Scandinavia

The next day, Sunday the 27th, we are going on a trip with just the three of us. For today we planned to visit the Ranua zoo and Santa Claus on the Arctic Circle, just north of Rovaniemi. The animals in the Ranua zoo are all from the Nordic countries like bears, wolves, moose, reindeer etc. There are also a number of birds like owls and birds of prey. They also have polar bears, although these don't live in Finland. We haven't seen them, they are probably inside as it would be too warm for them outside. It's a very pleasant zoo, not too large. In about two hours you can see it all and you won't miss a thing as there is a boardwalk that leads you along all animal quarters. After we had something to eat in the restaurant and Ciska had enjoyed herself in the playground we continued our trip towards Rovaniemi.

Just north of own there is the Arctic Circle and there is also Santaclaus village. After we had our pictures taken on the Arctic Circle we went to visit Santa Claus. All of Santaclaus village is on large commercial tourist trap. A large number of souvenir shops with all kinds of Arctic Cirle and Christmas souvenirs. We had our picture taken with Santa Claus for the absurd price of €17.=. There was also the possibility to have a Christmas letter from Santa Claus delivered to someone around Christmas. The price for this was €6.= per letter, too expensive for a small joke. Hilleke had been here before, about 16 years ago, and at that time the photo as well as the letter delivery was for free. After visiting all of Santaclaus village we wanted something to eat, but all restaurants in the village close around 7 pm. So we went for dinner in a restaurant across the street. From the restaurant we also made reservations for a hotel in Copenhagen. We booked a room from the 4th until the 6th of August. This means that the last day of our holiday will be the 6th of August, as we want to drive the distance from Copenhagen to home in one day. After dinner we drove back to Simo. Just after Rovaniemi we noticed that the road was wet. Further down the road we indeed encountered some rain. We have been lucky this day; we haven't seen a drop of rain all day. All the way to Simo we had rain alternating with dry periods. When we arrived in Simo it turned out that Aura had already gone back to Oulu together with Susanne and Kaarle. She had to go to the hospital with the baby tomorrow and Susanne is going home to Savonlinna in the south of Finland. In the afternoon, Pekka had already set fire to the sauna, so during the evening we relaxed a bit in a warm atmosphere. Also Ciska went again, she now really starts to like the sauna.