I just haven't had time to sit and look at photos till now. 

We left Cape Town on Thursday evening at 7:05pm.  We flew to Frankfurt, arriving at 5am on Friday morning.  It was dark when we landed, but the ground was covered in a blanket of white.  We had 4 hours to kill at the airport and since it was our first point of entry into the EU, we had to go through passport control.  Thank goodness for kids - Jake and I were allowed to go through the express line, which took 5 minutes instead of an hour.  Needless to say, as soon as our passports had been stamped, Jake and I made our way to the exit for our first touch of snow. Frankfurt is a huge airport and we weren't sure how far we had to walk to our terminal, so we were only outside for a few minutes.  Plus, we weren't dressed nearly warmly enough.  The picture of Jake above is just after sun up from the departure hall.

Our flight leaving Frankfurt was slightly delayed and it meant a huge rush (and a little stress on my part) at Helsinki airport, where we only had an hour until our next flight departed for Rovaniemi. We eventually landed at about 4pm.  Here's a very tired little man at Rovaniemi Airport. As the sign says, it's the official airport of Santa Claus...

I must say, that the locals really go to town to make everything festive and very exciting.  Even the baggage collection area is decorated with polar bears, huskies, wolves, snow owls - it was super.

Once we'd realised that our luggage actually wasn't coming off the aeroplane, we reported it and were taken to our hotel.  We dropped our luggage off, called a cab and headed into town to do some shopping.  Fortunately, we'd travelled in our warm shoes and I had both our jackets as hand luggage.  We were told that our bags would probably arrive the following day, so we made a short trip into town to buy the essentials - thermal undies, thermal socks, hats and gloves.  We had an early start the next morning and I knew that our jeans just wouldn't be warm enough on their own.  In hindsight, having lost our bag and having to go into town was fabulous and I tried not to let Jake know how upset I was, although I'm pretty sure that through all my tears he knew.  The trip into town got us out and we really enjoyed our little bit of sight-seeing...

This was one of my favourite shops, it's called The Christmas Shop and I could've spent a lot more time and money there...

 Jake's letter to Father Christmas, along with all my addresses (sorry for not sending cards, it wasn't my fault) was in our missing bag, so after our huge buffet breakfast (including hot chocolate and waffles) we had to make a very quick new letter first thing the next morning.  Jake spent hours doing the original and it was beautiful.  We were both very disappointed that it was missing.  But you know, Father Christmas is a very magical person and we know that he managed to get the original out our bag in any case... 

 This is the view out of our bedroom window.  By this time of year, the snow is usually between 75cm - 1m deep, so the locals thought there was very little.  Jake and I couldn't believe how much there was...

 I also lost my tripod and camera battery charger in our bag, so had to make do as best I could without.  Fortunately, my battery lasted the entire trip.  This is Jake sitting in front of our window...

After breakfast, we were collected from our hotel by Lapland Safaris and taken to their offices in town to get properly dressed for the snow.  This is Jake in his snow suit.  Oh, our travel agent gave us that we had to take a bear with us to take photos of with Jake, but that was also lost.  This one was our replacement...

Here's Jake & I all dressed and ready to go on our first snow mobile safari to a reindeer farm...

 Kids under 15 aren't allowed on the snowmobiles, so Jake had to ride in a sled pulled by Sami, our guide...

 Our snowmobile trip to the reindeer farm was incredible, I had so much fun!  We had to travel about 40 minutes each way, on the frozen river...

 Once we arrived, we were taken to a little hut, where there was a fire burning in the middle of the room.  We all needed to defrost a little...

 This is Tappi, he's a traditional Suomi man.  They're the local migrant reindeer herders.  Lapland extends over parts of Russia, Finland, Sweden and Norway.  These herders are allowed to move between the four countries freely.  Here, Tappi's performing some traditional ceremony with the kids, which involved brushing their faces with a reindeer pelt and dusting their noses with ash from the fire...

 Showing us his hand made knives and explaining that to release tension in adults, they cut the backs of the person's neck twice and burn their foreheads with sticks from the fire.  He "did" the ceremony with us, but I think it was just so we'd look silly in our photos later...

 We were taken around the reindeer farm and it was explained to us that these are really Father Christmas' reindeer in training.  It's here that they learn how to fly and pull a sleigh.  If they aren't good enough, they are simply released into the wild again...

 Jake & I ready for our sleigh ride...

 Jake was as fascinated by the snow as I was.  He kept throwing it into the air over himself.  I couldn't believe that the snow didn't melt as quickly as I thought it would.  It just lay on our clothing and we could brush it off.  I didn't feel wet from melting snow.  And I thought that the best thing about the snow was that I could actually see the shapes of each snow flake.  They're quite big and you really can see that they're all different.  It was fascinating.  Lee, Roo, you who live in cold snowy places - my challenge to you is to get some photos of snowflakes for me.  I didn't pack my macro lens and the pictures I took didn't come out so well.  Pretty please...

 As a surprise, Father Christmas was actually visiting his reindeer while we were at the reindeer farm.  The kids had no idea and it was really special.  We were a small group of only 5 adults and 2 kids, so we were able to chat to Father Christmas, give him our letters and take some photos...

 Despite looking like one of Father Christmas' elves, can you see how excited Jake is here?  He was absolutely bursting.  I think this might be my favourite photo from this trip...

 I was cheeky enough to ask Father Christmas if I could sit on his knee (see the silly ash on my head?)...

 hahaha - look at my elf...

 After the sleigh ride and catch up with Father Christmas, we went inside and had tea/coffee/hot chocolate/berry juice and doughnuts and gingerbread cookies.  I think Jake & I might actually hold the record for the most gingerbread biscuits ever eaten in one go...

 Outside, there was a little slope and sleds and bum boards.  We had about an hour to play and it was incredible.  I guess it was our first real play in the snow and we had so much fun...

 See - I went too...

 This is one of the views.  The little slope is on the right...

 Back at the Safari centre, here's Jake and I on the snow mobile...

 From there, we were taken to The Santa Claus Village, where we had lunch and were given free time to meet Father Christmas (again), post cards and do some shopping...

 This is Santa Claus' main post office.  We posted what cards we could home from here...

 Jake is learning quickly how to take a decent photo.  That's me on Saturday, still in the jeans I travelled in.  Nice...

 One of the views at the village.  They play Christmas music and everyone is super friendly.  They make it all so magic, especially for the kids and those young at heart...

 Here's Jake on the Arctic Circle line.  The building behind him is where Father Christmas is...

 All the trees are decorated...

 Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any photos of Father Christmas this time, but we did find a statue of him with a stuffed reindeer...

After Santa Claus Village, we went back into town and did more shopping for proper clothes.  Our bags still hadn't turned up and we needed proper gear.   After much complaining (both of us hate shopping), we did what we had to and headed back to our hotel. 

On our way back though, we passed an open air ice-skating ring and decided to stop.  Fortunately, there was a huge slope and Jake decided to rather do some bum board there instead of skating.  I can't really skate all that well and he's never tried, so I think this was a better option.  It was seriously cold though and I eventually got him to pack it in and we escaped back to the warmth of our hotel.  Jake had a blast though...

And that was the end of day one.  Needless to say, we slept like logs after a very exciting, very busy day!

More tomorrow!

Love Sue XXX