Going to Cape North.. My passage through Finland
Only 2 or 3 years I got the setting to get the extreme north of mainland Europe, North Cape, but all do nothing but repeat what Norway is expensive, not to mention the distances. Then, I got another idea, which eventually proved to be very affordable: we arrived in Rovaniemi, Finland ciità the north and from there, with a rental car, we arrived and we returned to the North Cape. We arrived Thursday at 18, with Finnair (Helsinki exchange) having spent € 540 from Rome, and having booked at least two in January. For the car with Hertz, other € 246. From home I booked the first night in a private sauna Hytta Akaslpompolo hills, 180 km northwest of the city of arrival. The night of the North Cape, we left the adventure, and I had booked a second Hytta, always with sauna on Lake Inari, on starda back and last night at the Hotel Scandic Rovaniemi. The Hytte are these log cabins of all colors, preferably red, provided all e. . . especially in the sauna! The first one where we were was very nice, inside there was great attention to detail and a section dedicated to the sauna, consisting of 3-room, was spacious: rather, it was the smallest bedroom to sleep! If we had gone straight to our objective, the distance of 700 km would be limited, of course, we shot a lot more, just to get an idea more, especially the North Novegia, totaling 1900 km in 5 days. On the other hand, this time, the goal of our trip was this: ON THE ROAD! Basically we followed along the border with Sweden to head to the North, we went south of Alta in Norway (in Skibotn) and from there we lined up to Nordkapp, we fell back to the south perpendicular to the head, unfortunately leaving the sea, and following then the state 92 to Rovaniemi. What to say? Finland is beautiful, but Norway is spectacular. But now we think of Finland.
The inhabitants are little more than 6 million, and these areas in the far north, is dotted with wooden houses, but they seem to happen often uninhabited and not to cross machines for many kilometers. Often, both here in Norway we have found great difficulty in finding venues for eating because we were told that for them the season starts after the feast of Midsummer, after June 24. . . !
The average temperature was 13 degrees and the weather was very changeable. Even the landscapes change abruptly: the great forests of conifers, shrubs, tundra and bogs many, but the sovereign is the water continuously, rivers, lakes, pools, ponds, and to impregnate the earth to thaw. We have seen moose, reindeer, but you always see, then pheasant, a fox, a scottaiolo and several mice and birds and if you think we were just little 5 days, you can imagine that there's incredible wildlife. Finland and not only for eating, it costs more than Italy, we were able to eat the reindeer in various ways and is very good. We respected the speed limits very carefully, but we found only 2 times control. In addition, we were able to see also 3 museums: the Museum Sami, Inari (beautiful), The Tankavaara, museum of the gold mines, rather disappointing, and finally the Arkticum in Rovaniemi, very nice. The village of Santa Claus appeared just a set of souvenir shops, so we joined the photo with Santa (as they call it), but without too many regrets.
Overall, despite Finland there seemed to be less beautiful in Norway, this trip was of great impact and the return to civilization, we are very sorry. Another dream would come back to see the northern lights and the big dark winter, because in these days, at this latitude, the sun never sets!